When it comes to planning your weekends, you really are spoiled for choice. That’s why we’ve teamed up with Mastercard to bring you the ultimate event guide every weekend for the rest of the year. Your weekend starts here:
Dublin
The Dublin Book Festival is one of Ireland’s most successful and vibrant book festivals, celebrating Irish literature with readings and events across a wide range of genres, from politics to poetry and everything in between.
The main festival hub is at Smock Alley in Temple Bar, with fringe venues across the city also hosting events - including The Botanic Gardens, Gutter Bookshop and The National Library.
Weekend highlights include a literary walking tour of Dublin city, and a live interview with award-winning journalist Caitriona Perry by Bryan Dobson, where she will discuss her new book, In America: Tales from Trump Country.
Beatles Day
Beatle-mania hits Dublin yet again with this fun tribute day to the Liverpool rockers in The Workman’s Club on Saturday, 52 years after The Beatles performed in Dublin.
Acclaimed stage show John Lennon’s Last Day will kick off the festival, featuring live songs from the band in this performance of “the most complete account of John Lennon’s last day that has ever been presented”.
A competition of ‘Beatle Brain’ will get underway to find the person with the most knowledge of The Beatles in Ireland, and finally The Rockits band (who play the Cavern Club in Liverpool every weekend) will perform two sets: one playing all The Beatles hits, and one playing all the hits of the 60s - The Kinks, The Monkees, and more.
The Future is a live design and creative festival, celebrating the innovators in design, media, creativity and culture, and the role they play in the future of society, business and the spaces in between.
“The Future is a festival of art, a festival of ideas, a festival of creativity.” Taking place in the RDS over the weekend, the festival will see over 70 speakers come together on four stages.
Workshops and talks will be given on media, engineering, interior design, fashion, the rise of robots and AI, as well as topics such as Curating Cities, The Rise And Impact Of Influence, and Gender Gap & Balance.
A gin and tonic bar will be providing boozy refreshments, while food stalls will be serving up the best of Irish and International grub.
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Free Live Comedy in Accents Lounge
Hands down the cosiest chill out spot in town, Accents Coffee & Tea Lounge hosts a fantastic live comedy event every Saturday night at 9.30pm, and it’s free.
The first alcohol-free comedy night in Ireland, Accents provides entertainment in a cosy, welcoming and inclusive environment.
A mug of their famous hot chocolate (choose from white, milk, or dark chocolate drops to swirl into frothy hot milk) while sitting on one of their plush sofas listening to up and coming Dublin comedians is a no-brainer way to spend an evening.
Galway
Galway's famous bustling market has been trading in Church Lane by St Nicholas' Church in the centre of Galway city for centuries, and here’s where you will find hundreds of stalls selling fresh produce and locally produced crafts.
There's a great variety of food available, from Madras curry to fresh fruit and veg, to mouthwatering handmade chocolate, and all the essentials for a gourmet picnic spread.
Open Saturdays from 8.30am-6pm and Sundays 2pm-6pm, must-visit stalls include The Bean Tree, a vegetarian company selling delicious veggie curries and chapatis, Coolfin Organic Bakery, who serve up light and fluffy yeast breads and tasty spelt loaves, and Kappa-Ya Sushi, who use a mixture of traditional Japanese ingredients and Irish produce for fresh rolls and Teriyaki dishes.
TULCA is a multi-venue, artist-centered festival of contemporary art that works with Irish curators to present innovative exhibitions that provoke and energise audiences into the world of the Visual Arts, with exciting events and shows planned for the weekend.
The main exhibition title is They Call Us The Screamers, taken from a book written by Jenny James, an account of Atlantis, the commune she established a few years earlier in the Gaeltacht village of Burtonport, County Donegal.
Mixed visual arts and music performances will feature, and the exhibition also features Bob Quinn’s The Family (1979) – a documentary film on Atlantis that was originally banned by the national broadcast network RTE Television, deemed too disturbing for Irish audiences at the time.
Wexford
An jam-packed weekend of events awaits in Wexford town with Wexford Fringe an annual open-access arts festival which will run in parallel to Wexford Opera Festival.
Now in its 65th year, Wexford Fringe offers an eclectic mix of over 300 events over 17 days including cabaret, comedy, circus, dance, film, theatre, puppetry, music, and visual art, many of which are free to attend.
Artists from around Ireland and further afield participate alongside home-grown talent, in art forms spanning cabaret, comedy, circus, dance, film, theatre, puppetry, music, visual art and design, and as the festival is open for anyone with a show to join, it’s a bubbling hotpot of original ideas and fresh creativity.
Wexford Fringe takes over the entire town with over 300 events staged in pop up venues as well as established venues such as theatres, hotels, art galleries, cafes and civic buildings, and also includes guided walking tours of the city.
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