As the countdown to the longest day of the year on Sunday 21 June gets under way, dancers, musicians and performers have been busy in Cork, building up to the summer solstice with the Cork Midsummer Festival.
Called 'Time to Play', the theme of this year's festival is being brought to life with a wide-ranging programme of events on offer on and off the city's streets.
One of the highlights of the festival's programme is the dance/theatre show '1975/Naoi Déag Seachtó Cúig' on mainstage at the Cork Opera House.
This is the latest production from choreographer Michael Keegan Dolan's Teaċ Daṁsa where he brings together a company of dancers to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first album from celebrated Irish traditional and folk music group The Bothy Band.
"This show, Naoi Déag Seachtó Cúig or 1975 is inspired by, and based on the first Bothy Band album," Mr Keegan Dolan said.
He said that the band's original line up of musicians, Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill, Micheál Ó Domhnaill, Donal Lunny, Paddy Keenan, Tommy Peoples, and Matt Malloy - who all played on that first Bothy Band release - were a "source of inspiration to my family and to me when I was a young fella, and 50 years after that, I decided it was time to have a look at what that kind of meant, and make it into this dance".
The Teaċ Daṁsa company is known for its creative flair
The Teaċ Daṁsa company has garnered acclaim for its ambitious and creative shows and has gathered a loyal following over the years.
Mr Keegan Dolan explained how Cork Midsummer Festival director Lorraine Maye had asked his company to perform at the festival this year, and said that as "Cork is really important to us because we live out in West Kerry, so it's like a cultural hub for us," they were delighted to respond with this show.
He said that the company particularly enjoys performing at events like this "because the philosophy, or the feeling at a festival, is really good and it's great to be part of this".
"The invitation to the audiences to come to our shows is important as theatre can't exist without an audience," he said, adding, "I love dancing in my bedroom on my own, but there's something else to be dancing in front of 1,000 or 2,000 eyes".
Choreographer Michael Keegan Dolan said theatre can help ease the pressures of humanity
"I think we are living in difficult times, where humanity is kind of under assault from all sort of directions and I think theatre is a place where we can assuage some of those pressures, anxieties and fears," he said.
In a theatre, he said "ultimately we can become this kind of one united connected group of people and that connection is fundamental to the work I'm interested in making at the moment".
'Something for everyone' to enjoy at festival
For Lorraine Maye, who is the director of the Midsummer festival, the theme of 'Time to Play' is central to the programme they have lined up.
The festival is a "really brilliant mix of international Irish and Cork artists, bringing a world of art to Cork, and there's something for everyone in all ages to enjoy," she said.
The festival, which started on 12 June, is building up for the solstice and programme highlights for this weekend will "celebrate the high point of summer with the longest day on Sunday and it includes the giant crazy artistic céilí at the Elizabeth fort on Barrack Street at 9pm to mark the solstice", Ms Maye said.
"You can dance to wacky waltzes, or rave to reels on the longest day of the year," she said.
Another highlight on this year's programme is being staged in "an unexpected place," Ms Maye added.
She said The Everyman has chosen to set its new production in "the disused swimming pool" at the bottom of the Metropole Hotel for its production of playwright Mark Ravenhill's 'Pool, (No Water)'.
Evanna Lynch is part of the cast of 'Pool, (No Water)'
Mark Ravenhill is one of Britain's leading contemporary playwrights and the 2006 play tells the story of four friendships, exploring jealousy, ambition and the corrosive nature of making art.
Actress Evanna Lynch, who first came to prominence playing Harry Potter's classmate Luna Lovegood in the films, is one of the four members cast in this show.
Standing at the empty pool's edge, she said that "my first question when I got offered this role was 'You do know I can't swim?' and they said 'Don't worry, it’s a pool with no water, so that made it ok".
The empty pool setting was chosen by Des Kennedy, artistic director of The Everyman.
The Metropole hotel is situated "just next door to The Everyman, so it just all worked out really perfectly," Ms Lynch said.
"The audience can stand or sit on benches in the disused pool as we run around the place, climbing in and out of the pool to tell this story," she said. "It's certainly exciting."
Other shows that are taking to stages this weekend include: 'The Lost Tapes of Lydia Howell' in Stack Theatre at the Cork School of Music, and the award-winning circus spectacle at Cork…
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