Festival Club Blog!

If you haven’t been at the Festival club then you are missing out! 11 nights into the Festival and the antics and fun have been spilling over from the theatres and into the Odessa Club, the official Festival club. Located in the city centre, in close proximity to all the venues, the Odessa has opened the doors to our participating artists and companies, festival staff, volunteers and our patrons and supporters. Open Sunday to Thursday until 12.30pm and late nights on Friday and Saturday, the Odessa has been home to informal chit chat about all that is happening in the Festival. Whether you are performing on stage, backstage or watching what is happening on stage, the Odessa is the perfect place to continue your Festival fun.

We kicked off our dancing shoes over the opening weekend with our first company night on Saturday, Many of our hard working artists arrived to let their hair down and dance the night away. With the music pumping, we had the boys from Black Watch showing off their Scottish reels, Coisceim showing people why they are one of our top dance companies and everyone throwing shapes and moves late into the night. Sunday was a more subdued affair as we toasted goodbye to the hard working and talented cast and crew of ‘Gatz’ and ‘England’ and ‘Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’.

The festivities carried on through the week, with our Friends of the Festival on Monday, eager to meet one another and discuss all they had seen over opening weekend and to compare notes about what they had left to see. On Wednesday we had another company night which meant more dancing and late night madness! This past weekend brought our busiest nights so far, with the majority of companies in town, either with shows up and running or preparing to kick off for this week.

So, if you have not made it to the Odessa yet, be sure not to miss out this week! I expect that we will be busy again so arrive early in the night to guarantee entry and to be part of the unofficial theatrics of the festival that only occur after hours and behind the closed doors of the Odessa!

Sarah Baxter
Festival Club Host

Festival Events!

Finally the festival has begun! Opening night was a huge success. Dodgems a co-production between Coiscéim and the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival in the O’Reilly Theatre was packed to the rafters. Once the show came down, to rapturous applause, guests happily made their way down to the Hugh Lane Gallery where the opening of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival was celebrated in style in the beautiful surroundings of the gallery.

Now that the festival is truly underway we are very busy making sure that our Friends of the Festival and Sponsors are enjoying the festival as much as we are! On Monday we had our informal friends’ night in the Odessa Club, which was a very enjoyable night. As always it was great to catch up with the Friends of the Festival, both old and new! There was much animated chatter about festival highlights. Those who caught Gatz at the weekend were mesmerised and those with tickets to The Year of Magical Thinking were eagerly looking forward to the performance.

We’re also busy organising corporate entertainment for our Sponsors and Corporate Friends at the moment. The Westbury Hotel, Balzac and The Shelbourne Hotel are among the prestigious venues for our various corporate entertainment evenings over the course of the festival. DAA and Ulster Bank both had very enjoyable nights at The Year of Magical Thinking earlier this week at the Gaiety Theatre.

The first of our Corporate Friends Nights is taking place tonight and all those going are thrilled about the prospect of seeing Vanessa Redgrave. Those who would prefer something a little lighter are holding off until next Tuesday when we will be hosting our second night at The Cripple of Inishmaan in the Olympia Theatre. Either way both nights are guaranteed to be very enjoyable and a great way to entertain!

With still well over a week of the festival left there is lots of activity still to come in the Development Department!


Gemma Duke
Development Manager