Enter sp00kie season in style by getting booking some deliciously brilliant events in the Fair City
Scratching your head wondering what to do with yourself this month? We gotchuu, we’ve hand-picked a list of what to book in Dublin this October:
10. Bram Stoker Festival
Friday 27th October – Monday 30th October, more info here
A celebration of one of Ireland’s most influential writers, the weekend-long festival draws inspiration from Stroker’s life, work and the Gothic Dublin that he inhabited. Explore Stoker’s literary impact through walking tours, installations, events and everything in between. The full festival itinerary has not been released as yet, but in the past, the festival has seen world premieres of film scores, award-winning theatre productions, choral ensembles in libraries, elaborate banquets in sacred crypts, themed food tours and more.
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9. Maeve Binchy & Irish Writers ECHOES Festival
Friday 6th October – Sunday 8th October, Dalkey Castle, more info here
Celebrate the life and work of Ireland’s own Maeve Binchy, alongside catching some of the country’s finest contemporary creative voices across fiction, non-fiction, stage and screen. This year sees an eclectic lineup, with the likes of Donal Fallon, Emer McLysaght, and Francis Brennan sharing their stories, plus catch Deirdre O’Kane and Lise-Ann McLaughlin reading from Binchy.
8. Ireland Music Week
Various Locations, Tuesday 3rd October – Friday 6th October, more info here
The festival formally known as Hard Working Class Heroes, is now in its 21st year. Set across six stages in the city (including The Grand Social, The Workman’s Club & Tengu) the festival showcases up-and-coming Irish artists while giving them an excellent opportunity to do workshops, attend talks and meet with agents, labels, bookers, music supervisors, and services from all over the world. Despite the rampant gender disparity in the music industry (see this 2022 study about the underrepresentation of women in many areas of the music production process), the organisers are aiming to achieve a 50/50 gender balance.
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7. Dublin Festival of History
Various Locations, Monday 25th September – Sunday 15th October, more info here
There are more festivals than you can swing a lanyard at happening in Dublin this October, including the wonderful Dublin Festival of History. There are over 200 free events from talks, tours, exhibitions, and film screenings taking place at this year’s festival with some incredible events from Irish and international historians, including Diarmaid Ferriter, Mary Beard, Dermot Bolger and loads more happening.
6. Hocus Puckus
Saturday, 28 October 2023 – Monday, 30 October, Malahide Castle & Gardens, more info here
Get in the sp00ky spirit of things with this family-friendly ghost hunt in the beautiful Malahide Castle and even more stunning gardens. Join the scary trail and through a series of challenges attempt to save the resident ghost Puck from the claws of Salem. Organisers have described it as a mix between “the Movie Hocus Pocus meets Puck the Castle Protector with a Malahide twist”.
5. A literary salon inspired by Elizabeth Bowen
City Assembly House, Thursday 28th September, more info here
Ever dreamed about wandering back through time and into a salon, grabbing a cup of coffee and overhearing some of the greatest creative minds breaking down long-held literary and artistic traditions and creating them anew? Just me? Ah well, the Irish Georgian Society is recreating a night inspired by the literary salons that Anglo-Irish author Elizabeth Bowen hosted at ‘Bowen’s Court’ in the mid-twentieth century. Hosted by academic Eibhear Walshe, he will be joined in conversation by the Irish writer Martina Devlin, and anyone else who chooses to join the conversation.
4. Oliver Cromwell is Really Very Sorry by Xnthony
Tuesday, 24 October 2023 – Saturday, 28 October, Project Arts Centre, more info here
One of last year’s hit shows, the deliciously funny musical explores English colonialism in Ireland, through the prism of a man the English can’t remember and the Irish can’t forget. Expect legendary pop anthems, full-throttle cabaret and some bloody historical re-enactments performed by the supremely talented Xnthony.
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3. Andy Warhol three times out
Friday 6th October – Sunday 28th January, more info here
An exhibition that’s been five years in the making, made up of over 250 works on loan from around the world, this is the largest showing of Warhol’s work in Ireland. This special exhibition tracks Warhol’s prolific career over four decades, through paintings, prints, photographs, films and installations. Curated by Barbara Dawson, Director of Hugh Lane Gallery and Michael Dempsey, Head of Exhibitions the exhibition contains plenty of well-known prints from the iconic Campbell’s Soup Cans, Flowers, Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Jackie Kennedy to Chairman Mao.
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2. Open House
Various Locations, Saturday 7th October – Sunday 15th October more info here
One of the finest festivals of the year, when the doors/gates of rooms, buildings, streets, railways, pitches, and parks are opened to the public (when the rest of the year they are closed). The free festival of architecture also includes 100+ guided tours, films, exhibitions and events. Get booking your spots early as some of the best frequently sell out.
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1 Nightmare Realm
City Market, Mary’s Lane, Friday 6th October – Friday 3rd November, more info here
Listen if Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox are brave enough to head into the Nightmare Realm, we are (the couple attended last October while MGK was over for a gig). Europe’s best scream park is returning to Dublin for the guts of October, spreading fright and fear amongst the young and the old. Each year the team work hard to make the experience as scary and experiential as possible, this year is no different with a new ‘Night Terrors’ show, featuring 5 terrifying new scare mazes, interactive secret rooms, an expanded Museum of Horrors, a bigger food court, and more immersive entertainment with, stage dancers, circus performers and interactive shops, in their onsite festival village, Halloween Town. Book yourself a ticket and be prepared to get scared sh*tless.
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