First Fortnight European Mental Health Art and Culture Festival

First Fortnight: European mental health arts and cultural festival comes to Ireland for the first time with the aim of challenging mental health stigma.

A first for Ireland, audiences will enjoy mental health-related music, theatre, film and spoken word from 16 nations (Ireland, Hungary, Scotland, England, Wales, France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Belgium, Romania, Greece, Italy and Lithuania), as Europe aims to start 2019 by challenging mental health stigma and using arts events to create open discussion and understanding of mental health problems. First Fortnight is a mental health arts charity that began as a kitchen conversation 10 years ago and has grown from one event to more than 150 events nationwide. In 2018 over 8,000 people attended First Fortnight festival events nationwide.

Actor Emmet Kirwan, screenwriter and playwright Stefanie Preissner, musicians The Academic, Saint Sister and former athlete David Gillick will join artists from across Europe in challenging mental health stigma throughout Ireland this January.