Co-curator Mary Hickson introduces this year’s edition of Sounds from a Safe Harbour, the much-loved cultural happening celebrating its 10th anniversary this September across Cork city with a feast of music, dance, literature, theatre, film and conversation events.
The collaborative space builds community.
Everyone involved in SFSH25 has been engaged in a conversation for months now – blue sky thinking and offering ideas to the group. There are so many files and invitations flying around the world and we are beginning to get a real sense of what might happen on the ground.
This all starts with a discussion with the curators – Bryce Dessner, Billy MagFhloinn, Cillian Murphy, Max Porter and myself – a conversation about the core themes/values for this edition. At the time, we hooked our intention on the source of the River Lee and the bells of Shandon. How this has evolved with time has been incredibly interesting to watch, and how people have fed into that process is fascinating. All of these things are presented as an invitation to the artists – not to prescribe what might happen when the artists arrive and begin to work together.
Sounds from a Safe Harbour co-founder Mary Hickson
The Opening Ritual is built around the notion of IMBAS and water as a source of creativity. As soon as the artists arrive, they will be folded into the creation of this event with director Billy MagFhloinn so this intention starts to affect everything else, and the momentum builds.
Research into Jon Hopkins’ Ritual record sent us down a rabbit hole of healing frequencies, which inspired us to test the tones of the Shandon Bells. It turns out that two of the Bells (2 & 7) contain Solfeggio frequencies and we have decided to build a whole campaign around Bell 7, which is 174hz (the healing frequency) with an undertone of 639hz (the heart chakra). In thinking about what we could do to show our support for Palestine we decided, with the support of Rev Meghan Farr and the incredible team in St. Anne’s Church, to ring the bell for peace and invite the public to make a donation to Médecins Sans Frontières at the entrance and climb the tower to ring bell 7 themselves.
Crowds gather for a show by Ye Vagabonds
Max Porter has written the following meditation for each person to recite before they pull the bell chord:
We ring the bell for peace in solidarity with the people of Gaza. From Cork City, in mourning, with love. Free Palestine.
And the bell sounds out through the city across the river Lee.
This campaign will run for the week leading into the festival, 8-14th September inclusive. We do this in solidarity with victims of genocide, war, injustice and aggression around the world. Artists have received the bell tone and are working the sound into new compositions, which will be heard across the weekend. RTÉ lyric FM will present a live broadcast of Ambient Orbit from Shandon Bells on Wednesday 10th September from 7pm, which will feature artists from the SFSH/37d03d residency.
SFSH25 will be creating a zine for each day of the festival, which will be called BELL 7 and will feature contributions from the artists, pop-up programme, secret shows, food events, conversations, games and last-minute programme details. Find us in Bakestone for the week.
Sounds from a Safe Harbour runs at various venues across Cork city from September 11th to 14th – find out more here