Our Patrons Our Sponsors Our Funders
How to Book Access Stay in Sligo
 

About Us

Inspired by the creative energy of Ireland’s Northwest, Cairde Sligo Arts Festival is a unique coming together of artists and audiences. It is a celebration of imagination and shared experience that welcomes all.

Cairde Sligo Arts Festival works across three main areas:
Festival Programme: We present an 8-day multidisciplinary arts festival each year in July across Sligo town and county in multiple venues, on the streets and in unique site-specific settings. Our next festival will be July 04 to 11, 2026.

Artist Development: We support artists through seed funding, residencies, commissions, and co-productions; the results of which are shared in the festival programme.

Community Engagement: We build long-term collaborations between artists and communities across Sligo where the results of collaborations are shared in the festival programme.

We collaborate with multiple local, national and international partners to transform Sligo into a cultural stage for extraordinary artistic encounters.

 

Festival Team

 

Director
Tara McGowan / director@cairdefestival.com

Festival Manager
Stéphanie Pawula / manager@cairdefestival.com

Communications & Development Manager
Cayla O’Carroll / communications@cairdefestival.com

Festival Production Manager
Barry McKinney / production@cairdefestival.com

Event Production Managers
Maurice Power and Hannah Dobson

Public Relations
Bowe Communications

Sound Engineers
Dickon Whitehead, Ray Duffy, Ray McAndrew, Luke Devaney and Thom Pitts

Event Technicians
Shane Larkin, George Gallagher and Pete Vamos

Exhibition Installer
Terry Markey

Transport
Gerry Ryan

Production Crew
Chan Kin, Alan Clarke, Rummy McCullagh, Tadhg Power, Valli Schäfer and Anika Baarhs

Artist Liaison
Juley Ann Collins

Volunteer Coordinators
Amy O’Hara and Sandy Porter

Festival Photographers / Film
Cían Flynn and Anna Leask

Festival Interns
Lorina Otto and Olusegun Ifade

Promenade Trainee Producers
Bernie McDonagh, Winnie Mongan and Winnie Stokes

Wandering Voices Curators
Chandrika Narayanan Mohan and Patrick Curley

Cairde Visual Committee 
Lizzie Kinsella, Bettina Seitz, Emma Stroude, Michael Wann and Steve Wickham

Thanks to our outgoing committee: Barra Cassidy, Cormac O’Leary, Heidi Wickham, Lorna Watkins and Marilin North

General Information: info@cairdefestival.com

 

Board of Directors

Chairperson: Mark Garry

Directors: Niall Henry, Lucia Macari, Jennifer O’Donovan and Elske Rahill

Company Secretary: Mark Willis

 

 Governance

Cairde Festival LTD is the registered trading name of Cairde Sligo Arts Festival.

Cairde Festival Ltd is a registered charity – CHY 18249. 

Cairde Festival Ltd keeps detailed financial records, maintains strict financial controls and is transparent in its audited financial statements. The most recent statement of audited accounts (2016) are available through the Charity Regulatory Authority here. Cairde Festival accounts are compliant with the Statement of Recommended Practice for charities and not-for profit entities as (SORP), which is currently accepted as best practice in Ireland. The organisation complies with all regulatory requirements and operates in accordance with its memorandum of association.

We are committed to good governance and have embarked on the journey of compliance with The Governance Code.

Cairde Festival Ltd is committed to comply with The Principles of Good Fundraising and to achieving the standards contained within the Statement of Guiding Principles for Fundraising in order to ensure full transparency to all our donors.

Downloads

Contact Us