Ireland’s largest multi-disciplinary national arts festival and a major innovator in the area of arts and creativity globally.
What is the Bealtaine Festival?
Bealtaine is a month long festival in May featuring performances, exhibitions, discussions, workshops and readings by artists working in different art forms all over Ireland.
How does it work?
Bealtaine Festival challenges and entertains audiences and participants and always looks to offer diverse events. Just as we know there’s no one experience of older age, there is no one kind of event in Bealtaine. The festival engages people and communities from all over Ireland to foster and inspire creativity among older people, to work intergenerationally, to platform older artists and to promote the skills, experiences and exposure that can lead to a rich creative life. You can enjoy all that Bealtaine has to offer whether you are an audience member, an artist, or by participating in creative projects in your community.
Image from A Life of Play, one of our 2018 Bealtaine Festival events in Temple Bar.
Image from our 2016 Bealtaine Festival Voltage event
Image from our 2017 event in Limerick City Gallery of Art
We believe that, whether you are 8 or 80 years old, we all should have access and opportunities to attend and participate in the arts and to realise our creative potential. Fresh thinking, bold experimentation and creativity are all fundamental to delivering a high quality of life for older people.
Research shows that arts programmes involving music, visual arts and drama, among other activities, have a profound influence on the quality of life of older people, with positive impacts on health, psychological well-being, confidence and autonomy as well as other benefits such as:
- happiness
- mental wellbeing
- reduced stress
- improved cognition
- sense of identity and personhood
- increased self-esteem and confidence
- reduced boredom.
