Graveyard tours and a Victorian fun park – what to expect from this year’s Bram Stoker Festival

Fiona Frawley

Stoker stans, assemble.

As originators of the holiday, here in Ireland we take Halloween very seriously – and no erecting of Christmas shops in August will change that.

Alongside scary movie marathons and trick-or-treating, Halloween is also an opportunity to celebrate one of the most prominent pioneers of horror as we know it, Dublin-born Bram Stoker.

Every year, history and horror fans come together to celebrate Stoker with a roster of tours, reimagined movies with live scores, comedy, cabarets, live podcast recordings, themed events at national cultural institutions and so much more. This year is particularly exciting as theatre group Macnas return to the streets of Dublin with their famous Halloween parade after a four year break, but that’s not all there is to look forward to – here’s a round up some of the best spooky events happening as part of the festival.

Stokerland

St Patrick’s Cathedral, Saturday 28th – Monday 30th October

A firm festival favourite, pop-up Victorian fun park Stokerland makes its return to St Patrick’s Cathedral from Saturday 28 – Monday 30 October. Free to enter and very family friendly, Stokerland brings with it an assortment of street theatre, a performance tent, free face-painting, a food market, storytelling and draw-alongs, bands, discos and dance parties, walkabout performers, art workshops and spooky science shows.

Also, on Monday 30 October, from 11am – 1pm, the festival will host a Relaxed Session of Stokerland. The programming at this session has been designed to welcome families who will benefit from a more relaxed environment, including families with members who identify as neurodiverse, are on the autistic spectrum, with sensory and communication disorders, ADHD, ADD, tourettes or with learning disabilities.

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Nightmaresville

The Sugar Club, Friday 17th October

Experience the twisted world of Monsieur Pompier’s Travelling Freakshow with their famously freaky cabaret act, presenting a surreal world packed with bizarre ballads and maniacal music about inside-out cats, hedgehog swallowers and devious doctors. A full band performing notates the performance with a set list of chaotic and frenzied numbers, making this the perfect creepy night out.

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Macnas Hallowe’en Parade

Monday, 30th October

For the first time since 2018, big spectacle theatre group Macnas are returning to Dublin with their famous Halloween Parade. This year, the sombre march is inspired by the legend of La Loba – a wild Wolf-Woman who collects and preserves the bones of animals, humans and gods that are in danger of being lost to the world and sings them back to life by moonlight. The procession starts at 7pm from Moore Street, then making its way through Henry Street, Mary Street, Capel Street, Little Britain Street and Halston Street.

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FAUST presented by Slaughterhouse Film Club

Pepper Canister Church, Saturday 28th October

Dublin-based horror film, art and music club invite cult-film aficionados to enjoy F.W. Murnau’s classic ‘good vs evil’ epic in a new light, with a soundtrack chosen and mixed live by internationally-renowned DJ SHAMPAIN in the Pepper Canister Church. Slaughterhouse have hosted sold-out screenings in warehouse spaces, tattoo parlours, wine bars, plant shops and galleries across the city but this festival exclusive is their first time taking over a (reputedly) haunted church.

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Donal Fallon’s Tour of Mount Jerome Cemetery

Sunday, 29th October

Brave souls can embark on a tour of one of Dublin’s most famous Victorian cemeteries, the final resting place of prominent names in the Irish supernatural tradition, like William Wilde and Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. Luckily, it takes place in the light of day from 10:30am, so the ghosts and spirits shouldn’t be out in their fullest force.

Trinity Trails: Bram Stoker Tour

Saturday, 28th October

Explore Stoker’s alma mater with the Trinity Trails Bram Stoker Tour, a chance to walk in the footsteps of literary giants like Stoker, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett, and Sally Rooney, and to learn about Stoker’s place within the tapestry of the university’s literary history.

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Spooky Stories at Marsh’s Library

Saturday, 28th October

This free event invites horror fans into Ireland’s oldest public library, where a young Bram Stoker studied maps of Transylvania and delved into works mentioning Vlad Dracul. Books of witchcraft, martyrdom and heresy populate the shelves, and the library’s knowledgeable staff are on hand to recount spine-tingling anecdotes from its intriguing past in a setting almost entirely unchanged since Stoker’s visit.