Galway | 14 - 23 October 2022
50 live events over 10 days for children and families that will creatively connect usthrough performance, play, visual arts, workshops and storytelling.
Tickets on sale now!
Baboró International Arts Festival for Children, Ireland’s flagship festival devoted exclusively to children and families, has launched its 26th festival programme.
This year's festival will welcome thousands of children from 0 to 13 years, their families and teachers from Friday 14th to Sunday 23rd October. Baboró returns to a full programme of over 50 live events for an extended festival of 10 days across theatres, galleries, schools and communities in Galway City and County.
The international festival, which celebrates children, families and community through art in all of its forms, will be welcoming companies from all over Ireland and Europe, including Belgium, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Scotland and England. Families and schools are invited to immerse themselves in dance, theatre, circus, spectacle, art and stories from near and far.
Baboró is a festival for all children up to 13 years and will include a focus on European work for early years children (0-6 yrs), residencies in special schools, child-led projects and outreach to schools across the city and county. There are free events for families and schools including literature, visual arts and outdoor events in city and county venues.
Watch the Trailer
Commenting on the 2022 festival programme, Executive Artistic Director, Aislinn Ó hEocha
says, ‘We are thrilled to welcome children with their schools and families back to theatres, galleries and public spaces all over Galway for enthralling performances, inspiring exhibitions and fun workshops. It’s been a tough few years for us all - the festival will bring us together again to collectively experience art in all its forms, encouraging us to gasp, laugh, and clap together as only live art can.”
How to Book Tickets
General Public
Book online or over the phone: 091 569777
In person from Town Hall Theatre, Courthouse Square, Galway.
Ticket prices: Performances are €10 pp or €35 for a family of 4. Other events as advertised.
School Bookings
All schools and group bookings via the Online Booking Request Form
Contact the Schools Box Office with any questions on 091 532985 or schools@baboro.ie
Ticket prices: Schools €6.50/ DEIS Schools €5.50
School teachers accompanying 10 pupils go free. Pre-school teachers accompanying 5 children
go free.
Delegates
Baboró invites industry professionals and creatives to experience the festival as a delegate by purchasing a Delegate Pass. This pass gives access to delegate-only events, including works-in-progress, networking opportunities and social evenings. Performances, talks, and workshops must then be booked separately from the Pass.
A Bumper Crop of Work for Early Years Audiences (0-6)
An expanded programme of theatre for early years children (0-6 years) will feature wondrous European shows through Baboró’s partnership with the Creative Europe project, MAPPING, Théâtre de la Guimbarde will present Tiébélé, a show that echoes the beautiful traditions of women from a village in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Combining poetry and plastic, soil and song, organic matter and manmade materials. A creation that links the ancestral gestures of these African women to toddlers’ first attempts to draw. Frames, from Italian company and festival favourites La Barraca, is a visual theatre show with very few words, that celebrates the power of memory and imagination.
Danish company Theatre Madam Bach returns with You Are Here (Du Er Her), about findingyour way in the world - and within yourself. This gentle performance weaves stories of adventures big and small from images, objects, words and musical soundscapes. Why not ride a bike all the way around the world? Just because you can!
Produced by Branar, in association with Drama NUI Galway and Baboró as part of Creative Europe’s Mapping Project, Rothar asks, ‘Where can you go when there is nowhere to go?’. In the little bike shop at the end of town a world of adventure awaits. Two boys and their bikes travel the world in a show that conjures play from the everyday and where anything is possible. Also from Branar in a co-production with New International Encounter is A Grand Soft Day, a curious and charming new show that celebrates the wonder of the world around us.
Of Bluebells and Butterflies from Graffiti: BEAG is a charming interactive dance theatre
performance for babies (up to 12 months) and their adults.
A Tiny Mutiny
Baboró commission, Tiny Mutiny/An Ceannairc Beag Bídeach, will celebrate children as artists in their own right as they create colourful, boisterous protest performances in both Ros Muc and Galway city. Two youth ensembles will proclaim the need for a child-led cultural space in the West of Ireland. Working with local artists, Jojo Hynes, Midie Corcoran, Róisín Seoige & Atmos Collective, each ensemble will share their vision through protest performances accompanied by colourful banners, rebellious songs and digital projections. They have created their visions and proclamations in response to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The exciting site specific events take place at Ionad Cultúrtha an Phiarsaigh and Galway City Museum.
Irish and International Theatre Live Onstage
Irish and international theatre, film, spoken word, circus and dance theatre will feature across Galway’s venues.
Join Le Cirque de Bout du Monde’s surreal world of Der Lauf, where nothing is quite as it
seems. Two circus performers compete in a series of bizarre challenges as they juggle blindly, spin plates wildly and stack glasses wearing enormous boxing gloves. As the glasses rise, so do the stakes. Will you, their only guide, help lead them to safety or towards further peril?
Ballet Ireland and exciting young choreographer Roisín Whelan present The Glasshouse, a dance performance for children aged 6+. It is the story of earnest young Fiach, who is on a mission to repopulate the world with plants and turn it green. This fun and compelling show is about the courage of the human spirit, friendship and life’s determination to survive. It is a feast for the eyes and senses, with moments of suspense and joy, exhilarating dancing, vibrant costumes and magical music to enthral children and families.
