Over 400,000 people travelled to this year’s Galway International Arts Festival with record breaking attendance once again.
The two week extravaganza came to a close on Sunday night with a sold out concert from the Saw Doctors at the Heineken Big Top.
Among the top events, a stunning 13,379 attendees queued to see Patricia Piccinin’s ‘We Travel Together’ visual arts exhibit in the Festival Gallery on Saturday, July 20 alone.
Thousands more people enjoyed a weekend of free street events over the middle weekend of the festival, from acrobatics in Eyre Square with Les P’Tit Bras’ West Wind, to Planète Vapeur’s Pegasus, and GIAF’s entire visual arts programme, which is offered free of charge.
GIAF threw open its doors even further this year, with a suite of additional accessibility measures, including ISL interpreted and close captioned performances, a touch tour of the Festival Gallery and the provision of sensory backpacks, all of which proved extremely popular.
Galway International Arts Festival CEO John Crumlish said, “It was a privilege to present GIAF 2024 and, on behalf of us all, I would like to thank our audiences who attended in such numbers.”
“This was our biggest festival to date and we are very thankful to all those who came, those that supported us and all the great artists whose work made it all possible.”
Critics raved over the festival’s co-productions Reunion and Unspeakable Conversations. Reunion now goes onto Dublin Theatre Festival, with a run at the Gaiety from 8-13 October.
There were also five star reviews for Druid’s Endgame, with the world renowned Galway theatre company bringing their unique touch to Beckett.
Galway International Arts Festival Artistic Director Paul Fahy said, “We have had an extraordinary response from audiences and artists to this year’s Festival.”
“It is always such a thrill to present great art from Ireland and around the world in Galway and our artists loved performing and showing their work to such an appreciative, engaged and enthusiastic audience.”
“We are extremely grateful to all our artists, co-producers and partners for their incredible work once again this year.”
Galway International Arts Festival 2025 will take place from 14-27 July 2025.
