Our biennale féile/festival, looks to exploring themes of repair, care, maintenance and healing in contemporary society.The next edition of the festival will take place in 2024, with specific dates forthcoming.

Background

The first edition of the féile explored the thematic “Caring for Repairing”. Held in Kilbeggan, Westmeath in 2022 the festival or féile (in Irish). Key activities included the launch of a “Repair Declaration” for the county with an accompanying debate that brought multiple key stakeholders together to discuss the future of who the county could become more repair-centred.

The world première of our documentary ‘Turning the Collar’, with daily live music, performances, demos and workshops. Discussion on mending and fixing, that covered topics such as smart agriculture and computer repair, bike mending, creating and fixing a dry stone wall, lace making, toy repair, woodland, bio-diversity and build environment restoration.

“Caring for Repairing” emerged from an intensive year, long project Repair Acts, Ireland that was carried out in collaboration with with Dr. Alma Clavin, Department of Geography, University College Dublin, Westmeath County Council and a team of researchers, architects, artists, designers and community partners, including Men Shed, Mullingar.