Coming Up at Belfast Children's Festival

Young at Art presents the BELFAST CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL 7th – 14th March 2014

8 days, 18 venues, 107 events, 12 exhibitions

Belfast Children’s Festival has a jam-packed programme for the 16th annual Festival.

For eight days in March, Belfast will be home to one of the largest programmes of arts and creativity for children in the UK and Ireland.

Artists will be visiting from countries all over Europe, including France, Spain, Sweden and Germany, to perform for NI audiences.

Highlights of the international programme include:

Sienta La Cabeza, a group from Barcelona who combine fantasy hair and make-up with a funky musical groove.









Winners of the Prix D’Assistej 2013, the Carrasco Dance Company with the powerful Bartolomeo.

Winner of the Best Small Show at Feten 2013, A Mano.

Once again the association of Theatre for Young Audiences NI (TYA NI) will present a vibrant programme of theatre for all ages. Audiences will be inspired by all that is happening right here in Northern Ireland with contributions from Cahoots NI, Replay Theatre Company, Maiden Voyage Dance, Banyan Theatre Company and Barnstorm Theatre Company.

There will also be the opportunity to catch previews of new performances in development, including work by Jude Quinn and Pop Art Productions.

There will be musical performances in association with Moving on Music from from Petunia and the Vipers and Nico and Martin, and a strong programme of events encouraging interactive participation, including Baby Chill, set within an out of this world inflatable and super soft atmospheric space for parents and babies aged 0-18 months, and Big Ears, a unique exploration of music , sound and technology with the Sonic Arts Research Centre at Queens University.

Young at Art are also pleased to launch The Office of Important Art, an open space based in CastleCourt Shopping Centre. It will be a free, drop-in space every day during the festival where families of all ages can come, relax and try out different activities. No booking is necessary.

This year’s festival contains a stronger-than-ever visual arts programme, highlighting suitable exhibitions all over the city. Young at Art is currently working with many of Belfast’s galleries and studio groups to increase the number of families visiting the wealth of exhibitions and studio tours the city has to offer. Free visual arts tours will be available as part of this year’s programme.


Book now at: www.belfastchildrensfestival.com or call the Box Office on 028 9024 3042.

The Gloaming at the Empire

Another new experience for me this week, courtesy of Moving On Music

The Gloaming is described as a "newly minted collective of five remarkable musicians poised to become a vital force in Irish music. Navigating between the contemporary and traditional genres, their creativity trumps predictability – with music that is haunting and beautiful in equal measure".

I can count on one hand the amount of times I have heard live traditional Irish music. Twice after a funeral, once in Madden's where I was drinking not listening and once in a theatre show.  Other experiences include Riverdance on Eurovision and the token working class Irish dance in Titanic with Kate Winslett.  I'm not a big fan of uilleann pipes (they sound like stylophones) and my experience of tin whistles is kids murdering Greensleeves. As you can probably tell, I'm not the best person to review the event in any intelligent or knowledgeable way.

However unlikely it may seem, I'm delighted to say I enjoyed the gig.  Not only did I enjoy it but I am going to buy The Gloaming's CD when it is released in a couple of months. I won't say I'm now a fan of Irish music because that would not be true, but there was enough in the Gloaming's music to redefine my perceptions of what Irish music is.  No tin whistles, but a Grand piano, guitar, 2 fiddles and a shruti box. The music sounded ancient and enduring but Thomas Bartlett's piano, in particular added a contemporary edge.      

The ebb and flow of the music is something I really liked.  I guess I'm used to one tune finishing before another is played, but the seamless transition from songs focusing on Ó Lionáird's haunting vocals to the catchy rhythm of Martin Hayes' fiddle playing ensured a depth I never knew existed in Irish music.
From beautiful melancholy songs sang in Irish to fiddle-dee-dee reels, the colour of the music energised the room and provided real interest even to new attenders like me.

I particularly enjoyed the effect the music had on the audience. One older man standing in front of me swayed and bounced to every single beat the band played. His bobbing about like the floor was on fire seemed funny, but in this context it was my not bobbing about that was unusual.  The foot tapping on the floor started out very quietly until eventually the whole room was vibrating to the beat of hundreds of feet.

It was how the music made me feel that I didn't expect.  This was not a room full of people listening to a band play music, this was a community of friends joined in listening to the the history of the music, the stories being told and feeling the emotions being played.

Next time, I might just join in with the bobbing about...

Karen

http://twitter.com/classygenes