The Kilkenny Arts Festival, formally known as Kilkenny Arts Week, was founded in

Kilkenny Kilkenny (). is a city in County Kilkenny, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region and in the province of Leinster. It is built on both banks of the River Nore. The 2016 census gave the total population of Kilkenny as 26,512. Kilken ...

, Ireland, in 1974. It covers a number of art forms, including classical music and performance. Playwright and poet

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

gave a reading of some of his works during the inaugural event. As of 2016, the event included theatre, dance, visual arts, and other forms of music and literature. The festival commissions works for the event locally and from abroad.

Format

The ten-day festival takes place each August in

and is intended to be a showcase for Irish and international arts. Around 50,000 people have attended previous festivals, with performances taking place on the streets as well as in indoor venues. Former venues across the city have ranged from rooms in pubs, to

St Canice's Cathedral St Canice's Cathedral ( ga, Ardeaglais Naomh Cainneach, ), also known as Kilkenny Cathedral, is a cathedral of the Church of Ireland in Kilkenny city, Ireland. It is in the ecclesiastical province of Dublin. Previously the cathedral of the Dioc ...

and

Kilkenny Castle Kilkenny Castle ( ga, Caisleán Chill Chainnigh, IPA: �kaʃlʲaːnˠˈçiːl̪ʲˈxan̪ʲiː is a castle in Kilkenny, Ireland built in 1195 to control a fording-point of the River Nore and the junction of several routeways. It was a symbol of N ...

. The festival's annual schedule includes a parade through the centre of the city.

Performers

Performances have included US poet laureate

Robert Pinsky Robert Pinsky (born October 20, 1940) is an American poet, essayist, literary critic, and translator. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. Pinsky is the author of nineteen books, most of ...

, pianist Sir

András Schiff Sir András Schiff (; born 21 December 1953) is a Hungarian-born British classical pianist and conductor, who has received numerous major awards and honours, including the Grammy Award, Gramophone Award, Mozart Medal, and Royal Academy of Musi ...

, Malian virtuoso

Toumani Diabaté Toumani Diabaté ( ; born 10 August 1965) is a Malian kora player. In addition to performing the traditional music of Mali, he has also been involved in cross-cultural collaborations with flamenco, blues, jazz, and other international styles. ...

, musician Alexander Lingas, historian Roy Foster, Irish portraitist

Mick O'Dea Mick O'Dea (born 1958) is an Irish artist best known as a painter of portraits and historical subjects. The second-youngest of five children, O'Dea grew up in Ennis, County Clare, the son of Mick and Margaret O'Dea. He displayed talent for por ...

, Iranian harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, and Chinese-born pianist

Zhu Xiao-Mei Zhu or ZHU may refer to: *Zhu (surname), common Chinese surnames *Zhu River, or Pearl River, in southern China *Zhu (state), ancient Chinese state, later renamed Zou *House of Zhu, the ruling house of the Ming dynasty in Chinese history *Zhu (stri ...

. Other performers have included

Brooklyn Rider Brooklyn Rider is an American string quartet, based in Brooklyn, New York City, United States, whose members include violinists Johnny Gandelsman and Colin Jacobsen, violist Nicholas Cords and cellist Michael Nicolas. They are mainly known for ...

Jordi Savall Jordi Savall i Bernadet (; born 1 August 1941) is a Spanish conductor, composer and viol player. He has been one of the major figures in the field of Western early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for popularizing the viol family of ...

Garrison Keillor Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (; born August 7, 1942) is an American author, singer, humorist, voice actor, and radio personality. He created the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show ''A Prairie Home Companion'' (called ''Garrison Keillor's Radio ...

Susan Philipsz Susan Mary Philipsz OBE (born 1965) is a Scottish artist who won the 2010 Turner Prize. Originally a sculptor, she is best known for her sound installations. She records herself singing a cappella versions of songs which are replayed over a pub ...

Colm Tóibín Colm Tóibín (, approximately ; born 30 May 1955) is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet. His first novel, '' The South'', was published in 1990. '' The Blackwater Lightship'' was shortlis ...

, and

Dawn Upshaw Dawn Upshaw (born July 17, 1960) is an American soprano. She is the recipient of several Grammy Awards and has released a number of Edison Award-winning discs; she performs both opera and art song, and her repertoire spans Baroque to contempor ...

. Giant inflatable sculptures by Architects of Air have previously been a fixture. Other notable performers have included Shakespeare's Globe Theatre Company, Liz Roche's Company, Martin Hayes, and Junk Ensemble.

Gallery

File:Helnwein Kilkenny Arts Festival.jpg,

Gottfried Helnwein Gottfried Helnwein (born 8 October 1948) is an Austrian-Irish visual artist. He has worked as a painter, draftsman, photographer, muralist, sculptor, installation and performance artist, using a wide variety of techniques and media. His work is ...

exhibit, 2001 File:Macnas Street Parade At The Kilkenny Arts Festival August 14th.jpg,

Macnas Macnas ( Irish for 'frolicking') is a performance company based at the Fisheries Field in Galway, Ireland. Its public performances are noted for being "pioneering, inventive and radical" in style. The company has been credited with changing th ...

Street Parade, 2013 File:Macnas Street Parade At The Kilkenny Arts Festival 2013.jpg,

Street Parade, 2013 File:Caravan Club Sounds @kilkenny arts festival 2015.jpg, Caravan Club Sounds, 2015

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
Annual events in Ireland Arts festivals in the Republic of Ireland August events Parades in Ireland Festivals established in 1974 Summer events in the Republic of Ireland Kilkenny_(city)