7th August

Pierce Turner with support from Jennifer Evans
My inspiring festival

Pierce Turner with support from Jennifer Evans

Sat 7th Aug
The Parade Tower

Pierce Turner likes to throw everything into his performances, from table-dancing to singalongs. Now resident in Manhattan, this is a rare chance to catch one of Ireland’s great songwriters live, abetted by rising singer-songwriter Jennifer Evans. Anything could happen, and probably will.

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The Cardinall’s Musick
My inspiring festival

The Cardinall’s Musick

Sat 7th Aug
The Black Abbey

Gramophone Award-winners The Cardinall’s Musick play Tudor masterpieces by Thomas Tallis and William Byrd.

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RTÉ Concert Orchestra
My first festival

RTÉ Concert Orchestra

Always one of the most popular events at the festival, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra brings its unrivalled repertoire to St Canice’s Cathedral for a concert featuring wonderful Irish mezzo-soprano Anne Marie Gibbons.

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Innisfree Céilí Band
My first festival

Innisfree Céilí Band

Sat 7th Aug
Set Theatre

With reels and jigs played with passion and flair, the Innisfree Céilí Band are guaranteed to get your feet moving.

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The Hubert Butler Annual Lecture: Robert Fisk
My inspiring festival

The Hubert Butler Annual Lecture: Robert Fisk

Award-winning Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk looks back on his extraordinary career and casts a critical eye over the state of journalism today.

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Paul Durcan
My inspiring festival

Paul Durcan

One of the most original voices in modern poetry brings his celebrated reading style to the Watergate.

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Gabriel Byrne On Screen
My first festival

Gabriel Byrne On Screen

Sat 7th Aug
Set Theatre

From adventure fantasy Into the West to the Coen brothers’ Miller’s Crossing and HBO’s award-winning new drama series In Treatment, Gabriel Byrne on Screen presents the finest work of one of Ireland’s greatest actors.

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Visual Art Strand 2: Endangered Studios
My first festival

Visual Art Strand 2: Endangered Studios

Sat 7th Aug - Sun 15th Aug

An exhibition of work by four Kilkenny-based artists.

Free

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Visual Art Strand 2: Tony O’Malley
My first festival

Visual Art Strand 2: Tony O’Malley

Sat 7th Aug - Sun 31st Oct
Butler Gallery

The first exhibition dedicated entirely to the amazing ‘Constructions’ of the renowned Irish artist, Tony O’Malley.

Free

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Strand 2 Craft: Made in Kilkenny
My first festival

Strand 2 Craft: Made in Kilkenny

Sat 7th Aug - Sat 14th Aug

Twenty-six of the finest craftspeople in Kilkenny display work inspired by the county.

Free

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Donkey Feathers
My first festival

Donkey Feathers

Sat 7th Aug - Sun 8th Aug

A carnival of irreverent clowning and unpredictable fun!

Free

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The Baad Mutha Funkas
My first festival

The Baad Mutha Funkas

Sat 7th Aug

Their jokes are as old as their hairstyles!

Free

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Baghdaddies
My first festival

Baghdaddies

Sat 7th Aug

One of the most fun bands in this or any other universe, the Baghdaddies are sure to get your feet moving.

Free

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Strand 2 Craft: Grennan Mill Craft School Exhibition
My first festival

Strand 2 Craft: Grennan Mill Craft School Exhibition

Sat 7th Aug - Sun 15th Aug

Grennan Mill Craft School presents an exciting range of work from six artists.

Free

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Strand 2 Craft: Ceramics Ireland International Festival
My first festival

Strand 2 Craft: Ceramics Ireland International Festival

Sat 7th Aug - Mon 16th Aug
The National Craft Gallery

Featuring outstanding work from seven international makers.

Free

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Embracing Technology
My first festival

Embracing Technology

Sat 7th Aug - Wed 20th Oct
The National Craft Gallery

Showcasing the work of fourteen makers who are pushing the boundaries of their craft through the inventive use of materials and technology.

Free

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Mah Rana - ‘Jewellery is Life’ and ‘Meanings and Attachments’
My first festival

Mah Rana - ‘Jewellery is Life’ and ‘Meanings and Attachments’

Sat 7th Aug - Wed 20th Oct
The National Craft Gallery

Two exhibitions exploring the idea that jewellery is intrinsic to our lives.

Free

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The Magic Cube

The Magic Cube

Fri 6th Aug - Sun 8th Aug
The Watergate Theatre

Two clowns discover a strange world made only of cubes in this wonderful clowning performance featuring horses, motorbikes, trains, castles, battles, love, laughs and even some tears.

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Where did it all go right?
My first festival

Where did it all go right?

Fri 6th Aug - Sun 8th Aug
The Left Bank

ponydance, Belfast’s champions of comedy dance theatre, serve up an outrageous confection of moves and movement to a soundtrack of garish music and nervous tension. You’ll laugh and cringe!

