Galway International Arts Festival announces 2025 programme

RTÉ News​

08-05-2025

The Galway International Arts Festival (GIAF) has officially launched its 2025 programme, revealing what organisers describe as their most ambitious line-up to date.
Running from 14–27 July, the two-week event will transform Galway city and county into a vibrant stage for theatre, music, circus, dance, visual arts, and public talks.
This year's programme boasts eight world premieres and festival commissions, including a major new opera, immersive theatre, and a large-scale visual art installation.
Standout performances include Sabotage, a daring new circus production by NoFit State, set in the NoFit State Big Top at Nimmo's Pier, promising "jaw-dropping" acrobatics, live music, and striking visuals.
Festival regulars Druid Theatre will celebrate their 50th anniversary with a double-bill featuring J.M. Synge's Riders to the Sea and Shakespeare's Macbeth, both directed by Tony Award-winner Garry Hynes, while Irish National Opera and composer Jennifer Walshe will debut Mars, a futuristic new opera that explores space, isolation, and technology.
GIAF 2025 also includes The Cave, a new black comedy by Kevin Barry, starring comedian Tommy Tiernan and produced by the Abbey Theatre, and Scorched Earth, a dance-theatre fusion from choreographer Luke Murphy delving into themes of ambition and legacy.
Another innovative production, Mikel Murfi's solo show Oh …, will be performed underwater at Galway Atlantaquaria, while The Baby's Room is the latest immersive theatre installation presented as part of an ongoing extraordinary series, Rooms, created by Enda Walsh and Paul Fahy.
As ever, visual art will play a prominent role at this year's GAF, led by UK artist David Mach, who returns with a major new installation Burning Down the House. Other exhibitions address themes such as ecology, climate change, and cultural memory, with works by Erin Lawlor, Richard Long, and Palestinian photojournalist Eman Mohammed among others.
Music lovers can expect a packed schedule at the Heineken Big Top and other city venues; headliners include Mogwai, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Natasha Bedingfield, Villagers, and violinist Mari Samuelsen performing with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. The festival will also celebrate local hero Mary Coughlan's 40th year in music with a very special performance.
The First Thought Talks series will return as GIAF's platform for public discourse. This year's speakers include U.S. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, journalists Fintan O'Toole, Róisín Ingle, and Lara Marlowe, and historians Diarmaid Ferriter and Phillips P. O'Brien. Discussions will cover a wide array of topics including political trauma, climate transition, and global conflicts.
In the streets, audiences can expect large-scale spectacles like Microcosmos, featuring a giant mechanical insect from Planet Vapeur, and Six, a high-energy performance by Canada's Flip Fabrique in Eyre Square.
Chief Executive John Crumlish described this year's event as "one large two-week celebration of the imagination," while Artistic Director Paul Fahy praised the festival's "transformative power" and collaborative spirit. "There is simply nowhere quite like Galway during the Festival," says Fahy, "the city offers a special magical atmosphere every July."