Just a quick idea if you are going out tonight, and a free one on top. Rock Candy!

Back once again, with “something to get your teeth into” taking place in both Shebeen Chic and Sweeney’s Bar in city centre!

Friday the 19th November

2 Venues
5 Stages
20 Live Acts
All for FREE!

You’ll find more info and a complete line-up over at their Facebook-page.

A good thing, and maybe someone wants to send the IMF-representatives there to show them there’s still life and culture and art in this insolvent country, despite all gloom…

If you are up for entertainment that has nothing to do with people dressing up as sl**ty nurses or Dracula this weekend, maybe you should visit this year’s edition of the Darklight Festival.

Welcome to Darklight, Ireland’s premier festival celebrating independent, DIY and artist films. Now in its eleventh year, Darklight 2010 promises to be an exciting weekend of film, animation, art, music and workshops. It began in 1999, as an opportunity for artists and filmmakers to share their work and experiment with new technologies and has emerged as one of the most important art events of the year.

This year, the festival motto is “The Heroes Edition”, as the festival planners asked contributors of the past festivals to invite their personal heroes to come and exhibit & perform at the festival. After the launch tonight, the festival takes place in various venues like IFI, Filmbase or the Grand Social over the next three days.

We in Dublin had our fair share of festivals this year already – the Dublin Writer’s Festival, the Dublin Soul Festival and the Latin America Festival to just name a few – but we’re not done yet. Which is a fact I very much appreciate. So, without further ado, here are my favourite festival picks for the upcoming months:

Image by Absolut Fringe

Phizzfest (09. – 12.09.) – The Phibsborough Arts Festival has its premiere this year. This promises a fantastic opportunity to explore this touristically underdeveloped working-class neighbourhood from a different perspective. Also is Anne Enright reading at the festival and I live here, so there are two things that speak for the festival

Absolut Fringe (11. – 26.09.) – This year’s edition of dublin’s own Fringe Fest seems even more packed with great events and artist then last year. I’m especially looking forward to the Icelandic Music Weekend with my friends FM Belfast.

Arthur’s Day (23.09.) – This may come as a surprise for some, but after the success of last year’s worldwide Arthur’s Day the Guinness Brewery decided to have a ball on this special day again this year. And the line-up is nothing else than fantastic.

Hard Working Class Heroes 2010 (07. – 09.10.) – In my opinion the HWCH is Dublin’s most likeable music festival. Battalions of bands and musicians will spread out to 7 venues all over town to provide a showcase of what’s hot in the Irish scene at the moment. Don’t miss it.

In case you are still looking for something to do this weekend, and feel the need to spice up the Irish version of the season otherwise know as “Summer” with some tango-rythms, salsa-sounds and spicy food, maybe the first festival launched by the Latin American Native Community in Ireland (or LANCI for short) is worth a visit:

2010 is the bi-centenary of the independence of Latin America. LANCI is launching a new festival to commemorate and celebrate this year . This will incorporate the 8th International Tango Festival.

The LANCI Festival aims to give international recognition to the varied cultures of Latin American Countries. This Latin American Festival offers a variety of artistic and traditional presentations including music, and dance in the form of salsa, samba and tango, traditional foods and film, photographs and paintings from Latin American artists.

This is the first time that a festival of this kind is being held in Dublin. A cosmopolitan city like Dublin guarantees that this type of event will be a success.

You will find the full programme on the festival-website, and I’m especially lookign forward to the Latin American fair or “feria” in Temple Bar on Sunday.

The good people of Dublin hit the streets of Dublin in their thousands over the weekend to check out the Street Performance World Championships. We made it along but not quite in time to participate in the world record attempt. From what I read on Twitter it seems like too many people hopped along! Congratulations to all who particpated in this wonky bit of history!

Congratulations too to the staff and volunteers at SPWC for organising another great free festival. We managed to catch JP Koala, Dr. Kaboom and Thom Sellectomy. We couldn’t get next or near last year’s winners, USA Breakdancers, but had we managed to catch them we would have missed our favourite this year, Dr. Kaboom so all’s well. Like last year the Festijeux were a big hit with three generations of our family and I eventually had to drag my father away!

I took myself and my three children along to the RHA Gallagher Gallery on Ely Place (map) to check out their annual exhibition. It runs until 31st July and I would recommend that you get yourself along to it. It’s a hop, skip and a jump from Stephen’s Green so we combined our visit with a picnic in the park. (This was originally supposed to be a playground post but the playground in Stephen’s Green is closed for refurbishment but looks like it will be ace!)

To be honest my visit to the exhibition was kind of a duty: my brother, Blaise Smith, and brother-in-law, John O’Reilly, both have paintings on display. The painting right is by  the brother in law.