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The Smile Off Your Face
My surprising festival

The Smile Off Your Face

Fri 6th Aug - Tue 10th Aug
Rothe House

The Smile Off Your Face offers a totally unique experience, for one person at a time. Everything happens only in your head, and yet it doesn’t…

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Victor and Gord
My first festival

Victor and Gord

Fri 6th Aug - Tue 10th Aug
Cleere’s

You know those friends you grew up with? Went to school with? Laughed, cried, partied and pulled with? D’you ever wonder, sometimes, if they’d ever just f**k off?

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Visual Art Strand 2: KCAT Thirteen
My first festival

Visual Art Strand 2: KCAT Thirteen

Fri 6th Aug - Sun 29th Aug

A vibrant exhibition featuring work by thirteen local artists.

Free

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Visual Art Strand 2: Maria Van Kesteren
My first festival

Visual Art Strand 2: Maria Van Kesteren

Fri 6th Aug - Sun 15th Aug

An exhibition of new work by the artist who introduced woodturning to Ireland.

Free

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Visual Art Strand 2: Gerard Casey, Eamon Colman, Patrick Pye
My first festival

Visual Art Strand 2: Gerard Casey, Eamon Colman, Patrick Pye

Fri 6th Aug - Sun 15th Aug

Featuring graphic work and paintings by three of Ireland's foremost artists.

Free

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Visual Art Strand 2: Guerrilla Girls
My alternative festival

Visual Art Strand 2: Guerrilla Girls

Fri 6th Aug - Fri 24th Sep
Kilkenny County Council Arts Office

New works by internationally-renowned feminist arts group the Guerrilla Girls.

Free

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Willie Doherty
My first festival

Willie Doherty

Fri 6th Aug - Sun 15th Aug
Rothe House

Twice Turner Prize nominee Willie Doherty's photography and video work draws on his native city of Derry to explore themes of individual and collective subjectivity, memory and responsibility.

Free

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William McKeown
My first festival

William McKeown

Fri 6th Aug - Sun 15th Aug
11 Patrick Street

"The paintings that I will be showing at Kilkenny have developed out of the theme of immersion that has preoccupied me for many years."

Free

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Eithne Jordan
My first festival

Eithne Jordan

Fri 6th Aug - Sun 15th Aug
11 Patrick Street

Eithne Jordan, one of Ireland’s leading figurative painters, explores the hidden and forgotten spaces of Europe's great cities.

Free

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Declan Clarke
My first festival

Declan Clarke

Fri 6th Aug - Sun 15th Aug
Rothe House

Declan Clarke's Cologne Overnight considers the development of 20th century Western ideals through the ruins left in their wake.

Free

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Michael Coleman
My first festival

Michael Coleman

Fri 6th Aug - Sun 15th Aug
11 Patrick Street

"Around the Park is a series of twelve watercolours based on my time as an artist-in-residence in the Phoenix Park, Dublin."

Free

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Stephen Loughman
My first festival

Stephen Loughman

Fri 6th Aug - Sun 15th Aug
11 Patrick Street

Stephen Loughman's series The Fisherman’s Widow investigates the notion of an artwork as witness to a crime.

Free

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Ciarán Walsh
My first festival

Ciarán Walsh

Fri 6th Aug - Sun 15th Aug
Rothe House

Ciarán Walsh’s recent work investigates the legacy of maligned psychotherapist and scientist Wilhelm Reich.

Free

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Eoghan McTigue
My first festival

Eoghan McTigue

Fri 6th Aug - Sun 15th Aug
Kitchen Corridor - Kilkenny Castle

The photographs in Eoghan McTigue's series Aerial Plane have a strange, otherworldly feel, like dark, monochromatic paintings.

Free

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Dennis McNulty
My first festival

Dennis McNulty

Fri 6th Aug - Sun 15th Aug
Ormonde St. Car Park (Top Floor)

Dennis McNulty creates ‘situations’, space-specific sound performances or site-related installations, which he characterises as points of intersection between flows of various kinds – time, site, sound, narrative and audience.

Free

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Fergus Martin
My first festival

Fergus Martin

Fri 6th Aug - Sun 15th Aug
11 Patrick Street

"In my painting and sculpture, I try to find a shape that gives a feeling of ‘holding’ as much as possible. I often think of tanks filling up with water, of rivers rising to the brim."

Free

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Susan Phillipsz
My first festival

Susan Phillipsz

Fri 6th Aug - Sun 15th Aug
Kilkenny Castle Park

Turner Prize nominee Susan Philipsz's sound installation in Kilkenny Castle Park pays tribute to Lucia Joyce, daughter of James Joyce and a passionate (but now forgotten) dancer.

Free

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surface & reality
My first festival

surface & reality

Fri 6th Aug - Sun 15th Aug

An exhibition of eleven contemporary artists in five locations through the city, including work by Turner Prize nominees Willie Doherty (nominated 1994/2003) and Susan Philipsz (nominated 2010).

Free

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