Giraffes, a spectacular sun, and a 24-hour play: Cork Midsummer Fest launches programme
Is it a bird, is it a plane? No, it's a herd of giraffes walking down Patrick's Street. Fota Wildlife Park can rest easy though, as these particular specimens will strut their stuff as part of the eye-catching line-up for this year's Cork Midsummer Festival. In Les Girafes: An Animal Operetta, from French street theatre outfit, Compagnie OFF, seven towering red giraffes will parade down the city's main thoroughfare, accompanied by a troupe of musicians and performers.
According to festival director Lorraine Maye, the scale of this spectacle hasn't been seen in Cork for decades. 'It is enormously exciting to see the festival using the streets for this very big moment,' says Maye in advance of the event's official programme launch on Thursday evening.
Also in the realm of the truly spectacular is Helios, a giant dazzling sun from artist Luke Jerram which will be suspended in the iconic location of St Fin Barre's Cathedral; each centimetre of the huge sculpture represents 2,300km of the real Sun's surface.
The church will open from sunrise to sunset (4.30am–10.30pm) on the summer solstice, June 21, giving audiences a unique opportunity to bask in the intensity of the sun at one of the most sacred and symbolic points in the calendar.
'Luke's work is magical and the sun feels like a very fitting installation to have for a midsummer festival,' says Maye.
While such large-scale events make this year's festival programme the most ambitious yet, there is a diverse menu of musical, dance, visual art and literary performances from local, national and international artists, as well as the community participation for which the festival is renowned. This includes a new Midsummer Youth Assembly, which will programme, curate and lead an event in Fitzgerald's Park.
The booth that hosts the Theatre for One.
'The festival showcases so many different ways to encounter live art. The city really embraces it, so many people put so much into it and it is something that Cork can be really proud of,' said Maye.
The festival is leaning into its midsummer theme more than ever, making the most of the long bright nights with performances around the clock, including a solstice céili in the atmospheric surroundings of Elizabeth Fort, and The Second Woman, in which Cork actor Eileen Walsh will perform with an unrehearsed cast of 100 over 24 hours at Cork Opera House. Maye, who saw the show in Amsterdam, says it was 'unforgettable'.
Eileen Walsh will perform a 24-hour play with 100 different actors.
'I've never had an experience like it. There are so many ways to encounter it, and whether you do half an hour or 24 hours, it is worth it. The people that you meet and the conversations you have, there is that sense of belonging to a cohort of people who are having this once-in-a-lifetime experience.' The festival will also draw down the curtain, for now at least, on one of its most popular events of recent years, Theatre for One, in which an actor performs a five-minute piece for a single person in a confessional-style booth. This year's theme is 'Made in Cork' and it will feature work from writers including Cónal Creedon, Louise O'Neill and Gina Moxley.
'The focus on Cork voices and stories feels like such a lovely way to round out a third year and pause on this moment,' says Maye.
Returning after a hiatus is the literature strand, Western Frequencies, which will be curated by Danny Denton. It marks a new partnership between the festival and UCC, and the events will take part at various venues on campus.
Maye lists many highlights across the programme, and is particularly looking forward to seeing in the sunrise at St Fin Barre's with all the other early birds.
'I will be there. There are these moments that will never happen again. When will you get to be in St Fin Barre's at dawn looking at an enormous sun?'
Cork Midsummer Festival takes place June 13-22; for further information and tickets, see corkmidsummer.com
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