City Hall considers new festival to celebrate the many cultures of Cork

City Hall is to consider a new multicultural festival to take place annually once the boundary extension has been completed.

Cllr Paudie Dineen is to bring the idea to Cork County Council’s tourism, arts and culture committee before it is discussed at full council in the coming weeks.

He believes it would allow an increasing multicultural Cork population to integrate by celebrating all cultures in the city and has proposed it takes place over a weekend in late summer.

“The idea comes from a trip to Liverpool for the Impact 18 conference which was made up of past Cities of Culture, of which Cork was one back in 2008,” he said.

“We haven’t done anything on the different cultures we have in our city today and I think it would be good to move forward with this when the new boundary comes into force from June.

“The city is home to so many new cultures and this could put them on a platform so people can see and we can gain an appreciation and understanding of where they come from and we can begin to accept the different nationalities in our city,“ he said.

“It will create friendships and a lot of bonding of who we share our city within modern Cork. It would express how supportive Cork is for multiculturalism.

“The idea would be to use the different plazas in the city centre, the Opera House, Daunt Square, Grand Parade, the GPO. There are loads of places where diasporas could set up and put on a showcase of who they are through music and song.

“The festival name should promote culture inclusiveness from the outset and would ideally run on a weekend over two to three days towards the end of summer.

“Deputising as Lord Mayor, I have seen how many cultures there are in the city. There are dozens and it would be great to celebrate them,” he added.

City Council already supports citySeaFest, Cork World Book Fest, Pride, iWish, Heritage Open Day, Culture Night, the Cork Lifelong Learning Festival and Glow.