'Build it and they will come': Clonmel unveils new festival dome
The Geodome under construction for the Clonmel Junction Festival.
For two decades, Clonmel Junction Festival has been a pillar of cultural life in Tipperary. The 2021 edition, providing a mix of online and in-person gigs, installations and events, is a further reaction to the ongoing circumstances we’re in, says director Cliona Maher.
“Nobody wanted to be in the same position as last year, where you're standing stuff down at the last moment, and it was terribly difficult to second-guess what the restrictions might be,” she says.
“So we kind of sat down and we had done a certain amount of work with Clonmel Borough District, and we decided that probably the safest thing to do for our sanity was to plan for level five. We said to ourselves, ‘okay - if we can definitely do the live stream, or online, then how do we plan, so that we can then also, at the last minute, welcome an audience?’.”
Enter the festival’s new Dome - a portable, temporary structure that allows for a convenient space to stream content and possibly host audiences, while addressing the town’s need for a usable major venue for events.
“I've been to a lot of different sessions this year on reimagining public spaces, and this idea of modular structure, things that can move around. And everyone always says, in Clonmel, we need an arts centre with a venue, with performance space.
“But the difficulty of having a building is you have to get people into the building, which is also true. It’s a huge challenge sometimes, to create an audience for certain artforms, without the resources to do that.
“So we got funding through the Arts Council and Tipperary County Council, and we have worked since last December with Lotus Domes over in the UK, in building this bespoke geodesic dome, that suits our needs.
“It will have, in a regular year, a capacity of about 220, which I think is a good size. You know we're not going to bring huge acts down for it, but for regular music and theatre provision, it suits the town. It's environmentally friendly, you can basically leave no trace, and it can be set up in a number of different configurations.”
A huge focus in programming this year has been in reaffirming the town’s musical history. In parsing the past this way, and questioning the future with new infrastructure, the festival’s Heroes 2.0 series of online gigs is timely.
Featuring Gavin Glass, Royseven and Jerry Fish, it also showcases returning graduates of the first Heroes music mentorship scheme, like Eoin Hally and Kate Twohig. Maher talks about this year’s new scheme, and some of the help that young performers have received.
“Every Thursday since May, they've had a conversation with someone, like last week, a really fantastic conversation with Ed O'Leary [St Luke's/Kino promoter], who was bringing them through the finances of gigs and festivals; Kate Brennan-Harding talking about getting your music on the radio, Gavin Glass did a session on recording yourself - it is really a lovely induction into the business. “The next crop of performers are all writing, playing, and singing, and hopefully this will bring them on to the next step.”
- Clonmel Junction Arts Festival happens online and at venues around Clonmel from July 3 to July 11. For more info and tickets, go to https://www.junctionfestival.com/.
- Here Is Where I Am (July 3-10, South Tipperary Arts Centre, free): A major photography installation from Cork artist Claire Murphy, this is an intimate exploration of family, the repetition of domestic life, and the pull home has on us, and our identity.
- People (July 3-6, Clonmel town centre/online, free): Created for the festival’s 2014 installment, People brings out a different side of Clonmel as you are guided through the streetscape with an accompanying audio and soundtrack.
- Before (July 4, online, €20): Before is a new play produced by Fishamble Theatre and starring Pat Kinevane. Set in Clery’s of Dublin, a man labours over a gift for his estranged daughter on the very day the iconic department store shuts - for good.
- Clonmel Community Manifesto (July 5-10, various locations, free): Sean Taylor invites the public of Clonmel to create a twelve-point Clonmel Community Manifesto, inspired by the stories and events that have shaped the town during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- (Clonmel Laptop Ensemble July 11, online, free): In the festival’s finale, CLE presents a performance of new work, blending analogue electronics, live piano, spoken word, computer code and visual production techniques.
