The popular music festival Other Voices Dingle 2022 kicks off Friday, celebrating its 21st year in the west Kerry town.
Among this year’s big acts are Paulo Nutini, Loyle Carner, Sorcha Richardson, Inhaler, Pauline Scanlon, and John Francis Flynn.
Concerts will be held in the intimate venue of St James’ Church, a 200-year-old building in the heart of the town, with limited seating for just under 100 people.
The concerts will be recorded for broadcast later in the year on RTÉ’s popular Other Voices series. The special concerts will be streamed live on Other Voices social media.
While the little church is the heart of the festival, the town is hosting a packed programme of music events throughout the weekend.
More than 80 concerts will be held in 16 venues throughout the town, making this year’s festival the biggest since it began 21 years ago.
Last week, all 3,000 wristbands for the Dingle Gin Music Trail were sold out. This year, it’s anticipated that over 7,000 people will visit west Kerry for the music pilgrimage.
John Benny Moriarty, a local publican and event host, claimed that the festival significantly boosts the region’s economy.
“It’s huge really. Pubs, restaurants, B and B’s, self-catering – they all benefit. At this time of year the town should be dead, but walk the streets here this weekend and the place will be buzzing.
“There is also the spin-off of the profile and following that Other Voices has. It’s great marketing for Dingle, not just in here Ireland but internationally,” he said.
Organised in tandem with the music festival is ‘Ireland’s Edge’ a two-day conference that brings together business people, politicians, artists and social commentators to discuss a range of issues central to Ireland’s current and future story.
The theme of this year’s conference is The Good Life/Slí Bheatha and speakers will include Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe, journalists Carole Cadwalladr and Aoife Moore, and authors John Kampfner and Séamas O’Reilly.
Director Philip King said the conference offers an ideal opportunity for creative people from different backgrounds to engage with one another on topical issues and formulate new ideas for the future.
“The creative class, the people who make intellectual property, the people who make something out of their own heads and their own imaginations and transmit the abstract into the tangible are going to be key players in the story of Ireland as we graduate from an old FDI (foreign direct investment) into a new way of being,” he said.
The festival will give other art forms a platform even though the focus at Other Voices is very much on the music.
A number of art spaces will be created in the secluded gardens of An Dseart, the Center of Spirituality and Culture.
Arts director Áine Ní Chíobhain said the aim of the initiative is to allow attendees “to take a breather from the music”.
She said: “The gardens will be home to a series of art installments, which will be illuminated by night.
“We’ll also host poetry readings, music performances, and film projections. We want to create a place of peace and tranquility for music followers, a place where they can take a rest.”