Macnas announces that after months of negotiations the Galway Arts Festival have made a decision not to programme the Macnas Parade due to financial reasons.

Macnas has presented parades in collaboration with Galway Arts Festival since 1987 and had been in discussions with the Festival to put a more realistic funding model for the annual parade in place. Galway Arts Festival’s cash contribution to the cash cost of staging Macnas parades in recent years was less than 10% of the 100K+ direct cost. Macnas have been absorbing 70% of the cash costs and the balance of cash expenditure being covered by Galway City Council’s contribution.  Macnas advised the Festival that this inequitable level of contribution could no longer be sustained and it threatened the continued existence of the company.

Macnas sought to secure a more fair and reasonable contribution from the Galway Arts Festival towards the costs of the annual Macnas Parade in July. Galway Arts Festival was unable to assist Macnas in sourcing alternative funders and eventually withdrew from negotiations.

Macnas regrets this turn of events but remains committed to staging a parade in Galway before the end of the year. The company is now exploring alternative ways to deliver this event by engaging with potential funders and stake holders. This further confirms Macnas’ commitment to the city and to the 26 year old tradition of presenting spectacle on the streets of Galway.

2013 has been a significant year to date for Macnas. In association with NUIG, BA degree in Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies the company has just delivered a module in street arts performance culminating in an “Out of Character” outdoor performance by their students on campus. This innovative programme certainly puts NUIG and Galway on the map as a centre of excellence for theatre studies and Macnas are very proud to be associated with this development.

Macnas continues to develop its Young Ensemble with Galway post-primary students as workshops take place each week in Fisheries Field. This talented group of young performers are in the process of developing an original performance piece entitled “Hunger” which they plan to preview to a small audience later in the month. This devised piece by the students will form part of a larger Macnas ensemble piece later in the year and is supported by Galway City Council.

Macnas has expanded its role as cultural ambassadors for Galway on the international cultural scene with shows in three different continents over a six week period, presenting shows in Australia, China and Russia. The company are also touring Ireland this year with its street show “The Cockroach and the Inventor”. In addition to this Macnas look forward to presenting new work in Galway city and county this year. Macnas acknowledges the financial support of the Arts Council, Culture Ireland and Galway City Council.

The recently debuted ‘Chaosmos’  will spread its wings to wow Russian audiences when the ethereal, magical, animalistic troupe perform at the request of the Irish Embassy, Moscow. It is Macnas’ second time performing for the Moscow St. Patrick’s Day Parade, having brought ‘Rumpus’ there last year. The company’s performance is supported by Culture Ireland as part of Ireland’s EU Presidency 2013.

Cork and Limerick will be tickled by the arrival of the Cockroach and the Inventor as they conjure up crazy inventions and molecular muddles, blow things up, bellow sounds and confuse themselves, creating wild happenings that range from the caustic to the hilarious! Cork St. Patrick’s Festival runs over the whole weekend with Macnas taking to the aptly-named Patrick Street for the parade on Saturday. Limerick St. Patrick’s Day Festival will host the company on Sunday as part of their festivities.

The well-travelled Boy Explorer continues his Quest for Brilliant Ideas Down Under with appearances at Brisbane St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Saturday 16th and Sydney’s Parade on Sunday 17th. This follows an appearance at  Peter Gabriel’s International Music and Arts Festival, WOMADelaide, in South Australia. Although he tested his sea legs on a trip to Scoil Ronáin on Inis Mór in December, this is the Boy Explorer’s first time going overseas and casting his net further afield and he is very, very excited about making new friends and meeting the many Irish who will no doubt be lining the sunny streets over St. Patrick’s weekend.

Don’t forget to check out our Facebook and Twitter pages for the liveliest of updates across all time zones. Happy St. Patrick’s Weekend everybody!

Twice a day, from 9th to the 15th February, the troupe wowed the hundreds of thousands who attended the Festival with their ethereal, alchemical guises and movements.

This year Ireland was awarded ‘Country of Honour’ by the Festival and with the support of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Culture Ireland, Macnas was invited to showcase Irish Street Theatre and celebrate Chinese New Year in an uniquely Macnas way. The performance caught the imagination of the revellers with its vivid and stunning costumes, bespoke imagery, stilting beasts, masked performers, suitcases, lotions, potions, a music box and a bag of curiosities.

Chaosmos is set for more international adventures when the company tours to Moscow on 14th March for the St. Patrick’s Day parade so stay tuned for more info!

The Boy Explorer is a 15ft high, eight year old boy who is on a quest to walk across Ireland asking children for brilliant ideas on how to make Ireland a better place to live.  He has already travelled to one school in the each province of Ireland collecting brilliant ideas which he keeps safe in his giant schoolbag and he now plans to continue his quest on Inishmore.

