• An Áit Eile: That’s How It Starts

    Saturday, June 13 hosts a showcase for Galway’s local arts, crafts and music at the Nuns Island Theatre, organised by the grassroots not-for-profit organisation, An Áit Eile, who wish to foster the creative community of the west of Ireland. Teaming up with see many of Galway’s local organisations like Access Music Project, Citóg Records, Jamaica Joe’s, there will also be a series of acoustic artists performing at the show,  including My Fellow Sponges, Rivers and Crows, Steven Sharpe, Dylan Murphy, Majestic Bears and Tracy Bruen, as well as an indoor marketplace from 1pm-6pm, featuring locally-produced arts, crafts and food. Performances will be accompanied by DJs Ray Wingnut, Stroller and Fuz.…

  • FUSED Electronica Weekender @ Black Box, Belfast

    Presented by Moving on Music and curated by Phil Kieran, the first ever FUSED electronica weekender will take place at Belfast’s Black Box from June 11-13. Set to bring the very best electronic music to the Cathedral Quarter venue over three days, the inaugural line-up will bring together techno, electro pop, visuals and live elements, with performances from Grumbling Fur, Andrew Weatherall, Phil Kieran and Perc. Thursday, June 11: Grumbling Fur & Helena Hamilton Friday, June 12: Andrew Weatherall [All Night] Saturday, June 13: Phil Kieran [Live] & Perc [Perc Trax] & Koichi Go to the Moving on Music website for full information.  

  • Sounds From A Safe Harbour

    Another brand-new festival has been added to Cork’s ever-expanding portfolio of annual events with the announcement of Sounds from a Safe Harbour, ‘a festival of music, art and conversation’ running September 17th until the 20th around the city. Curated by The National guitarist Bryce Dessner, it’s sure to be another strong Cork move, following the good buzz and recent pick-up in events and crowds that’s happened this year. The blurb: Sounds from a Safe Harbour is a brand new festival of music, art and conversation, curated by Bryce Dessner of The National. Two years since its inception by Bryce and Cork Opera…

  • Belfast Photo Festival 2015

    Presenting one of the leading International Festivals of photography in the UK and the Visual Arts Festival of Northern Ireland, Belfast Photo Festival will return to the city from June 4-30 with an extraordinarily varied programme. With a whole host of exhibitions, workshops, masterclasses, talks, tours, screenings and portfolio reviews on the cards over the four weeks, the festival – which has been two years in the making – will include work by major international photographers alongside Northern Ireland’s finest photographic talent. Highlights from this year’s outing for the festival include To Camera, a group exhibition at the Golden Thread Gallery,…

  • Beats Rhymes and Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest @ Black Box, Belfast

    On Friday, May 8, the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival will host a free early evening screening of Beats Rhymes and Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest at Belfast’s Black Box. Having forged a 20-year run as one of the most innovative and influential hip hop bands of all time, the Queens NY collective have kept a generation hungry for more of their groundbreaking music since their much publicized breakup in 1998. Beats, Rhymes & Life (also the title of the band’s 1996 record) balances brutal honesty with a heartfelt devotion as it tracks A Tribe Called Quest’s mid-1980’s formation in…

  • Festival of Fools 2015

    Nothing short of an annual Belfast Bank Holiday institution, Festival of Fools returns this weekend with 120 free comedy street shows, including clowns from Spain, acrobats from Australia and Tanzania, not to mention a whole array of Northern Irish performers. Running from Friday, May 1 until Monday, May 4, approximately 40 acts per day will speckle the streets with an array of the brilliant and bizarre performances. Go here to check out the full schedule for the festival.

  • Festival Preview: Indiependence

    Cork’s major entry on the national festival calendar (and therefore the most important), Indiependence has established itself as one of the major festivals of the summer, typically by serving up diverse, quality line-ups in a relatively intimate setting, limiting admissions to 5,000, amid the fields of Deer Farm in Mitchelstown, the festival’s home since moving out from the town square way back (early iterations of the festival featured headline sets from Coolio and Dannii Minogue, among others, before it truly hit its stride as a camping weekender). This year’s announcements so far have been nothing short of quality, with Ash,…

  • An Evening with Susan Howe @ Belvedere House, Dublin

    One of the preeminent poets of her generation, Susan Howe will take part in an evening of reading and conversation at Dublin’s Belvedere House on Sunday, June 14. Just two days before Bloomsday, Howe will read from her extensive body of work and delve into insight of her deep Irish roots and the contours of 20th and 21st Century poetry at the event, a highlight from this year’s Bloomsday Festival. Tickets are available to purchase here; times run from 6pm to 8pm.

  • Life Festival

    Now in its tenth year, the Life Festival takes place at Mullingar’s Belvedere House & Gardens on the weekend of May 29-31. Headlining is hip-hop icon NAS, performing his out-and-out masterpiece, Illmatic. Also on the bill are the likes of: Squarepusher, Siriusmodeselektor, Eats Everything, The Underachievers, a live set from Gold Panda, Ben Klock, Jurassic 5’s Nu-Mark, Optimo, Sunil Sharpe, Motor City Drum Ensemble, Pantha Du Prince, Skream, Ten Walls, Ratking, Derrick Carter, The Magician, Maceo Plex, Kölsch, Robert Hood, Alle Farben, Oneman, Luke Vibert, Jasper James, High Contrast, Ben UFO, Ame, and many more. Tickets, priced at €145, are available from the Life Festival.

  • Good Name: Krautrock Night @ The Bernard Shaw, Dublin

    What do you get when you get when you round up members of this country’s most forward-thinking bands and put them on the stage together playing Krautrock style together? Something more than a bit different is what. On Thursday, April 23 at Dublin’s Bernard Shaw, see members of Girl Band and Meltybrains? jamming in a scene they’re huge fans of but is very far from their norm. Good Name DJ’s will be spinning on the night. Starts at 8pm; free entry.