That’s the thing about the RHA Annnual exhibition: if you know any Irish artists chances are you will see some of their work exhibited here. It’s a great opportunity to see the work of up-and-coming or established artists. I am the farthest thing from an art critic. I look at the paintings and think about what they make me think about. I like this or that because the colours appeal to me or it evokes memories or reminds me of a person, place or thing. Some paintings I enjoy because they make me smile or conjure up other emotions. I have a very rudimentary art history education so I won’t even attempt to review the exhibition in those terms but as a way to spend an afternoon in Dublin you could do a lot worse. You are bound to see something that will make you melt inside, raise your hackles or that will feature in your dreams or nightmares. All types of materials are used and while painting features heavily there are also prints, photography, sculpture, architecture and even one brooch featured! The refurbished gallery is a beautiful exhibition space (it’s probably been refurbished for ages but y’know I don’t get out much!) It was a fine way to spend the afternoon with two lively under 7s and there was no difficulty getting the buggy around and up and down.

My husband was very glad when I told him I didn’t get a catalogue and buy any paintings but if you are looking to invest in some work this is a great place to pick up some iconic Irish art as many of the items are for sale. I hadn’t planned to write a blog post about the exhibition so while I know which items would be my top five I can’t remember all the details. I do plan to go back so I might take notes next time!

180th Annual Exhibition, Opening hours:
The RHA Gallery will revert to opening ALL Exhibition AREAS, 7 days a week, for the 180th Annual Exhibition, from 24 May – 30 July.
Monday & Tuesday 11 – 5pm
Wednesday – Saturday 11 – 7pm
Sunday 2 – 5pm

As a mammy-ish aside I also note that the RHA run children’s workshops throughout the year. My older son was very interested in the exhibition so I’m off to book him into the workshop that focuses on the exhibtion.

Yay, the long-awaited long May weekend is almost upon us. And if you’re still looking for something to do over the weekend, we are here to help. You could try these things:

First of all there’s the SoGo Arts Festival in and around South Great George’s Street all weekend. This 3 day bonanza kicked of today, but there are loads of activities and things to see over the next 2 days as well, like “The Best of Busking” featuring the Mighty Steph, a screening of “Once” in Walton’s music store and a flea market on Sunday.

Next on the list is the recently opened Glasnevin Museum – a museum on Dublin’s most famous graveyard, dedicated to Irish heritage & genealogy, and the history of the graveyard itself.

If a proper Indie rock festival is more of your liking, you could also head to Balbriggan on Saturday, where the Sibin Festival officially opens the Irish open air-festival season. For those of you who prefer electronic tunes, you can either keep on partying or start your own festival season on Sunday with the Yes Festival down in Clontarf.

And if this is too much activity for you, you can always relax in one of Dublin’s beer gardens – the weather permitting…

Image via

The Norsemen are upon us again! As last year, the Dublin Viking Festival is taking place next weekend.

The Dublin Viking Festival takes place on Dublin’s Wood Quay and Temple Bar from Friday the 16th October until Sunday 18th October 2009.The Vikings were the first settlers at Dublin and old reminants of their settlement have been found at Wood Quay in Dublin City Centre on the site of Dublin City Council’s civic offices.

Dublin City Council invites you to come down and explore our Viking Heritage from 12 noon – 6pm October 16th, 17th & 18th for a family fun packed weekend.

I’ve been there last year, and have to confess that it is a bit dull for a veteran roleplayer like me; plus the post-modern surroundings of the civic offices are not really helping in recreating the image of the Viking world. On the other hand it was great fun for the kids, and it seems the festival is generally more aiming at family entertainment than drinking mead from the skulls of slain enemies. And if there’s the same re-enactment group as last year, you’ll get at least an overview of how to form a propper Viking shield wall:

After the namesake closed it’s Munich’ gates last weekend, it’s time for Dublin to have its share of German delicacies. Especially German beer. And this is possible at the Paulaner Oktoberfest at the IFSC, which is back from tomorrow on.

Last year the Paulaner Oktoberfest took Dublin by surprise! Over 70,000 people visited this unique free Bavarian event. Make sure you don’t miss it this year. It starts on Thursday the 8th and runs until the 18th of October in George’s Dock in the IFSC.
Experience traditional German fun, food and entertainment with over 30 German barmaids dressed in traditional Dirndl’s!

And this is not all of German-themed entertainment in town this weekend. Our friends over at the Porterhouse are launching their own version of the Oktoberfest tomorrow as well. And for this occasion they have the delicious Früh Kölsch from my hometown Cologne on tap – not very Bavarian, but nevertheless very tasty.

Disclaimer: Dublinblog is not responsible for any adverse health effects you may experience after having a couple of steins. Please enjoy your German beer responsibly.

Commencing next Saturday is this year’s Festival of World Cultures. Featuring the (un)usual mix of music, food, fairs, theatre, dance and street art from all over the world (and Ireland), this is a perfect occasion to hop on the DART and pay a visit to Dun Laoghaire. The foody that I am, I’m especially looking forward to the Feast Americana and the International Food Traders. You can download the full festival programme (PDF) here, and you can also become a fan on Facebook.