Culture Night 2017

panda100

Culture Night is on this Friday (yay!), always a great evening in Limerick. There looks to be lots on this year

I plan to head to the Headway art exhibition on Upper William Street, then down to Narrative 4 for some storytelling, then over to the Curraghour Boat Club and then Limerick Underground Speakers Corner at Arthurs Quay park at 8pm. I might try and get to tidal scratchings in Shannon rowing club after that.

There looks to be great stuff on in the county this year as well. What are others plans for the evening

Mc Love

Same weekend as the Jazz festival or are they tied together?

MrLaurel

Mc Love wrote: »

Same weekend as the Jazz festival or are they tied together?

Limerick has a Jazz Festival??

panda100

Mc Love wrote:

Same weekend as the Jazz festival or are they tied together?

Not tied together. I think they just happen to be on the same weekend.

MrLaurel wrote:

Limerick has a Jazz Festival??

Yep and it's quite good usually. Bunratty has a blues festival that is coming up quite soon too.

zulutango

Culture Night is one of the best nights in town in my opinion. The key thing is to get to things early because there'll be queues at some things, but also because there's lots to get to and generally not enough time. Start the evening no later than 6pm. It all winds up at around 9pm.

As for Jazz festival, yeah, it's making a name for itself alright. Last year Van Morrisson played in UCH (his only Irish gig in 2016) as part of it. No idea how they managed to get him, but it did a lot for the recognition of the festival.

And Open House is coming up in a few weeks too. There's plenty to look forward to in the city.

bazz26

Let's hope it's not noisy.

kilburn

Great stuff !

zulutango

bazz26 wrote:

Let's hope it's not noisy.

Jazz is more depressing than noisy.

osarusan

Limerick FC home to Cork on that night. Get some of that culture into ye also.

panda100

osarusan wrote:

Limerick FC home to Cork on that night. Get some of that culture into ye also.

One of the best things about culture night imo is that its not solely aligned with the usual Limerick city culture clique. Would be good to see an expansion of culture night activities to include more sports or Irish music and dance though.

Silentcorner

I think it is a great initiative but in my opinion in its current form it has run its course....

I think it should be rolled out over a weekend, like Open House...you could incorporate much more of the citys cultural landscape and history.

Just my tuppence!

panda100

Silentcorner wrote: »

I think it is a great initiative but in my opinion in its current form it has run its course....

I think it should be rolled out over a weekend, like Open House...you could incorporate much more of the citys cultural landscape and history.

Just my tuppence!

I think running it over a weekend would dilute the whole experience of culture night. Unfortunately, the cultural offerings available this evening are fairly stagnant and are pretty much the same every year. That's where the issue lies imo. Its an ongoing issue in Limerick though that any cultural events are restricted to the same type of venues/hosts/arts. Perhaps LCCC arts office needs to do more to support other cultural experiences for culture night in Limerick.

Silentcorner

panda100 wrote: »

I think running it over a weekend would dilute the whole experience of culture night. Unfortunately, the cultural offerings available this evening are fairly stagnant and are pretty much the same every year. That's where the issue lies imo. Its an ongoing issue in Limerick though that any cultural events are restricted to the same type of venues/hosts/arts. Perhaps LCCC arts office needs to do more to support other cultural experiences for culture night in Limerick.

Thats exactly my point....

For instance, there is a local performer playing in Ormeston house this weekend, I think last year it was fox jaw....no reason why this couldn't be a venue for the entire weekend hosting a number of different local bands...as there are always a good half a dozen full time or near full time bands around the city at any given time who would love the exposure...

There are a number of theatre groups in the city, who could easily perform, out of theatre in a number of venues in the city centre (like The Old Sailors Home)....a couple of performances..

The UCH offer Opera in The Hunt Museum, it is impossible to get tickets for...this could move around the city centre for the whole weekend...they still wouldn't have enough tickets...

There could easily be presentation s given, in say, the Captains Room in The Hunt Museum, of the military history of the city in one hour lecturers on the different sieges of the city...which would easily fill up a weekend...

The problem with depending on the Local Authority for Cultural Events is that they need to show return on investment...they need to measure footfall/spend etc which would damage the essence of culture night imo...there is no need for their involvement anyway....

