From the salubrious surroundings of Dalkey all the way to West Cork, we’ve got you covered.
The weekend is upon us once again, so it’s time to forget about the weather and explore the variety of things to do throughout the country over the coming days.
Cork Midsummer Festival
Cork Midsummer Festival is an annual multi-disciplinary arts festival that uses the city as its backdrop and inspiration, providing high-quality arts events, both national and international, for audiences of all ages, over 11 days.
The programme provides opportunities for significant public participation and engagement, supports the development of emerging artists across all art forms and provides a unique platform for work by local and national artists.
Highlights this weekend include the black comedy, The Bluffer’s Guide To Suburbia at The Granary Theatre and The Small Things, a play written by Enda Walsh and starring Pauline McLynn, at Old Cork Waterworks.
Dalkey Book Festival
Taking place in one of the most affluent towns in the country – the town that provides Bono with a gaff – the Dalkey book festival returns this weekend.
The Dalkey Book Festival is in its 10th year and is growing in popularity every year. Over one long weekend, from 13 to 16 June, 100 speakers from around the world will gather in Dalkey to mark the fact that it is in existence for an entire decade.
Global superstars like Stephen Fry and Jony Ive, the man who, by designing three of the most iconic products of our age – the iPod, iPad, and iPhone – has changed your world probably more than any other single living human being, will speak at the event.
Ive and Fry will join some of the world’s leading intellectuals in attendance, such as three-time Pulitzer prize winner Thomas Friedman and giants of literature such as Marlon James, Deborah Levy, Richard Flanagan and Donal Ryan.
Clonakilty Street Carnival
You don’t often need a reason to get down and visit the glorious surroundings of West Cork, but Clonakilty is enticing us even more with a carnival taking place in the town this Saturday (15 June).
Throughout carnival day, amidst the colourful ribbons, bunting, street performers and costumes, will be live music, a kids’ zone with supervised bouncy castles, face painting, magicians, bubbles and popcorn machines (on Ashe Street), as well as giant games, ping pong, crazy golf and much more.
Last year, more than 2,000 people were served the best of Clonakilty fare from the West Cork town’s top restaurants at one of the longest dinner parties seen in Ireland. The Clonakilty Street Carnival dinner party will run the length of the town’s main street and is well worth checking out.
Tickets are available here.
Doolin Folk Festival
Doolin in Clare, another stunning town over on the west coast, hosts its annual folk festival this weekend.
The Doolin Folk Festival presents powerful music in an intimate setting and ensures that audiences and musicians can feel at one and just enjoy the communal spirit.
The seventh edition of the festival takes place from Friday to Sunday and having established itself as a firm favourite on the summer festival calendar, it has received deserved acclaim for the diversity of its music programme over the years.
Check out some highlights from last year’s festival below.
Clip via Hotel Doolin
Alcock & Brown 100 Festival
On the 100th anniversary of one of the greatest feats of aviation history, the first ever non-stop transatlantic flight will be celebrated in the breathtaking surroundings of Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way as part of a spectacular commemoration in Clifden in Galway this weekend.
Having started on Tuesday, the Alcock & Brown 100 festival will continue until Sunday and is jam-packed with an incredible line-up of enthralling events in which Clifden will rediscover the amazing story of respected, unsung heroes Alcock and Brown, who flew from Newfoundland in Canada and crash-landed at Derrigimlagh Bog in Connemara.
Mesmerising street entertainment will illuminate the festival throughout the week, while magnificent visual spectacles such as the Traditional Boats Regatta and Tour De Bens promises unmissable entertainment for all ages.
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