“Radiates warmth and glows with inspiration, Long may it shine!” Melissa Harrison
The Shaking Bog had a very busy autumn, presenting a ‘live’, action-packed festival that was filled to the brim with a stellar line-up of writers, artists, musicians and naturalists. And now we are very pleased to be launching our new podcast – a Festival edition – that takes a look back at what happened over that magical weekend and hopefully reflects something of the very special energy and spirit of the programme. We invite you to download the podcast here.
Poetry lay at the heart of the festival and this was most clearly manifested in the astonishing poets who read for us – Liz Berry, Nuala ní Dhomhnaill, Nell Regan, Michael Longley, Alice Oswald and Nell Regan. But poetry was also delicately embedded in the prose of diverse writers such as Dara McAnulty, Melissa Harrison, Kerrí ní Dochartaigh as well as in the stunning art works of Joe Hogan and Joe Wilson, the wonderful music of Mary Coughlan, Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Paddy Glackin, Lisa Lambe and John McLoughlin and the extraordinary films of Éamon de Buitléar.
Nature was the star of the festival, providing a magnificent backdrop to all our events as well as the inspiration for so much of the work that was read and shared. But there was also an array of opportunities for immersive experiences with expert naturalists who offered a wide variety of different nature trails and workshops for all ages.
We hope that the new podcast – a montage of highlights from the festival – will offer some sustenance over these cold winter months whilst offering some fond memories to those who were lucky enough to attend or new insights to those who couldn’t be there.
The intimacy of The Shaking Bog brings with it a quality of connection and interconnection that seems to strike a resounding chord with people and at the same time deepen our understanding of the natural world and each other. Most of all, the hunch we had to begin with – that hope lies at the juncture where art and nature meet – has indeed proven to be the case. People seemed genuinely ‘bowled over’ by the experiences they had at the festival and Michael Longley expressed this, as only a poet could, by saying that ‘a festival like this is what I think of as civilisation’ – thank you Michael.
Thank you too, to all our supporters and especially to our audiences and followers who have clambered aboard our vision and journeyed with us over this last year. Your support means the world to us.
And now, after this long cycle of work that culminated in our festival we are going into hibernation. During this time we hope that you will perhaps read some of the wonderful writers that we have featured and even take a moment to catch up with our podcasts.
We very much hope to see you in the spring and in the meantime we wish you all a warm and happy festive season.
Stay well and keep warm.
The Team at The Shaking Bog
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