Category Archives: Events
Fancy a festival or few?
Absolut Fringe wrapped up last night with the Absolut Fringe Awards but don’t think that because Fringe has passed for another year that you’re going to he short of things to do for the next few weeks. There’s heaps of stuff on around the country. Here’s a taster of what’s on out and about over the next while…
The National Ploughing Championships
This week the annual National Ploughing Championships hits Athy, Co.Kildare. Probably the last event of the year that you’ll need your wellies for and a sign that summer has sadly come to an end. The event is in its 78th year and as usual thousands are expected to visit the 600 acre site between Tuesday and Thursday of this week. Check out www.npa.ie for all the info you need.
Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival
Kicking off this Thursday the 24th in spectacular style with Playhouse and running until October 11th, the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival will be offering up a range of performances, talks and special events all across Dublin. Check out the programme here, the blog here and DTF on Facebook and on Twitter.
Galway Oyster Festival
The 55th Galway Oyster Festival kicks off this Thursday (which is also Arthur’s Day) with the annual Irish Oyster Opening Championships. Aside from the the oyster tasting and Guinness to wash them down, it’s party central with the Magnificent Mardi Gras Party on Friday and the Oyster Festival Gala Ball on Saturday. The full programme is right here.
Culture Night
Culture Night is happening this coming Friday the 25th of September and there’s over 400 different events on around Dublin and around the country including Mayo, Cork, Galway, Belfast, Letterkenny, Limerick, Roscommon, Sligo, Tralee, Waterford and Wexford. There’s just so much happening I’ve been trying to write a blog post about it for days now! Check the website here for the programme, interactive maps and all the other info you could need. Check them out on Facebook and Twitter too.
Open House
The fourth annual Open House event takes place in Dublin from October 8th to 11th and in Galway from October 16th to 18th. Organised by the Irish Architecture Foundation (IAF), a range of free tours and talks are organised to some of the most architecturally renowned buildings of each city. Check out the programme here and be sure to book tickets in advance as these events fill up really quickly!
Cork Guinness Jazz Festival
The 31st Cork Guinness Jazz Festival hits the fair city of Cork on the October bank holiday weekend, kicking off on the 23rd and running through to the 26th with more live gigs and workshops than you can shake a stick at. Check out what’s on at www.guinnessjazzfestival.com.
Wexford Opera Festival
If opera is your thing then Wexford is the place to visit between October 21st and November 1st when the 58th Wexford Opera Festival takes place. There’s concerts, choirs, recitals of national and international fame on the bill. Have a peek at the full programme is online here.
Playhouse: only days to go!
In case you haven’t been anywhere within sight of Dublin’s Liberty Hall by night lately, you won’t have seen messages scrolling along its’ facade telling you to go to www.daft.ie/playhouse and animate Liberty Hall.
Playhouse is a project that’s running as part of the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival which takes place in Dublin from September 24th to October 11th, sponsored by Daft.ie.
“Powering the display are 100,000 low-energy LED lights, installed into 330 windows on the south and west faces of the building. These lights can illuminate each window as a solid colour turning it into a tiny pixel that’s part of a giant display.”
The most awesome thing about this project is that you and I can get the creative juices flowing and make an animation that will be brought to life on the face of Liberty Hall. You just need to grab yourself the lovely easy-to-use app from the (sexy) website, animate away to your hearts’ content and submit your creation. There’s even a video importer option and a processing app available if you’re feeling a bit more ambitious! Check them all out there.
I was lucky enough to be at the launch of Playhouse a few weeks ago when we got to see some sample animations brought to life on the building and it looked fabulous. I never thought I’d ever call Liberty Hall “beautiful” but I stand corrected. – for 2 weeks at least it will be a sparkling gem on the Dublin skyline. Simply can’t wait!
Here’s a wee video Darragh took on the night to give you a flavour of what to expect, questionable soundtrack aside 
La Clique at Absolut Fringe – go see it!
Despite being someone who has barely dipped her toe in the Fringe waters before this year, the name “La Clique” was familiar to me from hearing people rave about it and talking about booking their tickets weeks in advance to ensure they didn’t miss a performance.
So what’s all the fuss about? I went along to the opening night last night and I can safely say I have not seen a show as spectacularly entertaining or breathtaking in my life. And I can’t wait to go back for more.
To me, La Clique is a marvellous mixture of traditional and contemporary circus performance, music and comedy with a sexy, energetic twist. With the gorgeous velvety surroundings of the Spiegeltent, it felt at times like I was caught up in a scene from Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge
I don’t want to give anything away as the surprise and (at times) shock factor is all part of what makes the show so entertaining. At the very least it’s a showcase of some truly amazing talents and a visual feast.
I laughed till I cried, I squirmed, I gasped, I sang, I danced, I whooped and hollered and left the Speigeltent simply buzzing. If you only go to one Fringe show this year, go and see La Clique. I’m going back for more before it ends on Sunday 20th. If you go tonight, you’ll get a lovely 20% off. And if I haven’t convinced you then maybe Darragh will.
FOWD Tour Belfast tomorrow – who’s going?
- Extreme Typography Makeover: Malarkey Edition
- SketchFlow: Building Web and Desktop Applications from Concept to Production
- Making Your Content Discoverable with Microformats
- Speed Networking
- Cost Effective Web Development
- A picture is worth a thousand words
- Rounding the Edges of your Website
- Ying Meets Yang: Marrying creativity and logic to create better designs for everyone
- How to Design in the Browser
So that’s the schedule. Looks awesome and I’m really looking forward to it, despite the early start from Dublin tomorrow morning
There’s still some tickets available via the site and they’re only £67.85! If you’re going along, say hi – I’m the one with specs, pink hair & hugging her coffee for dear life.