Post Festival Blues...

It’s all over. The fat old lady has sung! At our rap party in The Cobalt Café on Sunday night the wonderful Young@Heart Chorus gave us their disco set including three Irish numbers they’d rehearsed just for us – Dirty Old Town, Teenage Kicks and a particularly salty version of An Poc ar Buile. We partied until late and woke up with a hang-over and a gnawing sense of anxiety – weren’t we supposed to be somewhere, hosting a reception, welcoming a delegation, opening a show?… nope… it’s all over. The old ladies and gents are on a bus to Ennis, Kretakor are on a plane to Budapest, and the hundreds of international artists whom we’d befriended for oh-so -brief a time have returned home. How we will miss them all.

I’ve heard a lot about the down that follows the Festival high, but I was having none of it. I had paced myself fine, got as much sleep as I could and knew what to expect. But oh no, come Monday morning I could hardly speak. I had a tightening in my chest and I lacked the will to live. But why the depression when things had gone so well? We had surpassed even our own ambitious box office targets (taking over €1 million at the box office for the first time in the Festival’s history), presented over 33 productions, almost all of which were warmly welcomed by audiences and critics, and we had achieved our overall goal of dramatically increasing the impact of the Festival on the city. Why so glum?

The received wisdom is that it’s to do with the adrenaline that courses through your body at Festival time. The only way to get through the madness and continue to function at such a hectic pace is to push your body and mind further that it naturally wants to go. Your system responds by declaring a state of emergency, and when the emergency passes, your system crashes. Nothing to be done about it. I said in an earlier blog that festivals are a drug and we’re their junkies – and as with all drugs, you must eventually come back down to earth with a bump.
So now we must find the motivation to begin the clean-up. Numbers to be crunched, loose ends to be tied off. And then it’s holidays for me before I begin the rounds of my travels again in search of next year’s programme. First up is a trip to the Festival D’Automme in Paris, followed by Speilart in Munich, then the Impulse Festival of experimental German work, and a national Israeli showcase in Tel Aviv. No rest for the addicted. Forever chasing that high that we crave so much. See you in October 2008 then, when we’ll be recklessly soaring skywards once more!

Loughlin Deegan
Artistic Director / CEO

The Last Hurrah!

Can you believe it? After the months and months of planning, we're finally at the final weekend! The last bash! 'Once more with feeling!'

It's so strange that the end is now in sight (although I don't think any of our bodies would allow us to continue at this pace for much longer!). We've worked hard (and partied hard at the Festival Club), and now we find ourselves with the final few shows! How did that happen so fast?!

What's made it all even better is that we passed a huge milestone in the box office... For the first time in the Festival's history, the box office passed the €1 million mark in sales - so we celebrated accordingly with a glass of champagne (much to the surprise of the line of people queuing at our box office counters!) It was a huge moment in the history of the Festival and we're all so delighted that people have engaged so much with the programme and come to see so many of the shows in their droves!

We still have a small number of seats left this weekend. We've also had people waiting patiently at many of the venues each night hoping for returns (which many have got we're happy to announce) in a last-minute effort to get tickets shows that simply everybody is raving about.

So as we plan one last attack for the final weekend, we hope you to get to pack in one or two final shows also. And I'm sure there'll also be a few glasses raised to the wonderful success of the 50th anniversary in the Festival Club this weekend!

Ross Keane
Director of Marketing & Development

Just over halfway through the Festival and as we say goodbye to many amazing shows, the next batch open in various theatres around Dublin. Amongst our opening weekend shows, SITI Company who gave us the wonderful bobrauschenbergamerica and Radio Macbeth, have gone back to New York, and the multi-talented 7 Fingers who wowed audiences with Traces in the Olympia have left our shores breathless. The middle weekend of the Festival brought some truly special events to Dublin. La Marea transformed the Italian quarter for three nights with beautifully cinematic stories staged in shop windows, restaurants and street corners. Every passer-by was treated to be part of a personal and poignant story, making us forget we were in Dublin on a chilly October evening. This week, we are very excited that Krétakör will still be with us performing a stripped down version of The Seagull, Pan Pan open The Idiots tomorrow at Project and a real gem, small metal objects currently playing lunchtime down at the Docklands gives will give a real treat to all passer-bys. It’s also a great excitement having such a worldwide hit as The History Boys coming to the Festival, and tickets are flying out the door so don’t be disappointed and miss this multi award-winning show. Our third and final Gala Corporate Night is at The History Boys tonight at the Olympia with pre-show drinks in SIN and dinner in Fire afterwards. Two more sponsor nights, a few more company parties and all of a sudden, the curtains will be coming down on the Festival.

It is great to see the marketing campaign coming to fruition as we hear everyone in theatre foyers around Dublin asking “What did you think?”, and after having so many full houses on a sunny Saturday afternoon across all venues in Dublin, it just shows how theatre can touch all shapes and sizes. We may only have five days left but we still have a plethora of productions to entertain the masses so book before it’s too late!!

Shauna Lyons
Marketing Assistant

Box Office Fever!

So here we are at the end of the first week in box office and its all going so fast! I’m caught between mourning the fact that Hibiki is already over and I’m not going to be able to see it again and shaking with the anticipation of FINALLY seeing Radio Macbeth! The show that when I heard was being programmed all those months ago, made me nearly fall off my seat with delight!

There is a feverish excitement here in the box office. We are selling tickets for all the remaining performances and the tickets are going like hot cakes! Between that and being on hand to staff the venues we are all caught up in this fantastic celebration of theatre… and it really does feel like a celebration! We’re selling faster than we ever have before… the phones are hopping, the internet is going mad and the box office is swarming with people!

This is my favourite period of the Festival. It’s so wonderful finally meeting everyone you’ve been in correspondence with over the last few months. There are people coming into the box office who have booked world months ago from all over the world and yet who are greeted like old friends! “Ahhh your Mr Johns! Yes… I remember you booked from Los Angeles in September! How nice to finally meet you!” Putting names to faces of people who’ve booked online and over the phone, and hearing what their highlight has been… so far… because there is always another performance to be booked and another play reading to be heard!

Hannah Curnow

Box Office Manager