A brand new festival based in Ennis, Clare, will takes place on October 15th and 16th.
PIMA! Fest, (Participate in Music and Arts), will be produced by Music Generation Clare in association with glór and local community partners and artists.
In times of great challenge a wave of creative outpouring emerges in society and as participatory arts takes a more significant role in the arts globally, Music Generation Clare sees an opportunity to contribute to the development of this emerging space with the creation of a new annual festival for Ennis and Co. Clare. The festival’s artistic vision is to create engaging, inclusive and innovative participatory arts projects that integrate communities and nurture creative ambition.
Speaking ahead of PIMA! FEST Pádraig Rynne, Music Development Officer, Music Generation Clare says: “We started developing the concept of PIMA! Fest in early 2021, when we saw on the horizon a great need for communities to be together again in a meaningful way, in particular opportunities for our young musicians to play together and collaborate on projects together. So you could say that this festival was born out of the difficult Covid times and a sense of responsibility for the welfare of our communities. We then approached the curator Jody Ackland to work with us on broadening our scope and participatory models and to our delight the Arts Council invested in our vision with an initial festival’s grant. One year later and we are launching our inaugural festival with 5 flagship participatory arts events, we’re so excited to be here and grateful to all our partners and artists.”
With five projects announced with both ticketed and free events PIMA! FEST is for all ages working closely with local community partners to create an inclusive participatory experience. The inaugural festival will engage some of Ireland’s most innovative artists. These include orchestral composer Brian Irvine and filmmaker John McIlduff of Dumbworld collaborating with students from Rice College Ennis on a new ‘Songbook’ composition which will result in an outdoor projection in the centre of Ennis town. Digital music composer Kerry Hagan and sonic arts researcher Nicholas Ward will create a generative sound installation entitled ‘Sounding Ennis’ composed of audio recordings made by the people of Ennis. 
Theatre director Peter Hussey of Crooked House Theatre Company with assistant director Oğuzhan Şahin (Turkey) and filmmaker Mohammed Farajalla (Jordan) will develop a series of intergenerational theatrical vignettes for film featuring members of the public, in association with Clare Age Friendly called ‘Milis’ (sweet). Percussion virtuosos Bangers & Crash will present their full scale Percussion Sextet, as an interactive concert engaging the public in the live performance. And finally, electronic sound artist Jürgen Simpson and dance artist/filmmaker Mary Wycherley will mentor a group of young people from Clare Youth Service Music Project on an exploration of electronic sound and visuals entitled ‘Clock’.
There are opportunities for the public to get involved in the creation of three of these events. Sounding Ennis is inviting local people of Ennis to send in audio recordings with a deadline of September 9 for submissions. In association with Clare Age Friendly Milis invites both older and younger members of the community to get involved in the creation of theatrical vignettes. Bangers and Crash Percussion Sextet invites the public to join them in a practice workshop ahead of their interactive concert. Go to www.pimafest.com to find out how to get involved.
Music Generation Clare is part of Music Generation, Ireland’s national music education programme that provides access to high quality, subsidised performance music education for children and young people, reaching over 2,000 children across all of our programmes every week. As part of a national network, Music Generation Clare is managed and funded locally by Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board, with key funding support coming from Clare County Council. To date, it has embedded a range of performance music education programmes in different genres and tuition contexts throughout Clare incl.: Creative Hub, Kids & Teens Ceol, North & East Clare Strings Programme, Youthreach Programme, The Irish Concertina Orchestra, 4 traditional groups, Harp Programme and 5 Instrumental Hubs.
