TBCT’s year of non-stop culture

Our Temple Bar Cultural Trust (TBCT) events programme has finished for 2009 and what a success it was. The number of visitors who came out and joined us at our TBCT events doubled in 2009 from15,000 visitors in 2008 to 30,000 in 2009 and this is excluding Culture Night which attracted 152,000!

This April saw a whole range of events throughout Temple Bar and across the city to celebrate Handel and his Dublin connections, paying particular attention to the 250^th anniversary of his death. We are sure the jam-packed streets, concert halls, churches and ships would have made GF Handel very proud!

Midsummer in Temple Bar was a bit of a wet day in Dublin (no surprises there!) but, thanks to the magical festivities on Meeting House Square, spirits were not dampened. The longest day of the year was celebrated with fire, feasting and film on Meeting House Square that appeared like never before as it was covered in grass for one day only!

There were plenty of belly laughs and fun at the Temple Bar Circus Festival this July when the streets and spaces of Temple Bar echoed with peals of laughter and gasps of amazement while visitors experienced the biggest Circus Festival in Temple Bar to date.

In September, thousands of Irish people and visitors to the country came out to experience Culture Night and they were not disappointed with more than 120 venues opening their doors with free events for the public in Dublin and 10 other towns, cities and counties across the country getting involved for the largest late night cultural event this year.

Choc-a-block is the only word to describe our weekend-long Temple Bar Chocolate Festival that took place throughout Temple Bar in October. All events were fully booked and thoroughly enjoyed by people wanting to get stuck into all things chocolatey!

On behalf of all the team at TBCT, we would like to thank you all for your support in 2009 and for choosing a TBCT cultural event this year. We look forward to seeing you all next year for another year of cultural discovery.  A full programme of events will be announced in January so be sure to keep in touch with us.  In the meantime, if you have any suggestions or if you’d like to share some ideas with us, please do at feedback@templebar.ie.

Fanzini Brothers make people laugh for a living

Fanzini Brothers are once again performing at the Dublin Circus Festival in Temple Bar this year and they are really looking forward to it! Gather round, gather round and witness the heroes of the Irish Circus scene ramp through a burning ring of fire on miniature bicycles, juggle knives and pass fire down their trouser legs!

Would you believe their biggest thrill is the unexpected! When they perform just about anything can happen as their show is all about interacting with their audience. The most random things happen in shows and it’s all about seizing that opportunity and going with chance occurrences. That for them is where the magic lies. The Fanzini Brothers expect all sorts of reactions from the audience this year at the Dublin Circus Festival. They expect their crowd to tune in to what they are saying and doing, interact with the show and suspend disbelief just enough to let the magic happen!

They explain that for them, the uniqueness of Irish circus is the audience and their willingness to put up with the surprising weather conditions to see a street circus show and what better way to wow the outdoor audience than here on Meeting House Square and other Temple Bar public spaces. They describe a fantastic connection between the audiences and the performer as the audiences are a little wilder and have more in common with the performer than elsewhere!

Come along this July and instead of being astonished as the Fanzini Brothers perform, let’s astonish them!