Imagine Arts Festival celebrates 25 years with jam-packed programme
Imagine Arts Festival returns to Waterford City this week marking its 25th edition with a programme of performance, music, visual art, heritage events and workshops under the theme In Memories We Grow.
Imagine Arts Festival returns to Waterford City this week, from Tuesday, October 20, to Sunday, October 25, marking its 25th edition with a programme of performance, music, visual art, heritage events and workshops under the theme In Memories We Grow.
Twenty-five years on, Imagine Arts commissions and produces new work as well as presenting it, through an annual Commissioned Artist and an Artists in Residence programme, alongside an open call that brings artists from Waterford, the South East and further afield into venues across the city.
At the heart of the week-long festival is the festival hub at the WCQ Community and Cultural Hub on O’Connell Street, open free to the public daily from 10am to 6pm.
The Hub is home to What Persists, a new work by 2026 Commissioned Artist Chris Falconer (Waiting Space) responding to 25 years of the festival, and to The Scattering, an immersive installation by Will Flanagan and Alchemy Arts, which comes to life in ticketed performances later in the week.
A host of other new and exciting shows and art installations will be held at The Hub throughout the week.
For the first time, Imagine’s Artists in Residence programme is delivered through the Irish language this year.
Songwriter Síomha Brock and playwright Ciara Ní É spend festival week in residence at St Patrick’s Gateway Centre, each leading a public masterclass before sharing what they have made together at the Artists in Residence Showcase on Saturday, October 24, at 6pm.
Alongside the immersive circus and installation work The Scattering, the festival boasts a full programme of performance art pieces, including Desert Bloom, by Angelica Santander, and the 25th Anniversary Cabaret, a mixed-artform celebration of 25 years of Imagine curated by Shauna Farrell and Wayne Power.
Allowing people to access arts and culture in a different way is a major theme of the Imagine Arts Festival, Sinéad Dunphy, Festival Director for Imagine Arts Festival told the Waterford News & Star ahead of the programme's launch.
St Patrick's Gateway will host the Lunchtime Theatre Series this year as a perfect example, featuring three brand new one-act plays from Waterford writer-performers Martina Collender, Nicola Spendlove and Steven Walsh.
This year's festival hosts a programme packed full of music, art, culture and heritage, with Waterford artist Paul Savage launching his second album as Whozyerman? at Bank Lane, and the iconic festival closes on Sunday night with The Legendary Dead Pub Trail, a citywide trail of live performance running from Revolution to The Reg.
The music programme also includes Puisín Beag an Diabhail – Éire & Cú Chulainn and The Epic Life of Lugh Samildánach.
Festival favourite Booze, Blaas & Banter returns to Jordan’s American Bar on the Saturday, livestreamed by Waterford in Your Pocket, while Tales and Ales with James Doherty takes place at Downes’ on the Thursday.
Across the city, festival-week exhibitions include the Spanish Civil War exhibition at Jordan’s, Ed Morrissey at the Index Gallery, Waterford City Library, and Rayleen Clancy’s Wild Wisdom from a Grúagach’s Lair at GOMA, which also hosts the SETU Magazine Launch.
Banners for Waterford, a bunting project made by students from schools across the city and county, will also be on display during festival week.
“Twenty-five years is a long time for any festival to keep going, and a longer time again to keep changing. In Memories We Grow is about both honouring the people who brought Imagine this far, and backing the artists who will carry it forward," Sinéad Dunphy, Festival Director for Imagine Arts Festival said.
"So much of this year’s programme was made here in Waterford, and we can’t wait to share it with the city.”
The full programme and tickets are available at imagineartsfestival.com
