The First Fortnight Mental Health Art & Culture Festival has announced the programme for their 2024 edition, with over 50 events taking place nationwide from January 5th – 14th.
First Fortnight challenges mental health prejudice and stigma through arts and cultural action, programming events that create spaces for conversations around mental health with their annual festival every January.
This year's First Fortnight programme includes a series of especially comissioned works; in a festival first, Silva Lumina will light up the evening landscape across the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin, while Nollaig na mBan has its own focused day and evening events and there's a mindful look at the works of Seamus Heaney with the National Library Of Ireland.
Regional commissions include Xnthony's Big Gay Ball, 'a glamorous celebration of self-expression, where glitter reigns supreme'; the award-winning We're All Still Here, which features an immersive cycling cast of musicians playing entirely improvised music for seven hours; Musical Strings, a project that tells the stories of the connections musicians have through pictures; and Selvage from Brú Theatre, described as 'a fast, funny show about unravelling tightly-wound modern anxieties'.
Returning to First Fortnight for 2024 are festival favourites Therapy Sessions, mc'd and curated once more by poet Stephen James Smith, as well as Cork’s Open Mic night of poetry, the popular Dublin Story Slam and O’Bhéal events and - a festival first - the live launch of the Music and the Mind podcast.
Elsewhere, the programme also features theatre, art exhibitions, creative workshops, film partnerships with the Irish Film Institute and Alliance Francais, solo and collective music performances, event-focused conversations and interviews, beach clean-up events - and even seaside yoga sessions.
First Fortnight CEO Maria Fleming says: 'First Fortnight Mental Health Art & Culture Festival looks to tackle the stigma attached to mental ill health. Stigma only adds to the distress of those experiencing mental ill health and harms their friends and families. Research has found that art can improve mental health, slow cognitive decline, build self-esteem, and enhance one's quality of life.
about our relationship with fear (Pic Jason Dunne)
'Art can impart insight, decrease stress, heal trauma, increase memory and neurosensory capacities, and improve interpersonal relationships. We want to break the stigma and we are doing this through art and cultural action. Within our celebratory festival are works created by artists keen to explore our mental health and start a conversation with the audience.'
The First Fortnight Mental Health Art & Culture Festival 2024 taking place across the provinces of Ireland from January 5th – 14th, 2024 - find out more about this year's programme here.
