Organisers

Set on the front meadow of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, minutes from the Guinness brewery, it is no surprise the first wave of tickets for Dublin’s Forbidden Fruit festival sold out within days.The line-up – a heady mix of veterans, newcomers and nostalgia acts – is one of many festivals currently being announced for next summer. “We’ve got Nelly Furtado, who hasn’t played in Ireland for 24 years, Bicep and Barry Can’t Swim, who’s from that generation of artists with ironic names that audiences love” says festival…

The protesters were banned, the red carpet rolled out and Johnny Depp strolled into Cannes like a conquering hero. He blew kisses, shook hands and briefly dabbed at his eyes. He received a standing ovation that lasted nearly seven minutes. “For a couple of seconds it scared me,” the actor told reporters afterwards. “It was like being stuck in a loop. The energy of the reaction, it just seemed to go on and on.”Depp is in town for the premiere of Jeanne du Barry, the opening picture of the Cannes film festival. For his…

The European Broadcasting Union, which organises Eurovision, is like the European Central Bank: whenever it’s called upon to make an important decision, you can always rely upon it to make the wrong one, and it’s wholly dependent on the mixture of goodwill and inertia that leads the international community not to go on about it. Its bet is a generalised feeling of “Oh well, it made the wrong call again. Never mind. Better luck next year/next global financial crisis”, and it’s one that mainly pays off. This time tomorrow…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeOrganisers and executives at the Academy Awards have reportedly declined Volodymyr Zelensky’s request to speak at this year’s ceremony.The 2023 Oscars are set to take place on Sunday 12 March. Since Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine last February, President Zelensky has given high-profile addresses at awards ceremonies including the 2022 Grammy Awards and the Golden Globes in…

The Edinburgh international film festival has been shut down with immediate effect after the charity that runs it, the Centre for the Moving Image (CMI), announced it had ceased trading and called in administrators. Edinburgh’s celebrated Filmhouse cinema, along with its sister cinema in Aberdeen, have also closed.CMI, which has operated both the film festival and the Filmhouse group since 2010, said in a statement: “The charity is facing the perfect storm of sharply rising costs, in particular energy costs, alongside…

The Notting Hill carnival is here to stay because it “means too much to too many people”, its organiser has said before the event’s return after a three-year hiatus. Matthew Phillip, the carnival’s chief executive, said Europe’s largest street festival, which was forced online during the pandemic, was stronger than ever, with 2 million people expected to gather and celebrate in west London this bank holiday weekend.“Carnival means too much to too many people to ever go away and not come back,” he said. “For the last two…

Neon bodypaint, string vests and no-nonsense four-to-the-floor beats will return to the streets of Berlin this weekend as the legendary Love Parade techno event makes a comeback in the German capital after a hiatus of more than 15 years.Saturday’s daytime outdoor event carries a new name – the Rave the Planet Parade – but is being organised by some of the same people who put together the first Love Parade on the eve of the fall of the Berlin Wall.“The original spirit of the Love Parade hasn’t been present since 2003,”…

|  Arno Lapeyre owns and runs a number of the Pulp Comics chain of comic stores in France, including on the now-legendary Rue Dante in Paris, a street with more comic shops in closer proximity than anywhere else in the world. He's also one of the partners in a series of comic conventions in the American style, with the comic book agent Steve Morger. known for the Big Wow shows. Including last weekend's Lake Como Comic Art Festival, which I was very lucky to attend with my wife. A pure comic book artist convention –  no…