by Saoirse Anton

It’s midsummer already and festival season, which seems to expand year-on-year, is well underway. With a feast of festivals to choose from across the year, there’s something for everyone in the calendar, from camping and partying at music festivals, to diving into literary delights at a writing festival, to discovering new shows at a theatre festival. With all this choice, it can be a little overwhelming, and when money is tight it can be hard to decide what festival events are for you.

There are many festival advice articles out there for music festivals, replete with tips on pitching your tent, braving portaloos by day two, and picking which artists to see. I could write one of those for you, having spent a lot of time working at such festivals, but this is a theatre column so here’s my equivalent advice for theatre and arts festivals happening around the country in the coming months.

The Golden Rules

Whatever festival you find yourself at, follow these golden rules and you won’t go too far wrong.

Don’t try to see everything

Whether you are flush enough to book stacks of tickets or lucky enough, like me, to have the chance to see a lot of shows through working and writing about them, don’t try to see everything. Take it from the woman who once saw and reviewed 25 shows in 5 days at Edinburgh Fringe, and pace yourself. Be a little bit choosy and leave yourself time to enjoy the general atmosphere, digest the shows you’ve seen, and chat to fellow theatre and arts enthusiasts in between shows.

Try something new

If you can only choose one thing in the festival, then going for something within your comfort zone that you are reasonably sure you will like is a good bet. But if you have the chance to see two or more shows, then I recommend making one of them a show that you wouldn’t normally get the opportunity to see.

Write about it

I don’t mean you need to review every show you see, but if you keep a diary or a journal, why not write a few lines about the show. You’d be surprised what you can forget as time goes on, and if you saw something particularly brilliant, it’s nice to be reminded of it!

Chat to your neighbour

Get chatting to other festival-goers in the bar, the foyer or as you are taking your seats. Ask them what they’ve seen and recommend, and listen to their festival stories. I’ve discovered so many theatrical gems just by word of mouth in queues at the bar, milling around before a show or getting chatting to someone outside a venue.

Support Local

Going to a big festival like the Edinburgh International Festival, Hay Festival or Glastonbury can be a dream, but it is also expensive and out of reach for many of us. Instead, look to your local area and see what festivals are on. The money you might have spent on flights and accommodation can instead go towards seeing more things, and it is going in to your local venues and arts organisations, helping to safeguard the futures of smaller festivals.

What’s Out There?

As I said earlier in this column, the festival calendar is a long and busy one, and choosing what to see can be a bit overwhelming. So here are my top picks from a selection of Irish festivals happening in the coming months.

Clonmel Junction Festival – July 4th to 13th

Always an excellent festival, though one I have sadly not been along to in several years, Clonmel Junction Festival has lots to offer. Two events that particularly caught my eye are Sanita Circus’ Doris and Mabel’s Book Club, a family circus show about two friends and their love of books and boiled sweets, and a rehearsed reading of When All The World is Quiet, a new play from Aoife Delaney exploring individual responsibility in the face of colonialism.

Cairde Arts Festival – July 5th to 12th

It’s time to sound the bias klaxon because my first recommendation for Cairde Arts Festival is none other than yours truly. I will be performing alongside Alice Kinsella and Salena Godden in Love, Cats, Confetti: Poetry of the Moment on the 8th of July at the Yeats Building at 6pm. Blatant biases aside, perusing the programme I have found several shows I hope to be sticking around or returning to Sligo to catch. Among them are Imeall/Llaeml, a durational circus, music and dance performance that the audience is free to roam in and out of, and Mdme Kakpo & Son from Amadan Ensemble, about a Jack-the-Lad geezer and the world’s greatest fortune teller.

Earagail Arts Festival – July 12th to 26th

Heading further North again from Sligo, we find ourselves in Donegal for Earagail Arts Festival. One of my highlights of this programme is Bamboo from No Fit State Circus, in which the performers construct a towering acrobatic playground from lengths of bamboo. It’s appearing at Cairde and Earagail so you have a couple of chances to catch it. Another highlight is Macalla, a new collaboration between Irish and Iraqi folk and traditional musicians.

Galway International Arts Festival – July 14th to 27th

As ever, Galway International Arts Festival has a jam packed programme. My two top picks are Dimanche from Les Compagnies Focus & Chaliwaté, which looks set to be a striking and captivating meditation on life amidst climate crisis, and Oh… by Mikel Murfi, a boundary-pushing production that quite literally dives into the human experience as it takes place under water inside the main tank of Galway Atlantaquaria.

Spraoi International Street Arts Festival – August 1st to 3rd

You don’t have to choose between enjoying the sunshine or some theatre at Spraoi International Street Arts Festival! They haven’t announced their full programme yet, but a highlight of the acts announced so far is Vanhulle Dance Theatre’s Olive Branch, a story of a new friendship and rediscovering the wonder of nature.

Kilkenny Arts Festival – August 7th to 17th

One of my favourite stalwarts of the festival calendar, Kilkenny Arts Festival always delivers an interesting programme. My top two picks from this year’s programme are Where We Bury the Bones, a new piece of contemporary music theatre that explores the way in which the stories we choose to tell often reveal more about ourselves than history itself, and The More Beautiful World, a striking setting of texts from activist Charles Eisenstein to music by Sam Perkin in a work that asks what, in a time of social and ecological crisis, we can do to make the world a better place.

Dublin Fringe Festival – September 6th to 21st

Dublin Theatre Festival – September 25th to October 12th

Dublin Fringe Festival and Dublin Theatre Festival haven’t announced their programme yet, but deserve a mention as a staple of the festival calendar!

And with that, go forth my festival protegée and enjoy the many delights this festival season has to offer!