7th August
Pierce Turner with support from Jennifer Evans
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.

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

RTÉ Concert Orchestra
St Canice’s Cathedral
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.

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

The Hubert Butler Annual Lecture: Robert Fisk
St Canice’s Cathedral
Award-winning Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk looks back on his extraordinary career and casts a critical eye over the state of journalism today.

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

Gabriel Byrne On Screen
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.

Visual Art Strand 2: Endangered Studios
An exhibition of work by four Kilkenny-based artists.
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Visual Art Strand 2: Tony O’Malley
Butler Gallery
The first exhibition dedicated entirely to the amazing ‘Constructions’ of the renowned Irish artist, Tony O’Malley.
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Strand 2 Craft: Made in Kilkenny
Twenty-six of the finest craftspeople in Kilkenny display work inspired by the county.
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Baghdaddies
One of the most fun bands in this or any other universe, the Baghdaddies are sure to get your feet moving.
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Strand 2 Craft: Grennan Mill Craft School Exhibition
Grennan Mill Craft School presents an exciting range of work from six artists.
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Strand 2 Craft: Ceramics Ireland International Festival
The National Craft Gallery
Featuring outstanding work from seven international makers.
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Embracing Technology
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.
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Mah Rana - ‘Jewellery is Life’ and ‘Meanings and Attachments’
The National Craft Gallery
Two exhibitions exploring the idea that jewellery is intrinsic to our lives.
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The Magic Cube
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.

Where did it all go right?
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!

The Smile Off Your Face
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…

Victor and Gord
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?

Visual Art Strand 2: KCAT Thirteen
A vibrant exhibition featuring work by thirteen local artists.
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Visual Art Strand 2: Maria Van Kesteren
An exhibition of new work by the artist who introduced woodturning to Ireland.
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Visual Art Strand 2: Gerard Casey, Eamon Colman, Patrick Pye
Featuring graphic work and paintings by three of Ireland's foremost artists.
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Visual Art Strand 2: Guerrilla Girls
Kilkenny County Council Arts Office
New works by internationally-renowned feminist arts group the Guerrilla Girls.
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Willie Doherty
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.
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William McKeown
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."
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Eithne Jordan
11 Patrick Street
Eithne Jordan, one of Ireland’s leading figurative painters, explores the hidden and forgotten spaces of Europe's great cities.
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Declan Clarke
Rothe House
Declan Clarke's Cologne Overnight considers the development of 20th century Western ideals through the ruins left in their wake.
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Michael Coleman
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."
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Stephen Loughman
11 Patrick Street
Stephen Loughman's series The Fisherman’s Widow investigates the notion of an artwork as witness to a crime.
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Ciarán Walsh
Rothe House
Ciarán Walsh’s recent work investigates the legacy of maligned psychotherapist and scientist Wilhelm Reich.
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Eoghan McTigue
Kitchen Corridor - Kilkenny Castle
The photographs in Eoghan McTigue's series Aerial Plane have a strange, otherworldly feel, like dark, monochromatic paintings.
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Dennis McNulty
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.
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Fergus Martin
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."
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Susan Phillipsz
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.
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