Whetting the Arts Festival appetite – eight months ahead of schedule!

Groove Tube with Cian O’Connell

It may be eight months away, but hype is building around the Galway International Arts Festival with the recent announcements of several headliners for the Big Top in 2020.  Possibly it’s with a view to people buying tickets for Christmas – or maybe it’s a way of whetting the appetite for the GIAF contribution to Galway’s year as European Capital of Culture.

Whichever, the GIAF team have delivered, with an appropriate cast of internationally acclaimed musicians – some new, some returning and some almost part of the Fisheries Field landscape.

Running from July 13 to 26, the festival will once again prove to be the city’s standout annual arts programme.

The first name on the Big Top bill was Pixies, one of the most influential alternative rock bands of the late 1980s. Revered by both Bono and Kurt Cobain (who claimed to have stolen their riffs), Pixies moulded their ‘loudquietloud’ sound with intricate musicality and a willingness to hop across all manner of styles and genres.

As already seems to be the theme of the GIAF 2020 musical line-up, their act is diverse. Pixies’ set is said to change on a nightly basis and that will be put to the test in July.

Such was the excitement around the initial announcement, and the subsequent, immediate sale of all tickets, GIAF have added the band for an unprecedented second night in the Big Top. Pixies will play Thursday and Friday of the first week – tickets that remain are available for €52.50.

Returning to Galway after a year’s break is one of the most talked about acts in recent arts festival history, The Flaming Lips.

Known as one of the best live bands on the planet, the experimental, psychedelic rock group delivered on their reputation in July of 2018. Those who didn’t attend the gig were subjected to the plethora of photos and videos that were scattered across social media for the proceeding week.

With an endless supply of confetti and bizarre balloons, the night offered an unrivalled, immersive energy from start to finish.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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