With over 60 musical acts including Donovan, Kerbdog, We Were Promised Jetpacks and DJ Format ready to descend on Limavady for Stendhal Festival of Art on August 8 and 9, you may be forgiven for thinking that music was all Stendhal is all about.
That however, couldn’t be further from the truth as The Multi-Award winning festival has always prided itself on being an all-encompassing arts event and this year is no different.
Stendhal will also be showcasing Film, Theatre, Dance, Poetry, Comedy, Craft and a galaxy of other artistic endeavours over the weekend, with some top names to watch out for.
For starters the festival will be welcoming Brian J Falconer, the Bafta Award winning and Academy award nominated producer behind the smash hit short film ‘Boogaloo and Graham’ for a special screening of the film and a talk about how life for the team behind the film has changed since their huge critical acclaim.
To tickle your funny bones the comedy bill includes the award winning Sara Pascoe and Irish stand-up legend Kevin McAleer.
Nominated for best show at the 2014 Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Awards and winner of the 2014 Chortle Breakthrough Award, Sara Pascoe can be seen regularly on shows such as ‘Live at the Apollo’ and ‘Mock The Week’, while Kevin McAleer has been a mainstay on the Irish comedy Circuit for years
Theatre over the course of the two-day event will be provided by the amazing North Coast based Big Telly Theatre Company and the ever-popular Limavady Drama Club who will be performing, ‘The wooing of Barney McKeown part two’.
Dance performances will be delivered by the Echo Echo Dance Company and the saucy Soup Dujour burlesque Troupe.
The craft market will be home to some of the finest crafters in the country while two art galleries will also be showcasing the very best of some of the most talented artists Northern Ireland has to offer.
A full family programme will also be sure to give any young festival goers a weekend to remember with magic, kids workshops, puppet shows and much more.
Creative Director of Stendhal Festival of Art, Ross Parkhill says that having such a wide variety of arts at the event has been at the heart of its ethos since it started in 2011.
“We want to give people as wide and all-encompassing an arts experience as we possibly can,” he said.
“Of course the music line-up might be what first draws people to the event but once they are here and see just how good some of the other aspects of the festival are, we hope that they can maybe find passion for something new.”
He added: “We have such a massive pool of talent to draw from across the arts spectrum in Northern Ireland and this year we are welcoming talent from across all six counties along with Irish, UK and International artists.
“We feel that it is really important to give all the aspects of the arts a platform to grow their audience and Stendhal will always be about much more than music.”