First acts announced for Cairde Sligo Arts Festival including Loah and Plúirín na mBan

Cairde Sligo Arts Festival, Sligo’s premiere multidisciplinary arts festival, has announced its first exciting acts. 

Plúirín na mBan, Saturday, July 1 at Hawk’s Well Theatre

https://www.cairdefestival. com/events/plirn-na-mban

Experience the captivating beauty of traditional Irish folk songs fused with contemporary influences on the opening of this year’s festival. Join Plúirín na mBan for an unforgettable performance with Cathy Jordan (vocals, mandolin, percussion), Claudia Schwab (fiddle, vocals) and Irene Buckley (electronics, vocals) for this special album launch event. Immerse yourself in a mesmerising soundscape celebrating ancient Irish songs with atmospheric drone, pulsating bodhrán rhythms, fiddle delay and intricate vocal harmonies.

The Hare, Monday and Tuesday, July 3 and 4 at The Factory Performance Space

https://www.cairdefestival.com/events/the-hare

Cairde is delighted to host the world premiere of The Hare, new theatre by co-writers Clare Monnelly and Bob Kelly, produced by Once Off Productions, The Hare follows a day in the life of a young woman, unwanted by her community, laughed at by her peers; exploring themes of social isolation and the modern disconnect from both the natural world and our unconscious nature. 

Freedom Letters, Friday, July 7 at The Model

https://www.cairdefestival. com/events/freedom-letters

Freedom Letters is a poetic-musical composition that takes the audience on a journey through the lives of two remarkable women, Constance Markievicz and Valeria O'Connor-Vilinska, exploring their roles in the liberation of both Ireland and Ukraine in the early 20th century revolutionary period. Directed by Olesya Zdorovetska, the work centres on "imaginary letters" between these two women written by brilliant Ukrainian and Irish poet/activists Lyuba Yakimchuk and Mary Branley, with musical settings featuring Saileog Ní Cheannabháin, Emer Mayock, Kate Ellis, and Zdorovetska herself, inspired by the intriguing parallels between Markievicz and O'Connor-Vilinska's interweaving stories. 

The project is a recipient of the 2022 Markievicz Award from The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíon.

Loah, Saturday, July 8 at Juniper Barn

https://www.cairdefestival. com/events/loah

Loah is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of half-Irish, half-Sierra Leonean extraction. Across her solo career, she has released 3 EPs of a hypermodern fusion genre she nicknamed “ArtSoul”.

Loah’s music spans a wide berth of great loves which include Irish folk music and literature, West African rhythms and guitar, the singer-songwriter balladeer tradition, US soul music and modern production, all woven with regular nods to her Kildare childhood playing fiddle and violin in Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann and Youth Orchestras.

Loah has performed at Other Voices, Ireland’s Edge has co-hosted RTE’s primetime music programme The Heart of Saturday Night alongside Una Healy and is a member of  the female artist collective, Irish Women in Harmony. This is Loah’s first Sligo gig. She will be followed by long time festival favourite, DJ Will Softly.

Mark your calendars and save the date for Cairde Sligo Arts Festival, July 1 - 9, 2023. 

For more information about the festival, visit cairdefestival.com or follow along on social media.