Half Moon Festival is a multi-disciplinary arts festival premiering online from Friday June 26th to Sunday June 28th 2020. The Festival takes its name from Cork’s Half Moon Street, a thoroughfare that provides access from Cork’s City Centre and Lavitt’s Quay to the cultural quarter housing both the Crawford Gallery and the Cork Opera House. Inspired by this creative energy and the way in which Half Moon Street acts as a bridge between everyday life and the cultural spaces that are central to Cork, Half Moon Festival aims to celebrate different perspectives, to embrace connection and creativity, and to platform collaborative work between artists. 

Organisers said “We are over the moon to present the line-up for Half Moon Festival. This programme is full of amazing artists whom we are delighted to support. All of the events curated as part of the festival will be available to audiences for free and more details of the festival and the individual events can be found on www.halfmoonfest.com. We invite audiences to participate and engage in this unique online programme – bringing a slice of Cork to your living room. The range of events include theatre, music, dance, film, visual art, comedy and Irish language events. Featuring socially engaged arts events and remote digital collaborations, the festival offers something for all arts lovers.”

Tús Nua was formed as part of our postgraduate training in Arts Management and Creative Producing at the Department of Theatre (School of Film, Music and Theatre, UCC) in the Autumn 2019. The group of student producers quickly formed a bond and identified shared interests in new beginnings, collaborations and inter-disciplinary arts. As the year progressed they developed a vision for Half Moon Festival based on these shared interests and our individual areas of expertise in music, theatre, dance, visual arts and literature. The Festival was due to be launched at The Kino on March 26th with events taking place in various venues in April including The Green Room (Cork Opera House) and The Kino. Through our work they want to celebrate difference and different perspectives, to share experiences of art and creativity, to offer audiences the opportunity to celebrate the fun and joyous moments that art offers, and to provide an antidote to the detached living of the present day.

There will be a series of events running from June 26th – 28th including “My Life in the Arts – A podcast Series” a behind-the-scenes snapshot into the lives of some of our most celebrated artistic leaders. Guests include: Fiona Kearney ( The Glucksman Gallery), Eibhlín Gleeson (Cork Opera House), Valerie Byrne (The National Sculpture Factory), Julie Kelleher (The Everyman Theatre), Aideen Quirke (Cork Printmakers), Fiona Clark (Cork International Film Festival).

Pulses is a commissioned collaboration between musician/composer (Annie Bloch) and dancer/choreographer
(Emily Kilkenny Roddy). Placing bodily instincts of dance alongside aural instincts of sound, the aim of Pulses is to explore the manifestation of the individual artist’s responses to sound and movement.

There will also be Audio-visual composition of new original work from Trá Pháidín. Visuals and audio recorded by Peadar Tom Mercier and Rory Burke of Trá Pháidín ft. Niamh Dhaltúin, in the exploration of psychedelic, kaleidoscopic movements. A multimedia digital installation project, Cell explores women’s voice through art, fusing poetry, sound and visual art to create an immersive digital experience.

A double-bill performance of Dan Elliott, followed by Conor Clancy (Of TOUCAN) performing their original music with some very special covers of each others work as well as a brief joint interview with both musicians.

“Direct Provision: Experiences in Art” is a showcase of work by young people living in direct provision, and work by Irish filmmaker Maurice O’Brien that explores people’s experiences of the direct provision system and integrating into Irish society.

“Ripple in TIme: A Highight of Native and Irish Collaboration” is a carefully curated series of commissions and collaborations between the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and Ireland.

In collaboration with Cork’s newest theatre company Mint Productions, the Half Moon festival is excited to present this thrill seeking double bill Earwig and Electra, two short films tastefully curated to enrapture you into the realm of each play, which compels you live and breath each emotion as if it was your own.

Coming from SÍOMHA’s home in Co. Clare, this is a performance of original works and some classic covers. Audiences will be offered a glimpse into Síomha’s current creative output as she works on her debut album (for release later in 2020) which she is working on remotely with Tyler Duncan (The Ollam). As well as Irish language events Dánta agus Dunta and Gael GÁIRÍ

For more information go to https://halfmoonfestival.squarespace.com