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Get Together and Dance, Eat, Sing, Play this Easter Monday – RTÉ Presents Cruinniú na Cásca, a Creative Ireland Initiative

RTÉ | Creative Ireland 

Get Together and Dance, Eat, Sing, Play this Easter Monday

RTÉ Presents Cruinniú na Cásca,  a Creative Ireland Initiative

 Free Event for All, Dublin City Centre

www.rte.ie/cruinniu  I  #cruinniu

On Easter Monday 17th April, RTÉ in association with Creative Ireland will present Cruinniú na Cásca, a large-scale free public festival across four zones in Dublin City Centre from 11.00am – 6.00pm. Cruinniú na Cásca aims to celebrate culture and creativity in contemporary Irish society through a rich variety of live music and dance, coding, theatre, art and music workshops, talks and tastings, readings and screenings, special events and more. The four zones are: St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin Castle, Smithfield Square and Custom House Quay.

In addition to the events taking place in Dublin City, 31 local authorities will host free, family-friendly Cruinniú na Cásca events in their individual counties as part of the national Creative Ireland programme. Information on these events is available online at www.rte.ie/cruinniu.

RTÉ will broadcast live from Cruinniú na Cásca zones throughout the day across RTÉ Radio 1, RTÉ 2fm and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, with regular updates on television and online.

Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphries TD said, “Creative Ireland is all about putting culture and creativity at the heart of communities nationwide andCruinniú na Cásca will do just that this Easter Monday. There will be a wide series of family friendly events right across Dublin city centre, curated by RTÉ, with events of a large and small scale also happening in every county nationwide. We want to encourage people to become involved in the cultural life of their own county through a national day of creativity.

 

“We have set ourselves some ambitious targets for year one of Creative Ireland, with Cruinniú na Cásca top of the list. I am delighted that people nationwide will have the opportunity to come together and participate in cultural and creative activity on Easter Monday, driving our collective wellbeing and our sense of community. I would like to acknowledge the work of all of the key partners involved in delivering the events in Dublin and the Culture Teams in the 31 Local Authorities who have helped to put together an impressive series of events, with the list still growing.”

RTÉ Director-General, Dee Forbes said, “Allowing the public come together, celebrate and engage with national events is a key part of RTÉ’s role and public purpose. Building on the public events of last year, through Cruinniu na Casca, I am delighted and proud that this Easter RTÉ, in partnership with Creative Ireland, will once again bring contemporary Irish culture and creativity to the streets of Dublin through a rich variety of live music and dance, coding, theatre, art and music workshops, talks and tastings, readings and screenings, special events, and so much more. It promises to be a special and unique day in Dublin and across the country.”

 

While all the music, performance and orchestral events are free (see below), the talks, film-screenings, autism-friendly workshops and coding workshops should be pre-booked to secure a place. The fifty-plus talks cover themes ranging from arts and culture to creativity and social inclusion. Free tickets and information are available online at www.rte.ie/cruinniu.

Cruinniú na Cásca, a Creative Ireland initiative, presented by RTÉ is supported by Dublin City Council, the Office of Public Works and Transport for Ireland.

***Cruinniú na Cásca HIGHLIGHTS – Zone by Zone

(FULL PROGRAMME included in Notes to Editors below)

St. Stephen’s Green

  • Orchestra Stage: RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Lisa Lambe, Hot House Flowers
  • Summerhouse: Curated by Poetry Ireland and The Ark
  • Band Stand: Masamba Samba Dance, Gloria, Dublin’s Lesbian and Gay Choir, Elvé Lithuanian Choir
  • Imaginosity: Interactive playground
  • Craft Zone: Workshops including the Travelling & Polish communities and more
  • Indoor farming and environmental workshops with Cre8 Sustainability
  • Afro Éire West African Drumming
  • Fuinneamh Giant Drum
  • Sensory workshops for children with autism
  • Learnit LEGO Zone

RTÉ Radio 1’s Arena will broadcast live from the orchestra stage from 11am – 1pm.

Dublin Castle

  • Upper Courtyard Stage: Crash Ensemble, Slow Moving Clouds, Landless
  • Indoor Venues: Series of talks and panel discussions on Cultural Reflection 
  • Go4it Workshops on programming, app inventing, game development 
  • DCCOI demonstrations in felt-making, ceramics and more
  • Dublin Library Bus

Smithfield Square

  • RTÉ 2fm Band Stage: Loah, Soulé, The Academic, Booka Brass Band 
  • Lighthouse Cinema: Screenings of some of the best of Irish film
  • Robot workshops
  • Improvised duets for humans and machines
  • Slam poetry with Colm Keegan and more
  • DJ and scratching workshops with RTÉ Pulse
  • Illustration workshops with  Laureate na nÓg, PJ Lynch
  • Film, TV and radio production workshops with RTÉ, Bowsie Workshops and Screen Training Ireland

The RTÉ 2fm Roadcaster will broadcast live from 11am – 5pm, with live music and interviews with the acts. RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta will broadcast live from their strand of talks at the Generator Hostel from 4 – 5pm.

