Spraoi International Street Arts Festival is set to return to Waterford this summer. The much-loved festival is being transformed from a three-day festival into a Spraoi Season of events to be presented at multiple Waterford city and county sites during the month of August.
For the first week of August, City Spraoi features four days of street performances in Waterford City. The following week Greenway Spraoi presents performances over four days at sites along Waterford Greenway. Prism Spraoi then closes a month of activities in the grounds of Waterford Courthouse.
The new model has been designed in response to COVID-19 contingencies. Spraoi Season will disperse audiences over time and locations while still offering safe live access to top Irish and international street artists.
To spread audiences over distanced locations both City Spraoi and Greenway Spraoi will present daily performances in different places but at the same time. There will be at least five distanced shows and sites at any given time.
Prism Spraoi at Waterford Courthouse will be performed over seven nights at 9.00 p.m. and will be a ticketed event.
City Spraoi locations will soon be announced. Greenway Spraoi sites are Durrow Railway Station, Carriganore, Killoteran, Kilmacthomas, and Clonea Road crossing. Each will feature three performances daily. The festival organisers say artists have now been booked and the details of those will be announced over coming weeks.
Prism Spraoi
Spraoi’s original production this year is Prism, a large-scale art installation structure and temporary performance space. It will be erected at Waterford Courthouse. The attraction is designed and built at Spraoi Studios.
Seven commissioned pieces of original music accompanied by live performers will feature nightly, echoing seven colours which merge and form white light. Prism is a visionary production and will be presented at dusk nightly when both structure and courthouse are illuminated.
The season will be presented in four blocks:
1. City Spraoi (Thursday August 5th – Sunday August 8th)
2. Greenway Spraoi (Thursday August 12th – Sunday August 15th)
3. Participate Spraoi (Thursday August 19th – Sunday August 22nd)
4. Prism Spraoi (Monday 23rd August – Sunday August 29th)
