Event of the week
Kilkenny Arts Festival
Thursday, August 8th, until Sunday, August 18th, various venues, times and prices, kilkennyarts.ie
Premieres, ideas, works-in-progress, classical music, electronics, folk and trad music, poetry, visual art and theatre: it’s all here at the 51st Kilkenny Arts Festival. Highlights include Jóhann Jóhannsson’s Drone Mass (St Canice’s Cathedral, Saturday, August 10th), Irish Chamber Orchestra (conducted by Thomas Zehetmair, St Canice’s Cathedral, Thursday, August 15th), Paul Muldoon (reading from his new collection, Joy in Service on Rue Tagore, Parade Tower, Friday, August 16th) and Richard Dawson (Set Theatre, Saturday, August 17th). Throughout the festival, the Secret Garden Music Series will present an as-yet-unannounced line-up of musicians performing pop-up shows around Kilkenny’s most treasured spaces.
Gigs
We’ve Only Just Begun
Thursday-Saturday, August 8th-10th, Whelan’s, Dublin, 7.30pm, €15/€7, whelanslive.com
As these three nights featuring a rake of emerging and semi-established (mostly female and nonbinary) musicians come a week after All Together Now and a week before Electric Picnic, you can guarantee that bookers from each festival will be checking out what they see and hear. It’s a cracking line-up of next big things, with folk (Niamh Bury, Maria Kelly), hip-hop (Celaviedmai), soul (Qbanaa, Tidah), pop (Rachel Mae Hannon), indie-pop (Lucy Blue, Ezra Williams, Amy Michelle, Emma Noodles) and all shapes of rock (Dose, Cabl, Dream Boy, Shark School, Thanks Mom, Martina and the Moons). weveonlyjustbegun.ie
Social Unrest Festival
Friday-Sunday, August 9th-11th, Grand Social, Dublin, 7pm, €65/€20, thegrandsocial.ie
It’s another three-day festival to pop in and out of. This one features UK and Irish punk bands from the well-known (Ruts DC, Paranoid Visions, Dubtones, Vulpynes, Riskee and the Ridicule, The Black Pitts, The Gakk) to the lesser-spotted (50 Foot Woman, Brain Donation, ADH, Arcadian Shadows and The Coathanger Solution).
Fatboy Slim
Friday, August 9th, Galway Airport, 7pm, €59.90 (sold out), ticketmaster.ie
Following his surprise Glastonbury appearance with his former Housemartins bandmate Paul Heaton, Norman Quentin Cook – aka Fatboy Slim – returns to Ireland for another session that will have the crowds heaving every which way with tunes such as The Rockafeller Skank; Right Here, Right Now; and Going Out of My Head.
Howth Roots & Blues Festival 2024
Friday-Sunday, August 9th-11th, various venues, times and prices, Howth, Co Dublin, howthrootsandblues.com
Howth has always been a music village, so the success of the (relatively) recently established Howth Roots & Blues Festival isn’t too surprising. And enjoying the music won’t cost you a packet, either, as more than 30 gigs are free to attend. High on the list of must-see gigs are Crow Black Chicken (Abbey Tavern, 2pm, Saturday, August 10th, €15), Mik Pyro & Dublin Blues Cartel (Tramline, 5.30pm, Saturday, August 10th, free), Mary Stokes Band (Tramline, 5.30pm, Sunday, August 11th, free), and Mary Coughlan (Abbey Tavern, 7.30pm, Sunday, August 11th, €35).
Film
Boyne Valley International Film Festival
Friday-Sunday, August 9th-11th, Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda, Co Louth, various times and prices (season ticket €35), droichead.com
This excellent compact film festival might take place in a provincial town, but its remit is indicated by its title. It is curated by the film-maker Frank W Kelly and the director of Droichead Arts Centre, Collette Farrell, and features a full weekend of screenings, workshops and panel discussions. Workshops include comedy (with Jonathan Hughes, script supervisor on The Young Offenders), while an impressive film list includes Come Here (costarring Peter Coonan and Seana Kerslake) and the new short Kiki, from director Naomi Sheridan.
Visual art
Now You See It ...
Until Sunday, September 15th, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, crawfordartgallery.ie
It’s a good way to bow out, albeit temporarily. Before Crawford Art Gallery closes its doors for a redevelopment expected to take about two years, a wide range of artwork (sculpture, painting, photography) is being displayed throughout the gallery spaces. In a clever demonstration of audience reach, the exhibition features artworks requested through the gallery’s You Tell, We Show promotion and by gallery staff. The exhibition includes works by Patrick Scott, Dorothy Cross, Mainie Jellett, Amanda Coogan, Corban Walker and Louis le Brocquy.
Traditional
Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann
Sunday, August 4th, until Sunday, August 11th, various venues, times and prices, Wexford, fleadhcheoil.ie
As much a community fiesta as a traditional pageant, the latest iteration of Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann features a broad range of events that have at their heart a fervent love of the form. They range from book launches (Mo Cheol, by Nóra Byrne, Tuesday, August 6th, and The Companion to Irish Traditional Music, with Fintan Vallely, Wednesday, August 7th) to sean-nós dancing (Thursday, August 8th) and concerts (Cherish the Ladies, Thursday, August 8th; Maurice Lennon Trio, Friday, August 9th; and Éire Is Alba, Saturday, August 10th, with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Zoë Conway, John McIntyre and Julie Fowlis). All of this and a Guinness World Records attempt for the most tin whistles played simultaneously.
Still running
2:22 – A Ghost Story
Until August 11th, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, 7.30pm, €55/€47.50/€26.50, ticketmaster.ie
Anyone for a pre-Halloween ghost story? 2:22 has been packing the 3Olympia Theatre since June with a blend of brooding anxiety and fraught, frightening drama as four people gather in a house for one night. Laura Whitmore and Colin O’Donoghue star.
Book it this week
Sofie Hagen, Workman’s Club, Dublin, October 13th, ticketmaster.ie
The Prongs, Grand Social, Dublin, November 17th, thegrandsocial.ie
The Ferryman, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, January 27th-March 8th, ticketmaster.ie
Sabrina Carpenter, 3Arena, Dublin, March 3rd and 4th, ticketmaster.ie
