Cork Midsummer Festival started yesterday (14 June) and is running until 27 June with a programme of live and online performances and experiences. The festival features a number of musical events, as well as theatre, dance, film, spoken word and visual arts. 

Composer John O’Brien has written an orchestral lullaby for Cork city which will be performed in various locations across Cork city today. Also taking place today – online at 8pm – is ‘Solo Le Quays’, a series of monologues and music videos from writer and director Jessica Courtney Leen. The event will be followed by a post-show Q&A session with Leen.  

Leagues O’Toole of event promoter Foggy Notions presents ‘Places of Comfort’, a series of three concerts featuring Galway singer-songwriter Maija Sofia (23 June), experimental musician and singer from Tipperary  Elaine Howley (24 June), and electronic musician Toby Kaar (25 June). 

Street art, hip hop and dance 
This year’s festival will include a new Midsummer Commission, awarded to Nigerian/Irish breakdancer and hip hop freestyle dancer Tobi Omoteso, following an open call last November. The aim of the commission is to present an event during the festival that promotes active participation from the audience, whether it be from home or in person. The result is ‘A Midsummer Celebration’, a new street art, hip hop and dance work curated by Omoteso that will be presented in the form of a video, available online throughout the festival, and a live event at Cork’s Elizabeth Fort on 27 June. This event will feature DJ and artist group Cuttin Heads Collective, hip hop label in Limerick Px Music, and dance ensemble Limerockers Bboy Crew. 

Omoteso, who is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of dance organisation Top 8 Street Dance Battle, said: 

I am most honoured to receive this commission at such a time like this, as we know we can still achieve a high standard, an engaging and fun programme accessible to all whether it be in person or digitally. I look forward to working with the team at Cork Midsummer Festival in achieving this for the festival and the community.

Percussion, film and spoken word
During the festival there will also be a showcase of new work from musician and filmmaker Abreain Blake on 17 June, featuring a performance from art punk band Pretty Happy (of which Blake is the guitarist) and a snippet of her latest film project Jag. From 20 to 22 June, Bangers and Crash, the percussion ensemble featuring Alex Petcu, will give three performances, playing new works by composers Tom Lane, Alex Petcu and Amanda Feery. The concerts will take place outdoors at Elizabeth Fort and the audience will be surrounded by the ensemble’s six musicians playing an array of percussion instruments.

On 20 June, Paul Noonan of Bell X1 will present his family music show The Electric Kazoo, while audio-visual artist Cristian Cruceru’s new work Silen will stream online on 22 June. Film artist Oonagh Kearney and composer Ellen King’s site-specific BIRDIE will take place on 19 and 20 June at the port of Cork and will allow small audiences to experience a presentation of contemporary sounds, spoken word, electronic beats and opera via headphones. 

The festival also features a series of streamed concerts of music by Bach by the Vanbrugh, Ficino and 2020 Quartets, in association with Triskel Arts Centre, taking place for the duration of the festival.  

Tonight at 9pm, production company THISISPOPBABY will present Party Scene (Reflections On A Chemsex Crisis)  –  a filmed work-in-progress of a new dance/theatre piece about desire, intimacy, isolation and addiction by choreographer Philip Connaughton and writer/director Phillip McMahon. On 27 June there will also be a live reading of A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa and featuring accompanying visuals by filmmaker Tadhg O’Sullivan and a soundscape by composer Linda Buckley.

For more information and tickets, visit: www.corkmidsummer.com/whats-on