NEST Festival Week - 48 Performances in 1 Week for Young Audiences

Team #NEST is still on a high after our final performances on Saturday night, 16th March 2024.

A project that was 2 years in the making that culminated in the #SpreachaSoarFestival from 11-16 March 2024. We were honoured to have Maureen Kennelly with us on Saturday night, Director of the Arts Council. Thank you for your wonderful words as always, and high praise for Draíocht. Thanks to everyone who came along, we were all hugged out and full of huge joy by close of business!

"Our policy, and our support for incredible initiatives such as the NEST project at Draíocht, is a call to action for all of us to continue to work together so that the arts can have a transformative impact on children and young people’s lives.

Draíocht is a real exemplar in this area and is a pioneering leader in children and young people’s arts provision. You have always ensured that your programming is responsive to your community, which includes a high proportion of children and young people. You have had your Children’s Charter on the wall even before we started asking about it. And it is wonderful today to see the faces of Dublin 15 children and young people across both your galleries – something they had suggested would be a good idea when asked for their input!

NEST is like a process of osmosis, whereby artistic expression enters the very walls, streets, bricks and mortar and the minds of all who encounter these works, which will be enriched and influenced and often changed by that experience. The work of Draíocht continues to give us all a storehouse of memories that we can reach for when we want or need to.

On evenings like this it is more resonant than usual to recall why this fine arts centre is called Draíocht, the beautiful Irish word for magic and through NEST you have spilled magic into dozens of homes and created magical memories for 1000s of people.

Long may you continue to make miracles and magic happen here.

This is a night to celebrate with the young people who have given us their stories and are such a central part of NEST, with all the artists and technical and admin wizards who brought it to life, with the other funders who recognized the vision behind it and with you the audience here this evening who will bring NEST home and make it your own.

Huge thanks to Emer for her tenacity and vision and energy – this is an immense achievement, and it is a source of great pride for the Arts Council to be able to support you all here at Draíocht."

NEST is based on HOME THEATRE, an original idea by Marcus Vinicius Faustini (Brazil) and Kerry Kyriacos Michael (UK). Draíocht’s iteration, HOME THEATRE (Ireland), took place in 2018.

NEST is funded by ART: 2023, a Decade of Centenaries Collaboration between The Arts Council and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

#DecadeOfCentenaries #Art2023 #NEST #SpreachaSoarFestival