This year's Baboró Festival combines live performances and exhibitions with interactive digital experiences. Activities will animate the city of Galway and also be accessible to those further afield, with ground-breaking digital events which will dazzle with their ingenuity and have been created to offer meaningful interaction in the special times we find ourselves in.
ONLINE: GROUND-BREAKING INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCES
The University of Wonder & Imagination is a brand new type of event that will be broadcast live into homes and schools from Belfast-based Cahoots NI’s purpose-built set in Belfast, with the mysterious Professor Bamberg sending off participants on a self-navigated quest, unlocking their magical powers as they go.
Audio-led theatre experience Mountain Goat Mountain from Australian theatre company Thresholdis an invitation to a magical place, a chance to explore tunnels, lava pits and underwater caves without ever leaving your home, as families co-create their own unique shared imaginative world together online.
In A Piece of You, award-winning Scottish composer and cellist Greg Sinclair will be offering live online, intimate, interactive concerts for families, creating and performing music inspired by the audience members’ own thoughts and feelings - a bespoke piece of music, all about you.
Children’s Books Ireland will host a series of their incredibly popular Book Clinic sessions online. This is a chance for young readers who are looking for a new series to delve into to have a consultation with an expert “Book Doctor” over Zoom and get a prescription for their next book to take to their local bookshop or library.
IN-PERSON: VISUAL ARTS
An exhibition from local artist Jojo Hynes, She Crashes In and Fizzles Out at Galway Arts Centre will explore the magic and mystery of water goddesses from across the world. Exhibiting also are young artists who has worked with Jojo during Cruinniú na nÓg Galway to create artworks inspired by their local myths. During Baboró, Jojo will also lead a live Local Legends Laboratory, working with young people to devise new myths from local stories and waterways.
The Colour My Life: Brighten Your Day art activities from Toodlelou will be encouraging children to make art at home and then put it on display for their communities to enjoy, using colour and encouraging messages to brighten people’s days, both in parks around Galway and around the world though online channels, and wherever participants are in the world.
IN-PERSON: A SNEAK PEEK
Meet Luke is a hilarious, moving and interactive piece from infamous man about town Luke, the mobility aid of Galway’s Mairéad Folan. Festival audiences will be able to get a sneak peek at this work in production, which questions how we perceive ourselves and others.
IN-PERSON: FOR CHILDREN WITH ADDITIONAL NEEDS
Artist Phillida Eves is inviting families with young children with additional educational needs to Go Wild with Art in a multi-sensory art experience taking place in, and inspired by, the beautiful Brigit’s Gardens. For children on the autistic spectrum, with learning disabilities or with sensory needs Phillida will present Hear Our Voice!,an intimate, interactive theatrical experience with live music and multi-sensory fun that re-creates the experience of camping under the stars.
BABORÓ ON TV & RADIO
Coming to Ireland’s TV screens as part of the festival,Scéalta ó Baboró is a series of readings for young children by Irish authors including Patricia Forde, Máire Zepf, Tadhg Mac Dhonnagáin and Muireann Ní Chíobhán, which will be broadcast on TG4. The readings will be filmed at iconic spots around Galway in a collaboration between Baboró and TG4, bringing a sense of the festival into homes around the country. Scéalta ó Baboró will be broadcast from 12 – 15 October on TG4’s Cúla4 Ar Scoil.
Also during the festival, critically-acclaimed Galway-based theatre company Moonfish Theatre will be recording a new audio drama Into the World Within for children aged 7 and upwards. The magical adventures of Alex and Nicky as they journey through the pillow fort in their bedroom on a quest to bring their Uncle Petey back from the Underworld will be broadcast over the coming months – something to look forward to!
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, more than ever, have made 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.
