IRELAND’S FIRST “laureate na nóg” Siobhán Parkinson has opened this year’s Baboró International Arts Festival for Children, which is staging a number of sell-out gigs in Galway this week.
A combination of affordable prices and programming has generated a run on tickets for some performances, according to the organisers – who marked the opening with dozens of children in Kenny’s Bookshop yesterday.
Tickets are still available for the first ever silent disco for young people next Saturday, as part of an extensive programme that involves theatre companies from Germany, Spain, Italy, France, Canada, Scotland and Ireland.
“The increase in bookings serves to highlight the hunger in this country for quality theatre, music, dance and art for children and families,” Baboró general manager Teenagh Cunningham said.
“We hit our school bookings target last week with a 24 per cent increase from 2009, and public bookings are up 10 per cent on last year . . . proof absolute that the adults of tomorrow know a good thing when they see it.”
Eight leading international festival directors with a keen interest in Irish work will be among a number of visiting delegates. The Pittsburgh International Children’s Theatre and Festival and the Jack H Skirball Center for the Performing Arts in New York University are among the organisations keen to study how Baboró works.
A group of trainee teachers from the Cork College of Commerce Childcare Training Programme and 22 students and their tutors from Dundalk Institute of Technology’s Childcare Development Programme will also attend.
The 2010 Festival Programme is available at www.baboro.ie, with bookings at the Festival Box Office on (091) 569777.
