Last year I just missed out on the Africa Day festivities, discovering it a day too late in some obscure magazine or flyer. This year luckily, Africa Day has their own brochure which I have in front of me and the lovely Joerg Steegmueller also put a notice in the Dublin Event Guide about it too so I had no excuse to miss out this year 
On Sunday coming, 24th May, from 12pm til 8pm, Africa Day are having a FREE outdoor event in Iveagh Gardens in Dublin 2. There is a huge variety of entertainment on offer here for kids as well as adults.
“Visitors to ‘Africa Day @ Iveagh Gardens’ will be met by a lively and colourful scene: street performers, food sellers, dancers and hair braiders.
Children and adults alike can take part in fun and games, ranging from sports skills to extreme bungee trampoline, giant jigsaw games and drumming sessions. “
There promises to be a Culture Corner which will feature some spoken word performances, literary readings and short drama as well as an exhibition of African art and crafts, singing, dancing and instrumental workshops.
For the kids, a Kids Corner with a story-telling area (never mind the kids, I want to go to this myself!), face-painting (I know at least one adult who’ll want to visit the face-painters too) and other fun stuff like bracelet making.
Aside from these activities the most exciting event of the day has to be the free concert on the main stage in Iveagh Gardens. When would you ever get such an eclectic mix of artists on one stage at a free gig again?
Confirmed acts are Vieux Farka Touré; Cathy Davey; Kíla; Niwel Tsumbu; Liam O’Maoinlaí; Frances Black; Discovery Gospel Choir; Stone & Jezreel; Republic of Loose; Gardiner Street Gospel Choir and there are still others to be confirmed!
It’s a brilliant line up and I hope the weather holds for this, it will be a brilliant gig.
Officially, Africa Day is on 25th May, Monday, and is the official day of the African Union and the celebrations in Ireland are supported by Irish Aid, the Government’s overseas development programme. Although it’s called Africa Day, the celebrations are actually taking place over the whole month of May and, more than any other festival that I know of, the festivities are literally distributed all around the country in Dublin, Limerick, Cork, Derry, Galway, Kerry, Laois, Louth, Mayo, Meath, Monaghan, Sligo, Waterford, Wicklow and Wexford. So you have no excuse to miss out-wow!
If you want to get any more updates closer to Sunday, keep an eye on the ‘Latest News’ section on the Africa Day homepage or you can follow them on Twitter I’ll leave you with a video from Vieux Farka Touré:
Download Video with Vixy.net | YouTube to MP3: Vixy
I don’t know if anyone went along (I couldn’t due to a prior commitment) but reports suggest that the place was thronged with huge queues out along Harcourt Street to get into the tiny Iveagh Gardens- bigger venue needed next year I guess!
I heard it was absolutely brilliant, my flatmate had a great time! Shame I couldn’t make it either.
It was great, the place was absolutely mobbed though. I think they possibly hadn’t planned for the numbers, queues were crazy for beer and food. Great vibe though.
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