 

Custom House Quay

  • Custom House Stage: Céilí Mór 
  • Dance Zone: Tango Fiesta, Bollywood Beats, Tribal  Bellydancers, Chinese Dance, West African Dance
  • Picnic Area: Puppets, magic, face-painting and family entertainment
  • Traditional music workshops
  • Food village
  • 3D street art
  • Dublin Fire Brigade Pipe Band
  • Carousel and family attraction in garden area.
  • San Patricio Mariachi Band

RTÉ Radio 1’s ‘LIVELINE – 1917’ with Joe Duffy will broadcast live from the stage from 1.30 – 3pm.

The RTÉ 2fm Roadcaster will broadcast live from 11am – 5pm, with live music and interviews with the acts. RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta will broadcast live from their strand of talks at the Generator Hostel from 4 – 5pm.

So, get together and dance, eat, sing and play, for free, this Easter Monday in Dublin City Centre for Cruinniú na Cásca. For more, visit www.rte.ie/cruinniu or join the conversation by searching for #cruinniu across @rte and @creativeirl on Twitter, as well as @rte on Facebook and @explorerte on Instagram.

Ends

For information:


RTÉ 
Maureen Catterson, M: +353 87 7800737, E: maureen.catterson@rte.ie
Neil O’Gorman, M: +353 87 2077192, E: neil.ogorman@rte.ie

Creative Ireland Programme
Madeline Boughton, Tel: 087 797 7827, madeline@ireland.ie

Notes to Editors:

***FULL PROGRAMME (Zone by Zone)
For updates, see www.rte.ie/cruinniu

On Air

  • RTÉ 2fm: live from Smithfield – Roadcaster (11am-5pm)
  • RTÉ Radio 1, Arena: live from St. Stephen’s Green (11am-1pm)
  • RTÉ Radio 1, Liveline: live from Custom House Quay (1.30pm-3pm)
  • RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta: live from talks at Generator Hostel (4pm-5pm)

St Stephen’s Green

  • On St Stephen’s Green South there will be an orchestra stage with performances from the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Jerry Fish and Kormac and his Big Band. Arena, RTÉ Radio 1’s daily arts programme, will broadcast live from this stage with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra from 11am-1pm with guests such as Lisa Lambe, The Hot House Flowers, Feather, Discovery Gospel Choir and Sean Keane.
  • In the Green itself, there will be an area dedicated to the National Children’s Museum, Imaginosity, including an interactive playground and storytelling sessions.
  • The National Children’s Theatre, The Ark and Poetry Ireland will provide performances at the Summerhouse.
  • The Bandstand will have a number of choral and dance performances reflecting the diverse communities in Dublin with the Gloria, Dublin’s Lesbian and Gay Choir, Elvé Lithuanian Choir, Masamba Samba Dance and more.

 

Workshops:

  • Learnit Lego Zone which will be free lego play for people of all ages, all day.
  • Storytelling workshops for a variety of ages from author, Sarah Webb and storyteller, Paul Timoney.
  • Indoor farming workshop from Cre8 Sustainability – a creative agency for environmental education
  • Paperpet workshops – create sculpture animals out of paper.
  • Visual Arts from children’s theatre company, The Ark.
  • Craft Zone with workshops including tinsmithing, puppet making workshops, knitting and sensational painting which encourages families to paint the music of Chopin.
  • Morning – Series of quizzes for all the family
  • Afternoon – Children’s Books Ireland will run their popular doodle doctor and book doctor clinics designed to bring art and literature to children.
  • West African drumming from Afro Éire drum school.
  • ReCreate art workshops- ReCreate is a national social enterprise that takes end-of-line and surplus stock from businesses and reuses them as arts materials.
  • Workshops for autistic children including sensory play and storytelling.

There will also be a food zone, children’s entertainers, a chime cave, a giant drum called Fuinneamh, and lots more on the day.

