Soundings at Other Voices Derry 2026

Soundings, the ideas and discussion strand of Other Voices Derry, is a cultural forum that brings together artists, writers, makers, thinkers, civil society leaders and others to explore some of the defining questions of our time through the lenses of culture, community, and civic imagination. From storytelling and music to power and representation, grassroots organising and global change, Soundings considers how we understand ourselves, one another and the places we call home, exploring the ideas, people and places imagining more hopeful futures. Guided by an artistic, open and empathetic ethos, they invite us to encounter different perspectives and common ground from which understanding and new possibilities grow. This is the first edition of Soundings in Derry, taking place at The Playhouse on Saturday 26 September. All times are subject to change. 12:00 PM | Doors Open/Welcome 12:30 PM | The Spaces That Make Us The gig venue, the youth club, the dancefloor. For generations of young people in Derry and beyond, these were the places where it all happened, essential third spaces to meet, to showcase talent, to bridge divides, and to just be. The rooms where subcultures are born, where unlikely friendships form, and where a city's young people come to find themselves and each other. As these spaces disappear, lost to rising costs, changing priorities or institutional neglect, we ask what it is that we stand to lose, and whether the DIY spirit that conjured them in the first place might yet inspire a new generation to build them anew. With Claire Hall, Oh Yeah Music Centre, Belfast; Gareth Stewart, Other Voices/Music City Derry Music Producer & Promoter and co-founder of Celtronic; and Emma Warren, music journalist and author of Up The Youth Club: A Love Letter. Hosted by Cóilí Collins. 1:30 PM | A Place of Our Own Imagining Stories have always helped us make sense of who we are, where we come from, and the places we have not yet been. They carry us across boundaries of geography, experience and imagination, inviting us into lives beyond our own. They inform our understanding of place, challenge inherited narratives, preserve memory, and open up new ways of seeing ourselves and one another. Stories are inseparable from the places and communities from which they emerge. They are born of history, circumstance and imagination, reflecting both the possibilities and the challenges of the worlds they inhabit. Bringing together writer and filmmaker Myrid Carten, screenwriter and author Ailbhe Keogan and writer and essayist Darran Anderson, in conversation with Séamas O'Reilly, this discussion explores the relationship between storytelling, identity and place. From the places we leave to those we return to, from memory and belonging to imagination and reinvention, the conversation considers how artists reflect the worlds they inherit, and, in turn, help imagine new ones. 2:40 PM | Derry: A Border City Facing the Future in a Reshaped Europe When Other Voices last came to Derry in 2013 and 2014, the city was tingling with possibility and energy. The Peace Bridge was newly opened, the city had celebrated its year as the UK's 2013 City of Culture, the UK was still in the EU, and Irish-British relations were, quietly, in good shape. Twelve years on, we return to take stock. Much of that feeling of optimism seems harder to locate now. Political paralysis, a shrinking arts ecology, and the aftermath of Brexit make their mark on a city that was promised so much. It feels like that Derry instinct to say "wise up and just get on with it" is becoming harder to find. Yet Derry's defiant and creative spirit and voice remain undimmed, and the questions it poses about identity, belonging, and possibility are as alive as they have ever been. Tony Connelly, RTÉ's Europe Editor, joins journalist and author Aoife Moore to map where Derry sits today within the region, on this island, and within a Europe and a global order that are fundamentally reshaped since we were last here. What does this changing landscape mean for this border city in a post-Brexit landscape, and what might it offer communities still brimming with potential and asking what Derry might yet become? 3:40 PM | ‘A Change in the Tarmac’ by Caolán Austin Caolán Austin’s piece, 'A Change In The Tarmac', is an invitation to the listener to reflect on the 105-year history of the border in Ireland. Against the backdrop of electronica, ambient & contemporary-classical music, Caolán weaves together fragments of found sound, interviews & archive recordings. The result is an unfolding of memories and personal interactions that draw the listener closer to the smaller, more unspoken aspects of border life; highlighting the profound impact a border has on its surrounding communities. 4:10 PM | In Conversation with Kate Nash BRIT Award-winning singer, songwriter, actor and activist Kate Nash has never shied from speaking her mind, using her platform for causes from independent artists' rights to trans allyship. Now, that same instinct has turned toward her own Irish heritage, weaving it into her music and bringing a history rarely spoken about in the UK into public view. At Soundings, she sits down with arts journalist, filmmaker and disability rights activist Louise Bruton to talk activism, identity and the stories we choose to tell. Other Voices Derry Festival is produced with the support of Reed, PEACEPLUS Change Maker Funding, a programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), Government of Ireland's Shared Island Fund, Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, Department of Foreign Affairs Reconciliation Fund, Derry City Strabane District Council, Tourism Northern Ireland, IMRO and BBC Radio Ulster, and is produced by South Wind Blows and Ceiliúradh CLG in partnership with Celtronic and Féile Derry.