St Patrick’s Day Festival launch epic 2020 programme
Written by Ireland’s biggest annual festival is back in Dublin City and it’s gonna be an epic 5 days of celebration for St. Patrick’s Day.
The programme for St. Patrick’s Festival 2020 was launched recently with this year’s theme being Nations Treasures. Running from 13 – 17 March the 5 day festival of great days and nights celebrates Ireland’s rich heritage with a spectacular, world-class programme.
St. Patrick’s Festival 2020 will feature a host of fun-filled family experiences, large-scale outdoor events, newly commissioned collaborative performances, a myriad of musical treats including two World Premieres, as well as the magnificent National St. Patrick’s Festival Parade and an expanded four-day Festival Village and Food Market at Merrion Square, Dublin.
This years’ Festival will offer a richly diverse programme including ABAIR – a remarkable programme of performances celebrating Ireland’s oral traditions, art exhibitions, poetry and literary events, the all new Festival After Dark club series, hidden Dublin tours and trails, an exciting Port to City Treasure Hunt, Céilí Mór, and so much more.
The full Festival Programme is available now at stpatricksfestival.ie, where all information can be found.
Susan Kirby, CEO of St. Patrick’s Festival, said: “St. Patrick’s Festival is one of the world’s largest cultural celebrations and one of the most important and powerful tools that brand Ireland has in promoting our country. St. Patrick’s Festival continues to be five great days and nights where Ireland welcomes the world.
This year’s Festival will present today’s culture creators and celebrate who and what our contemporary national treasures are, as well as taking pride in our traditions.
“3,000 people will come together to create St. Patrick’s Festival 2020. Recent years have seen more than 500,000 attend the Festival Parade alone, and the economic benefit is in excess of €73 million.”
Artists and performers set to take part in the diverse 2020 Festival Programme include Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Lisa Hannigan, This is How we Fly with Iarla O’Lionaird, Annie Mac, Kojaque, Soulé, Denise Chaila, Crash Ensemble, Mango X MathMan, Richard Egan, Dublin Gospel Choir, Mount Alaska, Bronagh Gallagher and many more, plus performances from international artists including Gruff Rhys, The Breath, Brìghde Chaimbeul, Aidan O’Rourke and Jessy Lanza. Talks and discussions during the Festival will feature Brendan Balfe, Dave Fanning, Marian Richardson, Deirdre O’Kane and more. Traditional performers and storytellers at the Festival will include Macdara Yeates, Landless, Doireann Glackin, Rosie Stewart, Liz Weir, Steo Wall, Eddie Lenihan and Dermot Bolger amongst many others.
Full details of the programme can be found on www.stpatricksfestival.ie
Follow #SPF2020 #StPatricksFestival on social media for updates
Highlights include:
National St. Patrick’s Festival Parade (Tuesday March 17)
More than half a million revellers will take to the streets of Dublin for one of the biggest, most vibrant parade spectaculars in the world on Tuesday March 17. The National St. Patrick’s Festival Parade is a whirlwind of glittering colours, entrancing choreography and breath-taking feats of design and engineering. Six of Ireland’s world-class street theatre companies and over three thousand performers, actors, dancers, musicians, makers and creators will join with eleven bombastic marching bands from Ireland, Scotland, France and the USA, to create a heady, Irish carnival atmosphere like no other.
Festival Village at Merrion Square, Dublin (Saturday March 14 – Tuesday March 17)
Family fun and community spirit are at the very heart of St. Patrick’s Festival and this year sees the Festival Village at Merrion Square expand to four days of fantastic events, fun adventures and glorious food, from Saturday March 14 to Tuesday March 17. A jam-packed programme will be on offer including a Gaeltacht area, Céilí Mór, dynamic Science shows, breath-taking circus performances, children’s readings, live music, street theatre, world food stalls and much more.
