A Recap: 2020 Mother Tongues Festival
“I’ve never seen my child so engaged”
“I hardly ever have the opportunity to use my first language and that’s all I’ve spoken today!”
“I was so nervous to come here on my own and I’ve actually just made a new friend”
WOW!!!
These are just a sample of the many words overheard by the hundreds of children, parents, couples and friends that took part in our 2020 Mother Tongues Festival this weekend and they really struck a chord with us.
From the very beginning in 2018, the Mother Tongues Festival’s mission has been to promote the many languages and cultures that exist in Ireland through the magic of art. Each year, we aim to provide a space where communities can connect, where families can share their languages outside of the home, where people can learn and be exposed to new or familiar languages and where everyone’s Mother Tongue feels heard.
To witness the many smiles, the laughter between friends, the excited looks on people’s faces as they connected with others in their mother tongue and the feelings of pride when someone stepped out of their comfort zone by trying something new, means that to us the weekend was a huge success and we fulfilled our mission.
Some Highlights
“I loved everything about the festival and felt I was finally an Irish citizen, because the people wanted to know my story and experience my African culture as well.”
Kelvin Akpaloo, Dancer
Over the 3 day festival, we hosted over 40 events across 20 different languages with artists, performers and professionals from all across the globe including India, Germany, Russia, Poland, Italy, Turkey, Guadalupe, Spain, France, Taiwan, Japan just to name a few!
Each and every event played a part in making the festival a success but here are just a few of our favourite moments that we managed to capture throughout the weekend…
We will share loads of photographs of every single event in the upcoming weeks.
If you took part in our 2020 festival, we’d love to hear your personal highlight! Please share your experience in the comments below!
Thank You! Grazie, merci, gracias, obrigados, mulțumesc, danke, go raibh maith agat, teşekkürler, shukran, tak, xie xie, sukria, dziekuje…
We are so filled with love and gratitude for everyone who supported us and made this festival possible.
A MASSIVE thank you to…
- Our Venues: We are extremely grateful to Rua Red, the Civic Theatre, Tallaght Library and Draíocht for believing in our project and making it happen in Tallaght & Blanchardstown.
- Our Sponsors, Funders & Partners: We are so honoured to have been granted funding to pursue our dream and the many sponsors, funders and partners that have come on board this year have allowed us to make it an even more special event! We are very grateful to the Arts Council, South Dublin County Council, RTE Supporting The Arts, Languages Connect, AIB, St. Kilian’s Deutsche Schule in Dublin, Goethe Institut, Ambassade de France en Irlande, Embassy of the Republic of Poland, Poetry Ireland, Tallaght Community Arts, Taipei Representative Office in Ireland, Flam, Multilingual Matters, Dublin School of Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese Language Centre.
- Our Artists & Performers: Thank you for bringing our festival to life with your incredible art. We are so grateful that you chose to be a part of our festival.
- Our Volunteers: Hosting a 3-day festival is no easy feat and we could not have done it without our incredible group of volunteers.
- Our Attendees: Without YOU, the festival couldn’t have gone ahead. Thank you to each and every person who bought tickets, booked in for an event, participated and shared their precious time with us.
We are oh so grateful for you all!
Now… who’s ready for 2021?!
Are you an artist, performer or facilitator?
WOULD YOU LIKE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE MOTHER TONGUES FESTIVAL 2021?
You can already submit your expression of interest!
Fill in the form with as many details as possible. We will contact all the applicants in September.
Thanks!