Imaginations will run wild at Waterford arts festival

It’s time to let the imagination run wild in Waterford as the 15th annual Imagine arts festival kicks off in style this week.

Mon, 17 Oct, 2016 - 01:00

Rebecca Maher

The Déise’s premier arts festival features art, craft, music, dance, literature and theatre, and are combined to deliver a unique celebration of culture, craftsmanship and creativity.

A jam-packed line-up includes a programme of over 60 events over 10 days, beginning on this Thursday with a brand new play by Jamie Flynn, at the Central Hall.

Some 20 events will take place on Saturday, with the highlights including a poetry rap and rhyme workshop with one of the UK’s top spoken word artists, Potent Whisper, while a music trail will also be on offer across an assortment of venues celebrating a variety of genres.

When Silence Falls will take place at the WIT College Street Campus commemorating the former site of St Mary’s Good Shepherd Laundry and St Dominic’s Industrial School, and the women and children contained in those spaces.

Garter Lane Theatre will host a performance of the emotional rollercoaster play Curse by Ger Bourke. Irish crime writers Alan Glynn and Declan Hughes will also feature over the weekend.

The opening weekend of the festival will celebrate the best in Irish music with the John Dwyer trad weekend getting the festival off to a lively start.

West Kerry accordionist and singer Séamus Begley will join fiddler Oisín Mac Diarmada, founder of noted group Téada and award-winning step-dancer Samantha Harvey in concert at St Patrick’s Gateway Centre on Friday night.

A gala centenary concert featuring the Gaeltacht male voice choir, Cór Fear na nDéise will showcase the best of Irish traditional music, song, poetry and dance at the East Meets West trad concert on Saturday evening. The collaboration will be the culmination of Waterford’s Centenary Programme.

There will be a Halloween vibe to the festival on Tuesday, October 25, when a trail of spooky Horrible Histories will see audiences of all ages make their way through Waterford City to explore its ghastly history and meet the ghosts who will come out to tell their stories. The trail will start from the Medieval Museum at 6pm.