Family Portrait is a video installation capturing Barrowland Ballet’s Artistic Director, Natasha Gilmore, and her children in an intimate portrayal of family life. Through striking imagery, choreography and intricate soundscapes, a series of narratives unfold. See the family through choreographed sequences and candid moments as they encounter the many different landscapes of Scotland.
Through spoken word, former Glastonbury Poetry Slam Champion Toby Thompson will perform I Wish I was a Mountain using rhyme, live music, and just a smattering of metaphysical philosophy to boldly reimagine Herman Hesse’s classic fairytale. Adults are kindly requested to leave all answers to these questions at the door. Children, come as you are.
Chalk About from Scotland’s Curious Seed, is a playful, funny and moving look at how we see ourselves and others, featuring dance, chalk, chat, and one perfect scene containing everything you could wish for!
Up-Close from Irish dance artist, Monica Muñoz, is an outdoor performance about trusting each other, building resilience together and letting go of the past. A highly physical dance show blending contemporary and street dance styles and peppered with humour.
Tune In to An Audio Adventure
Audiences from around the country can tune into BrokenCrow’s The Little Robber Girl on
Baboró.ie and RTÉ Jr throughout the festival. Join Mattie, her little dog Arthur, and her new friend Finn in an exciting audio drama, as they go in search of Mattie’s missing Mammy and return with much more than buried treasure.
Visual Art Exhibitions to Enjoy
Widden Ar Geels (The Community Speaks) at Galway Arts Centre will showcase two of
Ireland’s leading artists, Leanne McDonagh and Oein DeBhairduin, as they celebrate the stories and oral traditions of the Irish Traveller community by creating an inclusive space for all to enjoy the magic and wisdom imbued in the craft and stories of the Mincéirí. Immerse yourself in Traveller stories of vixens, owls and horses who live alongside humans as guides, protectors, friends and foes, while spirits, giants and fairies blur the lines between this world and the otherworld.
At Engage Art Studios in Salthill, Lucy Hill presents FOLD, an exhibition for children 8 years and under that explores ideas of openness, relationships, colour, form and line. Inspired and informed by Early Childhood Education and Care philosophies, the show explores the relationship between art and early childhood learning elements including colour, shape, form, line and texture. Visitors to the gallery are encouraged to create their own art with prompts and materials from the artist.
The Magic of Storytelling
We all remember the night Adam King stole our hearts with A Hug For You on The Late, Late Toy Show. Join Adam and his father David King for a special family event based on the book A Hug for You that follows a new hug's adventure and the boy who shared it with the world. Adam and David King also bring Manage your Moody Monsters to the Mick Lally Theatre. A brand new adventure where we’ll learn the importance of kindness, inclusion and bravery when managing our moody monsters.
I Want to Speak Ukrainian in Ballybane Library sees authors Bláithín Breathnach and Lindsay Myers welcoming Ukrainian friends to Galway. Hear readings in English, Ukrainian and Irish, learn how to draw the story’s characters and learn some words in a new language. This free event is suitable for English, Irish and Ukrainian speaking families.
Creative Connections Workshops
Being active is vital to keeping our hearts happy and healthy - but who says it can't also be great fun? Toodlelou Creativity Lab presents Ba Boom! Ba Boom! a heart-thumping dance workshop. Toodlelou will get our toes tapping and tushes shaking while teaching us about the inner workings of the heart. We'll learn the reasons why getting our heart rates up, especially to the beat of music, is so very important.
In An Mala Lesko (Hand Telling) award-winning author Oein DeBhairduin explores a traditional Traveller storytelling technique that relies on intuitive body wisdom and the fluency of the spaces in which tales are told. He will combine drawing, finger storytelling and Irish Traveller folk tales.
Designer Minds will bring Robot Races, an Upcycling Design Challenge and a Japanese
Drawing Workshop to Baboró for children from 7-12 years. Designer Minds workshops are for the curious kids who like to ask why, the creative kids who love to design and the aspiring engineers who like to build.
What's On for Grown Ups
Baboró’s artist and professional programme will include 11 events with creative practice
sharings, artists development workshops and sectoral discussions. Attendees can also
purchase a delegate pass which will give them access to delegate-only events, including
works-in-progress, networking opportunities and social evenings.
Chaired by Dr. Charlotte McIvor, Reflecting on LEAP will ask ‘What role does diversity play in the TYA sector in Ireland?’ Hear from participants and facilitators of Baboró’s LEAP artist support programme, specifically developed for artists from ethnically diverse backgrounds. Panellists will reflect on all stages of the process, engage in conversation with participants about the development of the project and share their insights.
Baboró’s artist and professional programme will explore models of practice for early years, educational settings, sustainability, artist support, diversity, collaboration and creating work for children with additional needs - delivered by experienced Irish and international practitioners and academics.
Acknowledgments
Baboró’s mission is to inspire children to engage with the world through their experience of the creative arts, and the festival is grateful for the support of its family of funders, sponsors, donors and partners who make it possible to deliver on this mission. This year’s festival is supported by Medtronic, TG4, The Ombudsman for Children's Office, and the businesses and venues of Galway City. Baboró is funded by The Arts Council of Ireland and Galway City and County Councils.
