Colm Hogan is a stills photographer and cameraman working mainly in the areas of Film, Television, Theatre, Documentary and the Arts who has worked on over 300 productions over the past ten years. His work has taken him throughout Ireland, England, Europe and North America, working on projects spanning across a broad range of photographic disciplines.

Galway Arts Festival is delighted to announce ABSOLUT VODKA as new sponsors of the Festival's Visual Arts Programme. Through engagement with the creative community, the Swedish ABSOLUT went from offbeat vodka to pop art icon, to becoming one of the largest selling spirits brands in the world.

One of the most celebrated post-war British artists of the 20th century headlines the visual art line up at this year's festival. Born in Bradford in 1937, David Hockney is one of the most popular British artists today. Major exhibitions of his work have been held all over the world and his work has included stage designs, photography and every kind of graphic medium. He has lived in California since the early 1970s.

For Irish audiences, the name Beckett reverberates in a manner similar to Shakespeare's across the water, a nationally celebrated, iconic playwright but one who is a little bit intimidating, serious and 'difficult'. However, Fergus Cronin, who plays the title role in Krapp's Last Tape for the Galway Arts Festival, could not disagree more strongly with notions that the Irish writer's work is elitist or obtuse.

The multi-award winning theatre collective 'Dragonfly', bring their second play to The Galway Arts Festival. Following the success of their previous play Married to the Sea, from the New York, Dublin and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, Dragonfly Theatre return to the Galway Arts Festival with their latest production, Reptilian, written and directed by award winning playwright Shona McCarthy.

Whether intentional or not, illicit and abusive relationships between children and adults seem to be a pattern in programming of the Galway Arts Festival 2009. The controversial play Blackbird by David Harrower is linked to this very contemporary theme. "A critic once described this play as ninety of the most uncomfortable minutes he had ever spent in a theatre," said Andrew Flynn.

As Druid return to the Galway Arts Festival with a performance of Tom Murphy's The Gigli Concert, Denis Conway spoke to the Galway Independent about the play, the company and their newly renovated theatre. This month's sold-out performance by Druid will mark the opening of the company's redesigned theatre and the play, widely regarded as Tuam-born Tom Murphy's masterpiece, is an appropriate choice by director Garry Hynes as it reignites the long and flourishing relationship the company has had with the playwright.

Few writers with serious intentions elude censure when their plot machinations are both created and resolved through dreams and magic potions. When Shakespeare famously manages to do so in A Midsummer Night's Dream, then the challenge remains to make the play work on the 21st Century stage, stuffed as it is with fairies, hearty peasants, mythical heroes, and a disconcerting lack of three-dimensional characters.

One of the highlights of the annual Arts Festival is the fantastically flamboyant Macnas Parade, which hits the streets on Sunday 19 July. This year's parade is titled Orfeo and will be directed by Artistic Director of Macnas, Noeline Kavanagh. The late-night spectacular is inspired by the Greek legend of Orpheus.

Children will be thrilled by the return of the puppet show at this year's Galway Arts Festival. Directed by Martial Anton and Tommy Baker with music by Katharina Baker, The Legend of Lowry Lynch is a story for kids of seven years and older, based on the children's fable The King with Donkey's Ears.

Anyone looking for a show with a difference should take a trip to the Town Hall Theatre Foyer and witness the spectacle of the Flea Circus! The miniature circus has been brought to the Arts Festival by Pignut Production, in association with Electric Bridget and features highly trained fleas performing all your favourite circus tricks.

Fascinating, enormous objects, live music, special effects, bizarre humour and grotesque characters will all form part of the show when Theatre Titanik hit the streets during the Galway Arts Festival. One of Europe's leading street performance companies, Theatre Titanick will bring their Firebirds show to Galway and stun onlookers with their blend of visual art and street entertainment.

Playing with the Prodigy and thrilling audiences all over the UK, Ireland and beyond with their incendiary live shows, it's been quite a crazy rollercoaster year for Fight Like Apes. Combining their love of three-minute pop tunes and the digital distortion pedal, their debut album 'Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion' (to be re-released on 17 July) is the perfect passport to Planet FLApe.

A dazzling, classically-trained pianist and outstanding composer, Neil Cowley may have a BBC Jazz Award for Best Album and two stunning albums ('Displaced' and 'Loud Louder Stop!') under his belt, but don't let the fact that his band are a piano, double bass and drums trio lead you into thinking this is a smooth jazz thing.

Heralded by Rolling Stone as 'a maestro of dance, rhythm and melody', Femi Kuti returned to the world stage in 2008 with a powerful and timeless new album. 'Day by Day' continued to explore and push back the frontiers of Afrobeat, the super funky amalgam of Black Power politics, jazz and traditional rhythms.