Púca Festival 2019
Ireland’s Ancient East
October 2019
Since ancient times, the time of year that the light turns to dark has been celebrated in Ireland. It is a moment in time when the rules can be broken as a cavalcade of Púca take to the streets, transforming the night into a playground. Taking in three towns, the festival built on Athboy’s existing Flame of Samhain event and created a new destination cultural tourism spectacular of food, folklore, flame and fun in Trim and Drogheda.
Curated Place delivered a spectacular event that made a step-change in concept and delivery to Halloween celebrations along the Boyne Valley, taking in three towns it created a new destination cultural tourism spectacular of food, folk-lore, flame and fun. Púca 2019 combined the best of the old with a celebration that was truly new, taking the deeply rooted and authentic experience of Samhain in Ireland’s Ancient East to new audiences in new places. Over Halloween the festival welcomed all to come together, immersing visitors in otherworldly experiences to reclaim the origins of Halloween. The festival featured stunning light installations and performers, playful interactives and awe-inspiring bespoke projections at ancient sites of Ireland’s Ancient East, and a new music festival across unique venues in County Meath and County Louth.
Curated Place with Fáilte Ireland created a new festival to celebrate the origins of Halloween from 31st October - 2nd November. We delivered a high quality destination experience to travelling visitors that made the best use of the existing assets of the region - helping build on the skills and people around the existing sites of Co. Meath & Co. Louth, businesses and projects whilst creating an expanded offer. Curated Place managed the development of 10 light installations, aerial & storytelling performances, 2 processions, and presented the inaugural music programme, featuring 10 renowned and also up-and-coming music acts from Ireland.
Programme Development
Working with Fáilte Ireland and our partners, the programme was developed and delivered ensuring ties to Ireland’s cultural heritage and strength. All of the programmed activity drew from our seasoned team’s experience across light festivals, music programming, outdoor theatre and strategic creative community. The town of Trim saw a spectacular light festival set around the stunning Trim Castle whilst supporting the development of the Boyne Valley Flavours Food Festival to ensure new visitors were met with a high-quality experiences of scale during both day and night. Our music programme delivered 3-nights of home-grown talent, featuring the likes of Jerry Fish, KORMAC with The Irish Chamber Orchestra, and showcasing the very best of Ireland’s new generation of music-makers. The festival was received by both locals and visitors with extreme positivity, and the family-friendly processions through the towns of Athboy and Trim gave the festival an ethos of dynamism and inclusivity to enjoy Halloween in a unique way.
ENGAGEMENT
Led by a team based in Dublin and supported by our international network of artists and performers experienced in delivering grand-scale events we worked with the community of Athboy to develop skills in fine art, costume making and carnival arts taking the Flame of Samhain processional event to a new level for Púca 2019.
Púca Festival 2019 was commissioned by Fáilte Ireland, Meath County Council and Louth County Council
