Quarter Block Party is back this February.

With over 50 music, art, and theatre performances, we can expect a weekend wonderland of pop-up shows, public art events, and creative discussion from February 6th-9th, 2020, as well as musical acts like God Alone, Maija Sofia, Gyda Valtysdottir, Myles Manley and Lemoncello.

There’ll be plenty to see without spending a bob too; the festival has partnered with Jameson Irish Whiskey to bring its first weekend-long free Music Trail, taking place at bars and venues from Barrack Street to North Main Street, in addition to its bumper ticketed programme, but it’s the intriguing line-up of live art that has us most excited.

‘It will be a dark party’

“We are so excited to be working with some of the best local and international artists to bring this amazing festival to Cork,” says QBP Live Art Curator Ruairí Ó’Donnabháin.

“Quarter Block Party grows every year and we know that audiences won’t be disappointed. Things might seem pretty grim in the world right now but QBP is celebrating the light in the darkness – it will be a dark party!”

Kicking off the Live Art line-up is a unique performance called DEAD Beauty and the Beast by choreographers Amanda Apetrea, Halla Ólafsdóttir.

Later you can catch Portugal’s Andre Uerba’s exquisite Burn Time, where hundreds of suspended threads are slowly lit on fire to form firefly-like embers.

Here’s our pick of the best QBP Live Art: 

Hit this link for the door times and dates.

• I am A Genius Does Anyone Here Know Me?: Newfoundland’s Lois Brown and James Callaghan present their special blend of offbeat storytelling in this curious improvised sonic choreography of things.
• Queent: All the way from Cork’s Sister City San Francisco, Monique Jenkinson (and her drag queen alter-ego Fauxnique) and Mica Sigourney (also known as VivvyAnne ForeverMORE) serve up some killer moves.
• THEIR CHORUS: QBP will partner with Crawford Art Gallery and Tonnta on this one, a “playful, bleak and revealing” vocal work piece by Jennifer Walshe entitled Volunteer Chorus. The installation is a reflection of today’s world through a series of quotes and reactions to the performers’ Facebook feeds.
• Tonnta join forces with local singers to create a meditation on body image, social media and gender expression, in the evocative surrounds of the recently renovated Canova Cast sculpture collection.
• Fluids: W A U H A U S create an impossibly slippery stage for the bodies of these Finnish and Estonian performers in a performance enabled by J-Lube, a lubricant that creates a movement language “continuously fluctuating between clumsiness and gracefulness”.

Watch a video here:

Live Art Bundle Passes are on sale now at €60 for all eight dance/theatre shows. There is also a limited amount of Full Festival Passes (€100 for entry to all every show at Quarter Block Party) to be had if you move fast.