This city, more than most other cities its size can boast a cultural depth that even a full weekend of activities wouldn't do justice...let alone a 3 hour period...

zulutango

The report on the Capital of Culture bid was fairly damning of the Arts Office in the Council. In the last few months they've been stripped of their power to allocate grants too. They've been successful with Culture Night over the years, but arguably this is a very limited output for an Arts Department in a city with ambitions to be a European Capital of Culture.

panda100

Silentcorner wrote:

For instance, there is a local performer playing in Ormeston house this weekend, I think last year it was fox jaw....no reason why this couldn't be a venue for the entire weekend hosting a number of different local bands...as there are always a good half a dozen full time or near full time bands around the city at any given time who would love the exposure...

Silentcorner wrote:

This city, more than most other cities its size can boast a cultural depth that even a full weekend of activities wouldn't do justice...let alone a 3 hour period...

Yes i agree with all your points. Limerick desperately needs a decent cultural flagship festival. Wakeboarders, or whatever those jet ski riverfest things are called, and white pop up food tents just don't cut it anymore. I still think Culture Night is a great concept though as for many a condensed evening of activities is preferable and more enticing than a whole weekend of events.

martyc5674

Must say I enjoyed culture night last night with the kids... found ourselves rushing though to try and see as much as we could.
We first visited the urban co op for some healthy treats to keep us going... what a great spot to get some great food.

We went to the army barracks looking at tanks and the museum, to alliance français for some art and treats, then to the art museum where the kids made lamp shades... ormston house for some music and then to Arthur's quay park and a walk up through town for more music/culture!!

The vibe was great in the city yesterday eve... if there were more people living in the city centre it could easily have this vibe every Friday, it was a real showcase of what he the city could be like if we weren't pushing everyone out to the suburbs.
Marty.

panda100

martyc5674 wrote:

Must say I enjoyed culture night last night with the kids... found ourselves rushing though to try and see as much as we could.

I think the rushing around is part of the fun of Culture Night. The Coke Zero bikes were a lifesaver in terms of getting around to see everything!

Highlight for me was the Curraghgour Boat Club. I got a boat trip on a beautiful evening as the sun was setting and over to Arthurs Quay for my next event. Inside the boat club St Mary's Aid had some historic weaponry you could try out. I don't know how the Vikings wielded those heavy swords going into battle! Also there was restored pictures of Limerick from early 20th century. It was a real community effort and a positive addition to Culture Night.

I also enjoyed the performers outside Chez Le Fab. I would liked to have made it up to the World Recipe Exchange on Bedford Row but alas I didn't make it. Hopefully, they might do that again throughout the year or maybe at Riverfest.

dominatinMC

Just wondering, who organises Culture Night in Limerick? To me, it was a lot better than Riverfest (not that they are a like-for-like comparison), and perhaps the people at the helm of Culture Night should be given responsibility for Riverfest next year. It would help to revitalise a somewhat flagging festival imo.

riverrocked

dominatinMC wrote: »

Just wondering, who organises Culture Night in Limerick? To me, it was a lot better than Riverfest (not that they are a like-for-like comparison), and perhaps the people at the helm of Culture Night should be given responsibility for Riverfest next year. It would help to revitalise a somewhat flagging festival imo.

Each group/venue plans their own Culture Night event and add it to the schedule. There is no one organiser.

panda100

riverrocked wrote: »

Each group/venue plans their own Culture Night event and add it to the schedule. There is no one organiser.

I think that's what works so well about Culture Night. Literally anyone can set up an event and don't have to pay for it to be advertised as it's all included in the programme. I think that's why it works as the events are coming from real Limerick communities and people. Riverfest on the other hand is managed by Grooveyard, a national event management service. I'm not sure how much input Limerick Arts Office has in Riverfest but would be interested to know.

zulutango

There's a fairly tried and trusted template for Culture Night and it's rolled out all over the country. The Arts Office do co-ordinate it but they don't get involved in the organising of any particular event as far as I know. The City of Culture debacle makes me wary of giving them the ropes for Riverfest, which isn't an arts festival in any case. I don't think anyone knows what Riverfest is or what it's meant to be, other than a perennial abysmal failure. Should it be an arts festival? Maybe. Should it be run by the Council (or it's Arts Department)? I have my doubts.

black & white

I've been going to Culture night as long as it's been running and I've never seen as many people as I did on Friday night, the new museum on Henry St is worth spending some time in and I finally got to see the Yeats/Henry exhibition in the Hunt. Trying to get a table in a restaurant at about 8.30 was the most difficult part of the evening so glad to see that there are benefits to local traders as well.

Crea

Great night this year. Highlight was bringing the teenager to see Darren Shan at the Hunt Museum. We them went to the Limerick Museum and walked around town listening to the different music.
It was great to have outdoor events as it brought great life to the city.
There was a brilliant buzz around town - even the teenager really enjoyed it.