This February 16th and 17th the 7th Mother Tongues Festival invites you to Tallaght for a magical journey through languages and cultures.

Offering a host of storytelling experiences, live performances and hands-on family workshops in multiple languages, this year’s festival is a treat for the curious-minded!

The full programme is now live on mothertonguesfestival.com/programme-2024/

Programme highlights include Uccellina’s Way, an interactive multilingual installation by our Italian resident company Cantieri Meticci, Weaving Stories, a 5-week book creation workshop led by artists Debora Adachi and Fernanda Ferrari, where children and their guardians transform into authors and illustrators, crafting their unique stories and The Word Factory, a theatre performance by Teatroletta that transports us into a world where words are saved by a brave child. Children are also the focus of the film Il Cerchio, a documentary that catapults viewers into a classroom, where children share thoughts and emotions, and discuss their unique perspectives on the world around them.

This year’s photographic exhibition will feature stories of Moldovan and Romanian grandparents, highlighting the important role of family and heritage in the life of migrants in Ireland, opening a dialogue on migrant identity and what it means to have roots in more than one place.

Our much-loved family day on Saturday 17th February will see hundreds of families getting stuck into hands-on workshops. With more than 20 artists coming from 4 continents and speaking 13 languages, there will be plenty of opportunities to engage with dance, music, storytelling and craft. Languages include Polish, Japanese, Swahili, Portuguese, Italian, Irish, Spanish, Bulgarian, Urdu, French and more! And remember, everyone is welcome to all workshops!

For those who are interested in the theme of Creativity and Multilingualism, we will host talks in collaboration with Trinity College Dublin’s School of Education and the participatory workshop “Living Languages: Exploring mother tongues through body and voice”, led by Miriam Stewart. Those who want to learn about practical applications of multilingualism in the arts can also attend a day-long workshop with Teatro Multilingue.