Working behind the scenes

It is September but things are not back to normal yet. Not at The Duncairn.

With new restriction coming into place this week, our doors are still closed to the public. No art workshops, no gigs, no Super Sundays. And we miss all of those just as much as everyone.

Behind the scenes life goes on. While waiting on the £33 million the UK Chancellor announced for arts and culture in Northern Ireland in July to be allocated to the sector, we kept fairly busy. If you follow us on social media, you might have had a look at two great online music streaming events: The Virtual Cabaret and the Carlingford/Duncairn Summer Series 2020. If you missed them, or just want to watch them again, all episodes are available on our YouTube Channel.

Going online has presented its challenges, but we knew from the start that we had to rise to the task and face them. This has been a proper learning curve for all the staff involved. Our philosophy of Bouncing Forward means investing on and developing our in-house talent. So we taught ourselves all the techy stuff like how to film, edit, livestream videos and much more to deliver great new shows online.

The crew at work

We had lots of fun on set. Even if our smiles were covered by face masks, we could read the excitement and the concentration in each other’s eyes. The end result has surpassed our expectations, and we received such positive feedback from both artists and audiences that we cannot wait to jump in the next project.

These are not easy times, we appreciate your continuous support and we can’t wait to open our doors to all of you again. Check out Ray Giffen, Creative Director at the Duncairn, talking us through the past few months!