Abstract
The HearSay Audio Arts Festival is a gathering of, predominantly, independent audio creators from all over the world who come to an Irish mountain town of Kilfinane to discuss audio production, inspire each other and make business contacts for the future. The first edition of HearSay took place in November 2014, when 140 attendees from all over the world arrived at Kilfinane. HearSay Audio Arts Festival combines approaches to so-called creative audio both from the European point of view and from the overseas perspective. The festival has been attended by creators from all over the world, with many of the audio enthusiasts travelling all the way from the USA or Australia. The HearSay festival disrupts, in many ways, the classic approach to audio production and brings new possibilities not only for listening but also for the method of creating and processing the recorded material. Setting the festival in a small village supports strong community bonds among all participants, which is further supported by a significant number of side events taking place on the backdrop of the local inhabitants’ houses.
This chapter offers a thorough description of the history of the festival, the 2019 edition of it, and also compares it to the IFC. Even though the festival belongs to the most important audio meeting worldwide, this book is the first ever to describe it in such a great detail.
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Notes
- 1.
Kilfinane is the highest town in County Limerick (elevation: 151 m) and the population fluctuates approximately 700 inhabitants. Kilfinane is officially a “market town”. That is also how the locals proudly refer to it. Diarmuid McIntyre describes Kilfinane as a “mountain village”—the term is used in all the HearSay promotional materials (HEARSAY, © 2020). This could seem like an insignificant detail, but in fact, it shows the slight dissonance between the way in which McIntyre promotes Kilfinane to the outside world and how it is seen by the local community.
- 2.
SYNOPSIS: On the 3rd September 2012 the doors finally opened on a new Primary School in Kilfinane. It was the end of 160 years of outside toilets, rats, and overcrowding, and of a desperate 10-year fight by parents and the local community. On the 22nd of November 2012 seven vans driven by subcontractors arrived at the new school at home time. Owed money by the main contractor for months, and already at a loss when the previous contractor went bust, the subcontractors were desperate. To the horror of teachers, they surged in to strip the school of fittings and cut off phones and power. Stunned parents blockaded their vans as they tried to exit. A standoff ensued with staff in the darkening school, subcontractors by their loaded vans and parents massed at the gates. This is the story of the events of that day, captured as they happened, and that of the subcontractors, staff, and parents, as they struggle to reach a resolution in the glare of the national media (GREYHERON, © 2023).
- 3.
In 2014, Limerick was awarded the title of the National City of Culture. It is a similar award to that of the European City of Culture, but on a national level. Limerick was the first city altogether to receive the title. The title included involvement of Limerick in various cultural programmes and activities to improve the conditions of cultural development in the coming years (LIMERICK, © 2020).
- 4.
The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, or BAI, is an authority founded in 2009, which regulates both public and commercial broadcasting section in Ireland (BAI, © 2020).
- 5.
The volunteers are divided into 2 groups—local and international. Overall, the organisation of HearSay 2019 involved 99 volunteers, 41 of which were directly from Kilfinane (mostly students of the Scoil Pól secondary school), 30 from Ireland (often students of audio-visual studies at the University of Limerick) and 28 from abroad. The volunteers wore high-visibility vests and oversaw the technical side of the festival, catering, security and so on. Some volunteers who came from the USA two weeks before the festival, for example, had the accommodation and travel tickets paid for by McIntyre.
- 6.
In 2019, these organisations were among sponsors: Ballyhoura Development, The Arts Council, Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BBC Sounds, Grey Heron Media, Limerick City, County Council/Limerick Arts Office, In The Dark, AIR, Limerick Institute of Technology, Ballyhoura Failte, Failte Ireland, KCRW-IPP, RTE Supporting the Arts.
- 7.
In 2019, HearSay was attended by 550 people. The number included 425 people outside of Kilfinane and 125 from Kilfinane and the close vicinity. During the festival, there were several events accessible even to attendees without registration, the overall number would thus be even higher. Out of 425 attendees, who came from outside of Kilfinane, 80% were from overseas.
- 8.
Pernille Iversen’s survey called HearSay—An Audio Village? How Did the People of Kilfinane Feel about Hearsay Festival 2019? is available in my archive as well as in Diarmuid McIntyre’s archive.
- 9.
As, for example, Joe Richman, Mike Williams, Scott Carrier, Neil Sandell, Lu Olkowski, Helen Zaltzman, Eric Nuzum, Torben Brandt, Kaitlin Prest, Chris Brookes, Cathy Fitzgerald, Leila Day, Jesse Cox, Cristal Duhaime, Phil Smith, Nina Garthwaite, Eleanor McDowall, Alan Hall, Pejk Malinovski and others.
- 10.
Due to this, the HearSay Prize often sees participants from the USA, Australia and other distant destinations. For many creators from overseas, winning the HearSay Prize means a trip to Europe which is paid for. Within the four editions of the festival, the organisers of the HearSay already arranged plane tickets for the winners from Canada, Argentina, Israel, Australia (Tasmania), Czech Republic, China, Germany, Italy, UK, USA, Denmark, Belgium, and other countries (HEARSAY, © 2020).
- 11.
In The Dark is a group of creators and audio enthusiasts whose aim is to shift the possibilities of perception and listening to the audio production. All the members of In The Dark work on a voluntary basis and organise audio listening sessions in cinemas and other site-specific spaces in the UK, Ireland, Australia, Belgium and Germany (IN THE DARK, © 2020).
- 12.
Between 9th and 14th May 2009, the 35th IFC took place at the Dublin Castle (IFC, © 2020).
- 13.
This information comes from 2018, when I attended the Third Coast. Today, the amount might be higher.
Interviews Conducted via the Method of Oral History
OH McIntyre. 2019. An interview with Diarmuid McIntyre, June 1, Grey Heron office, Kilfinane.
OH Thomas. 2019. An interview with Helene Thomas, April 10, International Feature Conference, Castlemartyr Resort.
Other Material
Iversen, Pernille. 2019. HearSay – An audio village? How did the people of Kilfinane feel about Hearsay festival 2019? Research.
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Reková, T. (2024). The Hearsay Audio Arts Festival. In: European Radio Documentary. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-57185-5_12
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