12 June 2023
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
Watch the streets of Cork City become a stage from 14th to 25th June 2023 with Cork Midsummer Festival’s second annual parade, an aerial circus act and multicoloured foam – Download the full programme here
Cork Midsummer Festival’s On the Streets strand this year features circus, spectacle and streets arts, as free events transform the city with artistic adventures.
Tickets on sale now – corkmidsummer.com
The city will become a stage as the festival team transforms spaces across Cork. The city’s streets will be full of excitement with aerial circus acts from Fidget Feet Aerial Dance, the annual Midsummer Parade and John Redmond Street being filled with multicoloured foam.
Cork Midsummer Festival’s On the Streets events in more detail:
– A Handful of Dreams (17 June: 12pm & 4.30pm / 18 June: 12pm & 2pm, Fitzgerald’s Park)
Fidget Feet Aerial Dance presents a free, awe-inspiring and heart-warming outdoor show, A Handful of Dreams, that combines aerial and circus arts with live Irish traditional music and dance.
This beautiful celebration will connect to the hearts of each audience member while restoring the joy of being alive through a magical journey to a new world where we can dance in the sky. Inspired by the poem The Stolen Child by William Butler Yeats and The Celtic Twilight book of fairies, ghosts, and spirits, and featuring an innovative musical score grounded equally in traditional Irish music and folklore as well as contemporary composition and sound design, audiences will be simultaneously comforted and exhilarated as the sonic experience unfolds.
– Midsummer Parade (18 June, 3pm. Oliver Plunkett Street, Grand Finale on Grand Parade)
The second annual Midsummer Parade will be a riot of colour, celebrating the creativity and diversity of Cork communities. Cork Community Art Link’s next extravaganza for Cork Midsummer Festival will delight audiences with their renowned creative vision. A community-centred approach will bring spectacular floats, street spectacle and gripping performances to the heart of Cork City as we celebrate Cork Community Art Link’s 30th year of engaging in cultural and creative democracy within the Rebel City.
Come on a journey and let your imagination explore the stories of Midsummer as told through their ingenious performers, art direction and the engaging voices of valued participants. Over 200 participants will help make the magic, collaborating to create floats, costumes, and performances. Local groups showcased in the parade will include Suisha Arts, Blackpool Community Access Program, National Learning Network, Blackpool Men’s Shed, Joan Denise Moriarty School of Dance, CCAL Drama Troupe and many more spectacular community groups from Cork City. This street-art spectacle is family friendly and free, we invite you to get your rhythm on and join the party.
Presented by Cork Community Art Link and Cork Midsummer Festival and sponsored by Bus Éireann.
– Islands of Foam (25 June, 3pm. John Redmond Street, Shandon)
Cork’s iconic John Redmond Street will be transformed with oceans of multicoloured and mesmerising rainbow-dyed foam in Islands of Foam by German artist Stephanie Lüning.
Watch as this spectacular installation (made from water, biodegradable soap, and food colouring) is created live by the artist, growing and constantly changing as it absorbs the surrounding street before disappearing without a trace. This sublime and entrancing transformation of public space explores the limits of painting as the artist selects and blends colours which take mountainous form and dimensions before the artwork finally disappears.
– There will also be two site-specific live art and installations on the streets of Cork from Japanese artist Seiko Hayase.
Creepy Parade (17 June, Fitzgeralds Park 1pm / Emmett Place 5pm / Marina Market 7.30pm) and Egg (an installation, at Marina Market from 14-25 June)
Creepy Parade is a street performance where five performers and live Irish pipe musicians wearing ‘brain hats’ explore how emotions stuck in the body might look if one day they chose to go out on the street and dance with others.
Egg – Collection Of Emotions is an installation representing a collection of released emotions. With the evolution of technology and ‘instant’ connections, every second in the world billions of emotions arise that are born and disappear – where did they go? And are they waiting for us?
Seiko, based in Mallow, Co. Cork since 2018, is a member of Sample Studios. She works with painting, sculpture, installation, and collaborative projects. Her aim is to develop work not bound to specific materials and form, as well as finding a socially engaged voice in her artwork. Her practice explores a “world in between – researching how to share emotions with society.
Tickets are on sale now from corkmidsummer.com
CORK MIDSUMMER FESTIVAL is an annual multi-disciplinary arts festival that uses the city as its backdrop and inspiration. It provides high-quality arts events, both national and international, for audiences of all ages. Its programme provides opportunities for significant public participation and engagement, supports the development of emerging artists across all artforms, and provides a unique platform for work by local and national artists.