Bealtaine festival celebrates 20 years

This year marks the 20th Bealtaine festival. Organised by Age & Opportunity the annual festival celebrates creativity as we age and is believed to be the world’s first of its kind. Bealtaine has grown to be one of the country’s biggest arts festivals, with an estimate 120,000 people taking part in this event.

All across Ireland during the month of May, performances, projects and events will be taking place in arts centres, theatres, libraries, galleries, community centres, local halls, care settings, in key cultural institutions and even in the open air.

Bealtaine Artistic Director Liz Kelly said the focus of this landmark year for the festival, “is looking at ourselves and our country from the inside and outside”. “We are exploring traditions, working with the land, looking at artists who left, at artists who visited and stayed in Ireland and at artists who returned. It is a chance for people to make new and challenging work and a chance to communicate traditions between the generations. Bealtaine 2015 takes inspiration from a quote from Ulysses on the eponymous hero’s famous homecoming and we want audiences and artists alike look at our country through new eyes, to hear with new ears and to ask, ‘What land and country is this?’.”

Full programme details for Bealtaine 2015 are on www.bealtaine.com