Green Limerick: Festival explores climate crisis through the arts

A NEW festival in Limerick is to explore the climate crisis through the arts.

Future Limerick: Climate Arts Festival, a week-long, multi-disciplinary festival will take place from May 18–25, in various central locations including Belltable and People’s Park.

The programme comprises of top-quality climate-themed theatre, cinema, music and poetry. It hopes to engage, entertain, spark debate and help people think outside the box around the issue of the climate crisis.

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.

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.

The 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.

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,” said Ms Ryan.

Louise Donlon, director at Lime Tree Theatre and 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 and 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.”