Throughout May, across a comprehensive and distinguished programme, Bealtaine 2023, champions generational interdependence and diversity. The programme will be live on the Bealtaine website from April and tickets will be available to book online.
This year’s programme features Bealtaine on Screen, which includes Lorna Fitzsimon’s Dance Till Dán, Jacek Snochowski’s Rhizome, Fatima Groups United’s LGBTQ+ history film, Holding Our History and Shaun Dunne and Jessica Kennedy’s Over/Pass, a Bealtaine commissioned dance film that considers care, loyalty and intimacy. In addition, Bealtaine teams up once again with access>CINEMA and Wild Strawberries, the Irish Film Institute’s film club for over 55s, for several special film screenings.
Digging, an exciting regional programme of literature events at this year’s festival, in partnership with The Dock in Leitrim, Laois Arts Office and Wexford Arts Office, includes public readings by award winning debut writers Carmel McMahon and Alice Kinsella. Former Rooney Prize for Literature winner, Claire Keegan will perform a reading and conduct a Q&A session at Wexford Arts Centre and Eileen Casey will conduct a number of memoir writing workshops.
A remarkable inclusion in this year’s festival is The Poetry Line where people are invited to sign up to receive a phone call from a roster of acclaimed poets, including Thomas McCarthy, Jane Clarke, Mícheál McCann, Rachael Hegarty and Molly Twomey. While Standing on the Shoulders of Giants presents Niamh Mulvey and Joseph O’Connor in conversation.
Music highlights include Beside the Sea – an innovative staged work for violinists by composer Ian Wilson and Bealtaine Voices with Mike Hanrahan of Stockton’s Wing showcasing local choirs from different communities, including Ukraine. While at The Sugar Club on Leeson Street, Tom Dunne, Jerry Fish and Alan Connor, through music and conversation, explore some of their favourite songs of the 1970s & 1980s.
Bealtaine is excited to announce nationwide street performances by The Grannies, an acrobatic and comedic tour de force that must be seen, as must the Holy Show Party Piece, a cabaret show that includes performers John Spillane, Little John Nee and Lisa McInerney.
Unshrinking Violets celebrates 50 years of Lesbian Activism with a dedicated exhibition of activist/protest ephemera and a screening of Sonya Mulligan’s documentary Outitude charting the Irish Lesbian Community from the 1970s to the 2015 marriage referendum.
Bealtaine also includes a dedicated schedule of workshops including Art Writing, Botanical Drawing, Creative Writing for Beginners, as well as Comedy and Circus Workshops. Elsewhere Roots & Shoots is an exciting nationwide programme of Visual Arts. While the Bealtaine Online Discussion Series concentrates on intergenerational relationships with an emphasis on ageing masculine identities, with panelists including Director of the Dublin International Film Festival, Grainne Humphreys, film-maker Ken Wardrop and author Michael Harding.
“Bealtaine is always on a journey to challenge and entertain our audiences and diversify our events. Just as we know there’s no one experience of older age, there’s no one kind of event in Bealtaine 2023!” Tara Byrne, Bealtaine Festival Artistic Director
In addition to the programme of events above, which is curated directly by Age & Opportunity, Bealtaine includes hundreds of community events nationwide. Artists, arts organisations, community groups and individual organisers are invited to register their events on bealtaine.ie.
See bealtaine.ie for further programme and booking details.
