About Festival 2025

Speaking of the announcement today (18 June 2025), Festival Director, Olga Barry said: “We’re delighted to announce the 52nd edition of Kilkenny Arts Festival. ‘For over half a century, August in the Marble City has been synonymous with extraordinary artists and performers bringing their work to our beautiful city and fantastic audiences. New ideas in ancient spaces is the hallmark of Kilkenny in the late summer, and this year’s programme is packed with the new; world and Irish premieres, intriguing collaborations and residencies, intimate experiences and epic spectacle occupy Kilkenny both in centre stage and all around the edges. In 2025 the work of these creators doesn’t shy away from some of the big questions facing humanity and society today - we invite everyone to come and join us to experience this special kinship between artists and audiences.’’

This year, the Festival hosts another Kilkenny stalwart, Kate Ellis, alongside Francesco Turrisi curating an extensive programme of artists and performances featuring new work made especially in and for Kilkenny. Including Niwel Tsumbu, Joanna Mattrey, Rahki Singh, Simmy Singh, Colm Mac Con Iomaire, Matt Jacobson, Fulvio Sigatura, Derek Whyte, Nick Roth and Colin Dunne; imbedded alongside Ellis and Francesco holding court at the Set Theatre for the first half of the festival is a unique performance (Irish Premiere) by James McVinnie and Eliza McCarthy of Jonny Greenwood’s X Years of Reverb curated by Kate Ellis, and Ruth McGinley and Matthew Nolan’s specially curated exploration of Ryuichi Sakamoto. Martin Hayes always brings a special flavour to Kilkenny, with performances from violinist/fiddler Aoife Ní Bhrian and pianist/composer Cormac McCarthy’s stunning new duo; Danny O Mahony (accordion) also featured in the festival for the first time in the opera premiere of Custom of the Coast earlier in the festival and takes over Cleere’s Theatre for what promised to be a rollicking night of tunes; the exquisite pairing of Maria Ryan and Lucia Mac Partlin bring their duo performance and arrangements to the festival and Martin Hayes will gathers festival artists together for what is always an unforgettable night at St. Canice’s Cathedral on the closing Saturday.

Beyond the residencies there are standout headline performances from risings stars Anna B Savage, RÓIS of whom the Guardian said, ‘an arresting new talent’; DUG bring their American and Irish folk sound to the Set Theatre; and Fedora Prize-winner, Michael Gallen’s collective Sudden Wells will do a special performance in advance of their new album release. The Rollercoaster Sessions returns Kilkenny favourite, the incomparable Seamus Fogarty revisits his very first album release from 2012 along with new material; and Elise – a young Kilkenny star in the making with a soulful voice and fresh blend of indie folk and pop.

Poetry takes centre stage in literature with Paul Muldoon and his ‘History of Ireland in 12 Poems’ where the current Irish Professor of Poetry confronts Ireland’s history through the prism of his own work; Annemarie Ní Churreáin reads from her 2016 work Ghostgirl -addressing hidden histories in Ireland, where this work responding to archival records of a Mother & Baby Home in Donegal; Martina Evans’ reading in 2024 from her narrative poem The Coming Thing was a standout event – this year Evans returns to Kilkenny to read from her sequel to that work, Drunken Driving in advance of its publication in 2026; and Paula Meehan closes the poetry series with reading from her most recent collection The Solace of Artemis. New press, fallow will also present a gathering from their new bi-annual journal featuring fiction, poetry and essays from a range of writers working today.

The Butler Gallery in association with the Festival presents a remarkable exhibition – Cities of the World curated by Butler Gallery director, Anna O’Sullivan – exploring the theme of Cities of the World by two artists, Kathy Prendergast and Chris Leach. These two artists have never met but are intrinsically linked by this subject matter which they realise in very different ways. Prendergast’s City Drawings are based on contemporary maps of the world’s capital cities and follows her own sense of scale to contain each city on the same size paper, while Leach’s work is 196 tiny drawings of every recognised capital city in the world which function as one piece of work. An additional film programme called City as Character co-curated by Out of Focus, will be shown in the Digital Gallery and the Watergate Theatre. In addition the celebrated architect Valerie Mulvin of McCullough Mulvin, whose recent exhibition with the Irish Architecture Foundation The Reason of Towns explored the originality and potential of the Irish town. Here she hosts a number of guest speakers in an event that considers the imagination of cities – Productive Disorder: Cities and Imagination.

Further exhibitions presented by the Kilkenny Arts Office feature artist Kate Fahey curated by Rachel Botha; and KCAT studio present an exhibition The Known and Unknown World curated by Benjamin Stafford.

Barnstorm Theatre presents an international programme for Stormfest – a programme of theatre for young children – including shows The Bear that Wasn’t, Geppetto, The Land of a Hundred Little Hills.

The ever popular free, twice daily pop-up concert series, Secret Garden Music is featured throughout the festival across the fabric of Kilkenny City and environs.

Booking open now online at kilkennyarts.ie / by phone +353 56 775 2175

From 16 July book in person at the Festival Box Office 76 John Street, Kilkenny

Kilkenny Arts Festival is grateful for the continued support from funders, particularly its principal funder, the Arts Council; Kilkenny County Council and Fáilte Ireland.