Hearth welcomes you to the festival with engaging song and dance presented in the main foyer. We invite you to gather around the fire as our ancestors have for ages to enjoy global artists as they perform pieces that reflect memories of home. The event will also feature an open mic opportunity for the audience to share their own talents.
Sign up for the open mic will be available the day of the event at The Inbetween.
Collective Moments is a participatory visual art event, taking place on the main stage of Cork Opera House.
Audience members will step onto the stage and become co-creators. Guided by a lead artist, participants contribute memory-inspired gestures that accumulate into an evolving artwork. Over six hours, individual expressions merge into a collective composition. The project reframes the stage as a space of shared authorship, challenging traditional performer–audience boundaries. Ephemeral by design, the work privileges experience over object, positioning participation, presence, and memory at the centre of artistic practice.
Out of the Attic is a unique literary experience, offering a variety of ways for audience members to explore memory through the written word.
With the aim of prompting reflection and a sense of connection with the past and others, we invite you to join us on an immersive journey through time. Start by getting lost in the beautiful letters crafted by local artists, engage with a personalised poem done by our talented writers and be transported to a home away from home.
Memory Lane is a guided artistic experience through five backstage dressing rooms of the Cork Opera House, each transformed into an individual artistic environment.
The project explores memory and retrospect as a framework for reflecting on experiences of growing up. Artists are invited to interpret personal memories such as childhood, adolescence, or significant formative moments, either literally or through abstraction and ambiguity. While each room functions as a standalone work, the collective experience forms a cohesive journey through shared themes of remembrance, reflection, and personal history.
Trisco is the closing event of the Retrospect Arts Festival. We will transform the Blue Angel bar into a space for celebration when old meets new. Trisco aims to combine traditional Irish music with modern electronic music. The event will feature live Trad musicians collaborating with a DJ, as well as projections of digital art.
We invite everyone to a celebration where memory meets the dance floor.
Sonder is an Audio Visual Interactive Installation that explores “the realisation that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own”.
The piece invites visitors to step into that feeling, using layered audios, visuals and responsive design to create this immersive experience. Shortlisted for the 2025 IDI Graduate Design Awards in the category of Digital Design.
Designed by MTU Creative Digital Media graduates: Adam Turner, Eadaoin McNamara, Eoghan Sheehan and Tomas Russell.