On 24th February we celebrated UNESCO International Mother Language Day and the first birthday of Mother Tongues with a Festival of languages.
The idea for the first Mother Tongues Festival started over coffee during a sunny afternoon in August 2017 and, as the project developed, we discovered that many artists were very keen to be involved in a project aimed at celebrating language.
More than 300 people attended the festival, which took place at the Outhouse, on 105 Capel Street, and all events were well attended.
From the first chat about our plans, we knew that this idea would be new to the Festival scene and we often wondered whether people would want to take part and whether funders and potential sponsors would believe in our project. We soon realized that many people loved the idea and we received great support from many organizations and individuals, who kept encouraging us along the way.
What made the festival really unique was the possibility to take part in art, music, drama and science workshops in over 10 different languages. In each class native speakers of the language used by the workshop leader worked together with language learners and people who had never heard the language before. What was really interesting was to see people of all ages and nationalities walk into a class led in a completely new language. This is what really showed us that the project worked.
Our festival allowed people to connect through language and diversity did not represent a barrier, but rather a reason to get together and celebrate.
More than 300 people attended the festival, which took place at the Outhouse, on 105 Capel Street, and all events were well attended.
From the first chat about our plans, we knew that this idea would be new to the Festival scene and we often wondered whether people would want to take part and whether funders and potential sponsors would believe in our project. We soon realized that many people loved the idea and we received great support from many organizations and individuals, who kept encouraging us along the way.
What made the festival really unique was the possibility to take part in art, music, drama and science workshops in over 10 different languages. In each class native speakers of the language used by the workshop leader worked together with language learners and people who had never heard the language before. What was really interesting was to see people of all ages and nationalities walk into a class led in a completely new language. This is what really showed us that the project worked.
Our festival allowed people to connect through language and diversity did not represent a barrier, but rather a reason to get together and celebrate.
We already look forward to the next year Mother Tongues Festival!
We want to thank once again all our funders, partners and sponsors:
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