The Hearsay Audio Arts Festival

The HearSay Audio Arts Festival is a gathering of, predominantly, independent audio creators from all over the world who come to an Irish mountain town of Kilfinane to discuss audio production, inspire each other and make business contacts for the future. The first edition of HearSay took place in November 2014, when 140 attendees from all over the world arrived at Kilfinane. HearSay Audio Arts Festival combines approaches to so-called creative audio both from the European point of view and from the overseas perspective. The festival has been attended by creators from all over the world, with many of the audio enthusiasts travelling all the way from the USA or Australia. The HearSay festival disrupts, in many ways, the classic approach to audio production and brings new possibilities not only for listening but also for the method of creating and processing the recorded material. Setting the festival in a small village supports strong community bonds among all participants, which is further supported by a significant number of side events taking place on the backdrop of the local inhabitants’ houses. This chapter offers a thorough description of the history of the festival, the 2019 edition of it, and also compares it to the IFC. Even though the festival belongs to the most important audio meeting worldwide, this book is the first ever to describe it in such a great detail.