Dublin Castle

  • Upper Courtyard: Band Stage including acts Landless, Ye Vagabonds, Inni-K, Crash Ensemble, Rue, Dylan Tighe, Slow Moving Clouds
  • Theatre workshops from Theatre Lovett
  • Family entertainment & outdoor games in the Dubh Linn gardens
  • DCCOI live demonstrations of traditional crafts, felt-making, ceramics, and more
  • Lower Courtyard-Dublin Library bus
  • Series of talks with a focus on cultural reflection, including:
    • Women in Irish Society presented by Sinead Gleeson: Four talks, including Forgotten Women in the Arts, New Ireland New Identities, State of the Nation, & Telling Stories in Dark Times. Guests include Lenny Abrahamason, Lynne Ruane, Deirdre Kinahan & Una Mullally;
    • Banter with Jim Carroll: Four talks on themes of sport, criticism, the demon drink and a public interview with Facthna O’Ceallaigh, the legendary music manager;
    • Experiencing Ireland with Fionn Davenport: Experiencing Ireland as a Muslim, an artist, & living with homelessness. There will also be a public interview with author John Boyne. Guests include Fr Peter McVerry, Teresa Buczkowsca of the Immigrant Council & musician Mark Geary.
  • Coding workshops:
    • Scratch Gamescaster: Learning to design and create your own computer game using the Scratch Programming Tool. Experience using a Makey Makey 21st Century Invention kit to create your own game controllers.
    • Scratch Quizmaster: Design, develop and build a Quiz using Scratch Programming tool. Use add-ons such as a 21st century invention kit to enhance your quiz
    • SketchUp and Go: Experience designing a 3D model using Google Sketchup
    • My First App: Develop your very first app using App Inventor (Android phones).

Smithfield Square

 

  • Street Feast at Haymarket with a mix of ethnic/artisan fare.
  • RTÉ 2fm Live Stage: Live performances from Soulé, Loah, The Academic, Jack O’Rourke & Booka Brass Band with more to be announced
  • The 2fm Roadcaster will broadcast live from 11am – 5pm, featuring live music and interviews from these acts.
  • Lighthouse Cinema will feature free screenings of Irish films across the day, including The Secret Scripture, Song of the Sea (with one screening in Irish), Older Than Ireland, The Young Offenders, The Lobster and Room.
  • Graphic art workshops and display from All Out Design
  • Illustration workshops from Laureate na nÓg PJ Lynch and Paper Panther Animation
  • Film/TV/Radio Production including Bowsie Workshop, RTÉ Television & RTÉ Radio Drama, and workshops from Young Irish Filmmakers and Foley artist Caoimhe Doyle in association with Screen Training Ireland
  • Performance and Slam poetry workshops in Irish and English with poets Danielle Gill, Ciara Ni É and Colm Keegan
  • DJ and scratching workshops from RTÉ Pulse
  • Make Create Innovate – Enjoy an opportunity to make, build, create and explore. Each activity is hands-on, helping to solve problems using technology, design and creativity to find solutions. The workstations will allow people to make robots, use LEDs and conductive clay, and create sound using graphite controllers
  • Science Gallery, featuring:
    • The Irish premiére of the greatest hits of Emily Howell, the world-leading algorithmic composer, played live by a human
    • A slam poetry competition and open-mic session of poetry written by computers and improvised duets for human and machine
    • “Bot Or Not” – the table quiz-like competition where teams try to tell if what they see and hear was created by a robot or a human. (It’s harder than you think!)
    • Word Camera – a booth where you can get your photo taken and a computer will compose a poem based on what it sees
    • A ‘feedback wall’ where audiences vote on the likelihood and desirability of everything from self-driving cars to robot partners.
    • Try out Cozmo, the pet mini-robot that looks and acts rather like a tiny Wall.E, and the latest in robotic hoovers from Roomba.

Custom House Quay

  • Céilí Mór, including tutorials and performances from the stage.
  • Traditional music workshops/sessions for people of all abilities from Ceoltóirí Clúain Tarbh.

·         RTÉ Radio 1’s LIVELINE 1917 live from the main stage (1.30 – 3pm): “Hello, good afternoon and you’re very welcome to Easter Monday 1917. After last year’s Sackville St Special, Liveline is going back a century once again. The phone boxes are full; the lines are jammed; and the people of 1917 Ireland are waiting to Talk to Joe. But what’s on their minds?”

  • Carousel and family attraction in garden area.
  • Food village in bridged area & 3d street art on the ground.
  • Picnic area in garden zone with family entertainment all day (Silly Billy Events, including magic shows, puppet shows, art & craft classes).
  • Dance Zone in car park zone: Series of 40 minute workshops from Tango Fiesta, Bollywood Beats, Tribal Bellydancers, West African Dance, Chinese Dance & Waacking
  • Dublin Fire Brigade Pipe Band with a live performance on site
  • Face painting/jugglers/balloon modellers
  • Community art display
  • San Patricio Mariachi Band