PHOTOS 2024 FUTURE LIMERICK Climate Arts Festival aims to tackle the climate crisis through the arts

2024 FUTURE LIMERICK Climate Arts Festival aims to tackle the climate crisis through the arts. Pictured at the launch were Eva O’Connor and Hildegard Ryan from Sunday’s Child Theatre with the Limetree Crew. Picture: Richard Lynch/ilovelimerick

2024 FUTURE LIMERICK: Climate Arts Festival, a multi-disciplinary festival from May 18–25 takes place in various central locations including Belltable and People’s Park

2024 FUTURE LIMERICK festival will explore the climate crisis through the arts.  The programme comprises of top-quality climate-themed theatre, cinema, music and poetry. It will engage entertain, spark debate and help people think outside the box around this urgent issue that can so often feel overwhelming.

The aim of the festival is to bring local audience and artists together to creatively engage on how we can build a more sustainable future together.

The festival will engage with the wider community through a Family Fun Day in People’s Park, poetry workshops in schools, screening of Emerging Limerick Filmmakers short films by young filmmakers, a scratch night of new writing showcasing Limerick’s theatre talent.

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The festival will feature multi-award winning play Chicken by Sunday’s Child, outdoor perambulating children’s play Snail’s Tale in the People’s Park, multi-cultural musical experience collective Music and Myth Busting, a panel discussion on fast fashion with PJ Kirby from the I’m Grand Mam podcast, a screening of BIFA nominated film The End We Start From starring Jodie Comer, playwriting workshop with Gavin Kostick from Fishamble, and a work-in-progress performance of new play The Good People by Limerick playwright Niall Carmody and much more!

FUTURE LIMERICK: Climate Arts Festival was one of just five arts projects across Ireland selected to receive funding from the ESB Brighter Future Arts Fund in 2022.

Delivered in partnership with Business to Arts, the fund was established to support artists and arts organisations working on creative projects engaging their local communities around sustainability, climate change and the transition to a net-zero future. The return of the festival is a testament to the lasting impact FUTURE LIMERICK has had on the local community and the artists it has engaged.  

Hildegard Ryan from Sunday’s Child said the project grew from their belief that the arts can play a crucial role in helping people envisage a more sustainable future in Limerick. “As the climate crisis escalates it’s easy to get bogged down in feelings of hopelessness. FUTURE LIMERICK is an antidote to this, focusing on hope and creativity. Our festival is an engaging and entertaining way to imagine a brighter future and engage with climate issues that matter most to the Limerick community.”  

Louise Donlon, Director at Lime Tree Theatre | Belltable added that the festival will help inspire positive action; “Addressing the challenges we face through the medium of the arts will help to frame them in a way that makes them seem less daunting, and we hope this festival will inspire new & creative ideas for a local-led response to climate change.”

Paddy Hayes, Chief Executive of ESB, said; “ESB is proud to support artists and arts organisations that are committed to creatively engaging with local communities around environmental sustainability and climate change, which is very much the goal of the organisers of Future Limerick, to start a community-led conversation around how best to create a brighter, zero-carbon future for Limerick.”

FUTURE LIMERICK, Climate Arts Festival 2024 is funded by Arts Council Festival Fund and is proudly sponsored by ESB.

Find out more about FUTURE LIMERICK
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Pictures: Richard Lynch/ilovelimerick