26 – 29 May 2011

Founded in 2007, ‘Dublin City Soul Festival ~ a celebration of peace, unity & love‘ is Ireland’s feel-good festival, a unique annual celebration built by a dedicated group of people living and working in Dublin. Now in its 5th year, the Soul Festival is a shining example of what can be achieved when passionate, like-minded individuals come together united under a common bond to create a vibrant, multi-cultural and positive festival celebrating what’s best about Ireland and the Irish People – our world renowned ‘Céad míle fáilte’ (a hundred thousand welcomes)!

It started out as one man’s dream but has been brought to life by the passion, dedication and commitment of so many soulful individuals who contribute their free time to present the Dublin City Soul Festival as a gift to the people of Ireland and all those who choose to visit our shores.

While the majority of Soul Festival events are free for you to enjoy, we hope you will be kind and make a donation BIG or small to our charity, the ‘Musical Youth Foundation‘.By making a donation you’ll be ensuring we can continue to make a real and lasting difference to the lives of children living in Ireland. Find out more about the MYF here!

The Musical Youth Foundation was born in 2007 and officially established in 2009 as part of the Dublin City Soul Festival project and is the brainchild of the festival founder and CEO Chris Maher. At the heart of the project is a deep desire to have a long-term positive impact on the local and wider community by providing children with access to a musical education.

For information on any of the exciting events taking place during the Dublin City Soul Festival click here and get ready to ‘Experience the feeling’ !


Check out the Soul Festival House Band ~ The Dynes

What is now the Screen Cinema first opened its doors as The Regal. That was demolished in 1962 only to be rebuilt as the New Metropole a decade later. In 1984, the New Metropole was acquired by Ward Anderson and renamed the Screen.

At this point the Screen began to focus on alternative content the likes of which Irish audiences had never seen and thus it became Dublin’s original arthouse cinema. The Screen established a following as it became known for finding more obscure independent and foreign-language films that might not have been screened elsewhere in Dublin, while also playing host to the Jameson Dublin Film Festival since its inception.

More recently, the Screen has become an all-digital cinema which has the dual advantage of playing the best of independent film while also celebrating classic cinema so that film lovers may re-watch their old favourites or indeed witness them for the first time on the big screen.

The Screen is currently Dublins leading cinema for "event cinema" screenings and certainly the most creative cinema with its choice of retrospective screenings. We pride ourselves on showcasing films of all genres and tastes from cult to high-culture. In the past two years, special screenings have ranged from classics such as Casablanca and All About Eve to last summers hugely successful The Goonies Pirate Party and the annual Scream Cinema Halloween Monster Mash.

Welcome to the 2011 Dublin Dance Festival!

A major focus in DDF 2011 will be the work of Asian choreographers, both those still living in their countries of origin as well as several who were born abroad or have emigrated. There is a continuum, with tradition at one end and cutting-edge at the other, along which these artists’ work can be placed. Several choreographers — including Mugiyono Kasido (Indonesia), Balbir Singh (U.K.) and Yasuko Yokoshi (Japan/US) draw significantly on traditional forms in the creation of their work. The work of others — including Emmanuelle Vo-Dinh (France) and Hiroaki Umeda (Japan) — has almost no link to traditional practice. Cloud Gate and Eiko & Koma might be seen as falling somewhere near the mid-point of the range.

In addition to the Asian artists, you will see some new and old friends, including Jérôme Bel, José Navas and Jodi Melnick, among the 21 artists/companies from 10 countries who will perform over 16 days in 6 Dublin city venues to make up Dublin Dance Festival’s 7th edition. We are eager to share their work with you and encourage you to meet them both on and offstage – at master classes, discussions, panels, workshops, receptions and at the Festival Club at Project Bar. We’re thrilled to announce new partnerships with Grand Canal Theatre, IMMA, the Contemporary Music Centre, and the Centre for Creative Practices for DDF 2011. Such partnerships greatly enrich the Festival’s offerings. Please join us on our opening weekend for Bumper 2 Bumper, the headphone disco, this year in the courtyard at IMMA, to dance the night away as a warm-up for the ensuing two weeks! And don’t miss the 3,000kg of rice surrounding Cloud Gate’s Songs of the Wanderers at the Grand Canal Theatre on Thursday, May 26.

DDF 2011 will be my final Festival in Dublin, so I’d like to take this chance to thank everyone who has worked tirelessly over the last four years to shape DDF as it has grown and evolved, and to acknowledge the generosity of our Board, funders and supporters, particularly the Arts Council. I would also like to thank you, our audience members, for sharing the Festival buzz with us and for celebrating the work of the artists DDF is so proud to present each year. I hope to return to future festivals to experience a different slice of the contemporary dance world with you.

A parting request, if you love dance like we do, I urge you to become a Festival Friend, a particularly needed boost to sustain DDF through these times. You will reap the benefits, at every level. And, as always, have fun, take a chance and be curious!

Laurie Uprichard
Director