Port to City Treasure Hunt (Sunday March 15)
New to the Festival for 2020 is the exciting Port to City Treasure Hunt with Dublin Port Company, where families and friends alike can download a specially designed app and follow the clues to discover Dublin’s beautiful and historic port, and be in with a chance to earn fun prizes! Pre-register now at stpatricksfestival.ie
Talks (Various Dates, see stpatricksfestival.ie)
The Festival will feature a host of talks and discussions. A Treasury of Irish Voices takes place at the Chapel Royal in Dublin Castle and features broadcaster and historian Brendan Balfe in conversation with Dave Fanning, introducing historic recordings of Irish writers, poets, performers and public figures. Finest Minds, proudly supported by Tesco finest*, sees renowned RTÉ producer and broadcaster Marian Richardson delve into the thoughts, life and career of award-winning comedian, actress and presenter Deirdre O’Kane at the Pepper Canister Church, with a special guest performance from Loah.
Music (Various Dates, see stpatricksfestival.ie)
The 2020 Festival music programme will feature two World Premieres –acclaimed contemporary folk group This is How we Fly collaborate on a new show with Irish singer Iarla Ó Lionáird at Liberty Hall Theatre, while Matthew Nolan and Adrian Crowley re-imagine James Joyce’s Pomes Penyeach with Lisa Hannigan and guests at the National Concert Hall supported by Dublin Airport. Heading home for the national holiday, award-winning broadcaster, presenter and DJ Annie Mac curates a sold-out show at the iconic Guinness Storehouse, featuring the fresh Irish sounds of Kojaque, Soulé and Denise Chaila. One of Ireland’s greatest contemporary musicians, Colm Mac Con Iomaire performs The River Holds Its Breath / Tost Ar An Abhainn with his full band and guests ConTempo Quartet at Vicar Street. Dublin duo Mount Alaska bring their euphoric sounds to the Pepper Canister Church, with guests Slow Moving Clouds, while Dublin Gospel Choir are joined by special guests Kitt Philippa and U.M.A.N. at the Pepper Canister Church for two uplifting shows.
FESTIVAL AFTER DARK (March 13 – 17)
Festival After Dark is a new late-night series running throughout the five nights of St. Patrick’s Festival, featuring live performances and club nights across the city in Dublin’s best venues including Lost Lane, Bow Lane, The Sugar Club and Yamamori Tengu, with promoters Hidden Agenda, Tengu, Bow Lane, ChoiceCuts, Mother and many more.
THISISPOPBABY with St. Patrick’s Festival presents Where We Live 2020 (March 11 – 21)
THISISPOPBABY have teamed up with St. Patrick’s Festival to present Where We Live 2020 at Project Arts Centre from March 11 – 21, an explosive ten-day festival of new work from Ireland’s creative vanguards. The festival will interrogate and celebrate what it means and how it feels to live in Dublin and Ireland right now. Amongst the incredible twenty-two shows on offer from THISISPOPBABY with St. Patrick’s Festival will be Zero Zero: Crash Ensemble & Mango X MathMan, an exhilarating creative collaboration that will bring together the worlds of street music, rap, spoken word and contemporary classical music.
Exhibitions (Friday March 13 – Monday March 16)
The Festival will feature works from many exceptional artists and studios, exhibited through gallery and venue partners.
Highlights include EPOCH present Hidden Gems at Roe & Co Distillery (over 18’s); Where We Live presents Landfall, Peter Maybury at Project Arts Centre, plus a very special live art performance on Sunday March 15 (over 18’s); Hen’s Teeth presents Black Girl Magic – Hen’s Teeth x Honey Dijon and Marina Esmeraldo at Hen’s Teeth; Atelier Maser presents Assemble at Atelier Maser with work by artists including Helen Steele, Lola O’Donoghue, Leah Hewson and many more; All I believe happened there was vision by Frank Sweeney at A4 Sounds and 100 Views of Contemporary Ireland at The Library Project.
See stpatricksfestival.ie for the full Festival programme.
