FROM PIONEERING and innovative theatre through experimental music to some familiar favourites and popular street performers, this year’s Cork Midsummer Festival promises something for every taste.
Now in its 14th year, the festival programme was officially launched by Lord Mayor of Cork, Cllr Dara Murphy, who said that from June 12th to 27th the city would be transformed into a stage for some 60 events featuring performers from more than 15 countries.
The festival's director, William Galinsky, said this year's festival had taken "another huge leap forward" with works by such internationally acclaimed artists as composer, Philip Glass and dancer Jerome Bel who will present the Irish premiere of his work The Show Must Go On.
Corcadorca from Cork is choosing to perform a version of Russian playwright Vassily Sigarev's highly-acclaimed Plasticinein the Savoy for what will be the play's Irish premiere.
Set in a faceless city in modern-day Russia, the play looks at how the young protagonist, Maksim, is both drawn and repelled by the surrounding urban wasteland peopled by drug addicts and delinquents and how he retreats into his own privately moulded world.
Teenage experience also provides the material for F**k My Lifewhich, created by 20 Cork teenagers under the direction of Belgian stage director, Pol Heyvaert charts the woes and wonders of teenage life on Leeside.
This year's programme also includes a screening of the 1926 black and white film, Irish Destinywith a live orchestral score by Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin.
Meanwhile, a series of festival concerts will include performances by artists such as Julie Feeney and Mick Flannery.
For the second year running, the festival will host the Street Performance World Championship, which attracted thousands of people to Fitzgerald Park last year.
For further information on the festival, visit www.corkmidsummer.com