Kilkenny Arts Festival: Rollercoaster Sessions will deliver a series of musical twists
Gary Kehoe on some musical highlights to look foward to with the Rollercoaster Sessions
Kilkenny Arts Festival is undoubtedly a highlight of our year, and we are particularly excited to work again with the incredible team at Kilkenny Arts Festival.
David Murphy, Niamh Regan, Gary O’Neill, our old friend Rozi Plain and the Rollercoaster DJ team of Davy Holland, Edel Crean and Barry Mullins feature as part of the Rollercoaster Sessions.
When Olga suggested Rollercoaster begin a collaboration with Kilkenny Arts Festival in late 2018 we started a journey which has brought many artists to Kilkenny.
One of the incredible opportunities the Kilkenny Arts Festival has afforded Rollercoaster is to showcase some of the artists on our record label to a wider audience. One of the most memorable was Arborist in 2019 with a collaboration with the Arco Quartet.
Warm crowd
“The Rollercoaster Sessions at Kilkenny Arts Festival provided a platform to try something original for a brand new audience,” said Arborist. “I reimagined the songs for a string quartet and couldn’t have been happier with how it was received by a warm attentive crowd.”
It’s been particularly gratifying to see Arborist’s upward trajectory since that concert in 2019, scoring for film and winning the Northern Ireland Music Prize for Best Album in 2023. We released David Murphy’s unique and acclaimed record titled Cuimhne Ghlinn - Explorations in Irish Music for Pedal Steel Guitar in April of this year and we are looking forward to staging the first full ensemble presentation of the work In Cleere’s Theatre on Friday.
In the past few years, we’ve witnessed many memorable performances and moments at the festival - Cathal Coughlan’s two sets in Cleere’s Theatre, Phillip Selway strolling down Parliament Street and the astonished faces of a group of fans from Mexico City who had flown here for his one-off show. Only in Kilkenny.
Artists love coming to this city: the knowledgeable and attentive audience, the care and attention of the festival team and the beautiful spaces where they get to showcase that art.
We’re really looking to Johann Johannson’s Drone Mass in St Canice’s Cathedral, a mesmerising piece of music, This Is The Kit at St Canice’s and the Phillip Glass programme and so much more!