CORK Midsummer Festival has revealed its jam-packed programme of events for 2022, as the festival returns for 12 days of theatre, music and spectacle next month.

Returning to fully live events for the first time in three years, the theme of this year’s festival is community and a sense of awakening, as Cork’s community of artists and audiences gather together again after so long.

The festival will showcase Irish artists at all stages of their careers, and this year’s programme includes brand new work, 25 world premieres, as well as new commissions and projects.

Theatre-goers can look forward to new works performed across Cork, from a “scorching” exploration of the trauma of women in revolutionary Ireland performed in Elizabeth’s Fort, to a modern version of Frankenstein reimagined by young Cork performers, a musical theatre work following the life span of a whale, and a new dance opera about wandering and migration performed on World Refugee Day.

Music lovers will be treated to a “spellbinding” new work by John O’Brien, commissioned for the festival and performed by Derbhle Crotty and the Carducci String Quartet, as well as an intimate performance by Tolü Makay, and a bumper line-up of gigs in Cork venues and public spaces throughout the festival.

Festival artist in residence Peter Power invites you to walk the streets of Cork after sundown, accompanied by an interactive audio, a “poetic ode to the city”, while another show from Branar will bring a child-friendly version of Ulysses to young audiences (and adults who haven’t gotten around to reading it yet).

Pluck Projects, festival visual arts curators in residence, have curated five new art exhibitions and installations in venues spread across the city, which are all a response to our “post-Covid” moment. Featuring new works from Amna Walayat, Colm Keady Tabbal, Kate O’ Shea and Siobhán Kavanagh, Pádraig Spillane + VEINS, and Rachel Fallon.

Leesiders should also be on the lookout for an “eerily beautiful” sculpture floating at St Colman’s Cathedral in Cobh, aerial and acrobatic spectacles, two new murals speaking to the presence and absence of the migrant community in Ireland, and Cork artists delivering performances to doorsteps and gardens around Cork city.

The festival will also feature, for the first time, a Midsummer Parade, “guaranteed to be a riot of colour and celebration”.

The full programme of events for Cork Midsummer Festival, running from 15-26 June 2022, can be found at corkmidsummer.com