This Boy Explorer will be accompanied by dreamers, schemers, inventors, poets and imagineers from Macnas, Ireland’s pre-eminent street arts and Spectacle Company.  The Boy Explorer and his merry friends set sail from Rossaveel to Inishmore on the 6^th December where they will meet the pupils of Scoil Náisiúnta Ronáin. The pupils of the island have been eagerly preparing for his visit for the past few weeks by making gifts that will help him on his onward journey. These gifts include a cloak of hand-prints to keep him warm, words of encouragement to read on his quest and lanterns to guide his way and of course, most importantly of all – brilliant ideas from the children on how to make Ireland a better place!

To coincide with the Boy Explorer’s trip to Inishmore, Macnas is launching an interactive website so that everyone can follow his adventures. The website, www.theboyexplorer.com, will contain photos, brilliant ideas and a journal of the Boy’s quest with his latest adventure.

Noeline Kavanagh, Artistic Director, Macnas says, “this is a journey  to promote the vital role children’s ideas, art, and heart have as instruments of change in our lives and how crucial it is to value, encourage, and take these ideas on board. In this current climate, imagination is the only bridge by which we can move through the enormous space that separates us , where we have the chance of making ourselves known to each other again. In this way, art is social change and the brilliant ideas put forward by children remind us of this”.

The Boy Explorer has been amazed and so very grateful for all the ideas he has received from children all over the country.  He has high hopes for great happenings with all of these brilliant ideas and will present them on his brand new website, www.theboyexplorer.com. The Boy Explorer is conjuring up an exhibition of all of the brilliant ideas he has received.  Over the next 18 months he will go on adventures, visit other places and continue on his quest to gather a million trillion brilliant ideas.

‘Under the light of the moon a mistress and her merry wanderers spring along. Music, mayhem and frivolity fill the air. Their magic will cast a spell on the city and its inhabitants, who roam the streets looking for night-time adventures.’

 The Cockroach and the Inventor

A giant Cockroach Inventor and his troupe of imagineers arrive into town conjuring up a crazy invention filled with molecular muddles and bellowing sounds. Wild happenings occur that range from the caustic to the hilarious! Unpredictability fills the air along with smoke, silly contraptions, dustbin lids and a genius apparatus that will tickle, tease and literally capture the audience.

Both shows takes place at the Civic Amphitheatre which is accessed from Fishamble Street. Tickets are free and are available to collect in person from the ABSOLUT Fringe Box Office at Filmbase only. Max 4 tickets per booking. It is not possible to book these tickets online. For more information see www.fringefest.com.

The troupe will be traveling to Moscow as guests of the Embassy of Ireland in Russia with the support of Culture Ireland, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Galway Development Service International. The average daytime temperature in Moscow for March is zero degrees but Macnas are happy to brave the chills of the Russian capital to thrill audiences.

Artistic Director of Macnas, Noeline Kavanagh says, “It is so exciting that Macnas are going to be in Moscow on March 17th and we are very proud to be performing at this event. It gives us an opportunity to represent Irish street arts in an invigorating way and we would like to thank everyone involved in making this happen.”

The company’s performance in Russia is, in fact, just one of three St. Patrick’s Day performances for Macnas – the company have two separate shows in the Dublin St. Patrick’s Day Festival. Macnas will perform Melodican with a cast of over 70 as part of the main parade at 12pm on St. Patrick’s Day which typically attracts a live audience of over 400,000. The theme of this parade is Science and Invention. The third show is a street show, The Cockroach and the Inventor which will be appearing and disappearing on the streets of Dublin city on both Saturday and Sunday afternoon during the festival.

St. Patricks Day marks the beginning of an exciting year for Macnas with performances at Galway Arts Festival, Dublin Fringe Festival, the Body & Soul Festival, the Durham Festival in the UK along with an Irish Tour of their new street show Rumpus.



With a story led by a Mistress of invention featuring Macnas’s dramatic large scale images, live music, fiery landscapes and stunning performances by the Macnas troupe, this outdoor spectacle promised to be low and divine, soiled and sublime. Misfits and navigators, poets, punks and mystics growl at the moon, unbind darkness and rediscover the pulp and sinew of innocence.

Macnas unveils the communication of the future, catch a glimpse of new universes as imaginers, conjurers, philosophers and inventors stagger, stalk, rip, roar and wrangle their way through a world caught in the act of becoming. In this ugly, pretty life be amazed, terrified and tremble and awake to the creation of a new work on the edge of things.

After the incredible success of Macnas’s performance at last years ABSOLUT Fringe this one night only spectacle promises to be magical and haunting in equal measure. It is a free event however it is ticketed and tickets can be collected at the ABSOLUT Fringe Box Office in Filmbase from Wednesday August 17th until 6pm Saturday September 10th, subject to availability. A limited number of tickets will also be available at the museum until 5pm Friday September 9th.

Macnas are helping this very special Boy Explorer meet with and gather ideas from children in a number of schools across the country. Macnas invited a number of schools around the country to be part of this unique and exciting project and the Boys visit to Gaelscoil Ultain marks the final leg of his school visits for this term.

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