The Creative Connexions Ireland: Sitges 2023 Festival will celebrate its tenth edition from October 26 to 29, while maintaining the aim of uniting Catalan and Irish cultures. Over four days, the event will bring together more than 200 artists, including 60 Irish musicians, and program 60 music, dance, theater and art performances.
For this year's edition, the competition will have the Societat Recreativa El Retiro as its main venue. In addition to the concerts, the program also highlights the 'Festival Parade' (which will tour the main streets of Sitges from La Fragata on Friday 26 October from 5pm) and the 'Sitges Sessions', a dynamic youth program featuring 150 young Irish artists who will travel this years to Sitges.

Music poster

This year's musical line-up will be very special, as all the invited artists have performed there before. The program highlights the performance of Irish blues singer Mary Coughlan presenting The Billie Holiday Story; singer, pianist, composer and performer Jack O'Rourke (winner of the 2019 BBC Lifetime Achievement Award, for his contribution to folk music); the singer Cathy Jordan; violinists Mossie Martin, Claire Sherry, Paul Kelly and Oleg Ponomarev; Dubliner Ian Drew with The Legends of Irish Folk; and from the Sitges music scene, Joan Pinós, among others.

Other highlights include a new Irish composition by Tim Doyle, the energetic dance event Call to the Dance (Els Jardins d'El Retiro), the return of COR Nua - A Celtic & World Music Choral Event and the dynamic folk orchestra NoCrows – a unique group with diverse musical roots, from traditional Irish music, Latin rumba and classical, rock, jazz and Balkan music. Balkans.

Some of the activities planned during the festival are offered free of charge. On the event website www.creative-connexions.eu you can consult the program and you can also buy tickets or go directly to the entrance of each of the concerts.

Creative Connections Festival

The Festival Creative Connexions Ireland: Sitges' 2023 is organized by Artscope (an organization specializing in the organization of Celtic music festivals in Ireland and abroad and in the cultural promotion of their country) and is supported by Culture Ireland, the Tourism Department of the City Council from Sitges and the Irish Embassy in Madrid. In addition, the event generates an economic impact in the city as it will attract around 1,500 Irish people, many of whom extend their stay until Monday, October 30, as that day is a national holiday in their country.