(Thursday 19th September – Derry-Londonderry) CultureTECH Festival, the celebration of all things digital, which took place across Derry-Londonderry has been hailed as a massive success.
More than 20,000 people took in events at the festival, ranging from music events to Seagate’s CultureTECH Junior science expo to the Internet Cat Video Festival and the Loebner Prize in Artificial Intelligence. Over 500 speakers, artists and performers from as far afield as Los Angeles and Munich filled over 30 venues across the week.
Festival Director Mark Nagurski expressed his delight at the success of the event in only its second year: “Numbers are still coming in but we already know that this year’s festival was our biggest event yet with well in excess of 20,000 people having taken part, hundreds of performers showcasing and dozens of international speakers and delegates attending. There’s no way that this could have happened without the support of our sponsors, partners, venues, volunteers and friends who got behind the event. Of course, 2014 will be even bigger.”
Some of the highlights of the festival included CultureTECH Junior, delivered in association with Seagate, which entertained and educated over 8,000 school children over 3 days in the Venue, and the Multiplay Games Jam, which saw thousands of gamers take over the Millennium Forum, Foyleside and the Richmond Centre for the week.
Other highlights of the week included the DANI Awards, a black tie event celebrating the year’s successes in Northern Ireland’s digital industries. Companies and projects that were honoured included BT Portrait of a City as Digital Cultural Project of the Year, Dog Ears as the rising star, and Kathryn Piper as the Digital Industries person of the year.
The festival also saw the first European screening of the Internet Cat Video Festival as well as Talkaoke, a pop up chat show, and the return to the city of the popular Banter Salon, curated by Jim Carroll of the Irish Times.
This year’s music line-up included the first hometown show in 8 years for Jetplane Landing alongside over twenty other music events featuring acts like dance legends Utah Saints, local artists including the Wood Burning Savages and Ryan Vail and dozens of young people performing as part of the City of Culture’s Music Promise programme.
The festival is set to return next year, and for more details on this year’s event and news of next year, please visit www.culturetech.co.uk
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