FROM ancient rituals to avant-garde theatre, this year’s summer and autumn festivals promise folklore, fun, culture and plenty of craic.
Here are the best of Ireland's festivals for the remainder of 2025.
Spraoi International Street Arts Festival, Waterford
August 1–3
Street theatre, acrobatics, music, and visual spectacle. Now in its third decade, Spraoi attracts thousands of visitors from across Ireland and beyond. Highlights include the Spraoi Festival Parade with hundreds of costumed performers, dramatic floats and bands wending their way through the mediaeval streets of Waterford.
Headliners this year include The Knockadollys Big Band with their mix of tradition and innovation; The Always Marching Drinking Band, a nine-piece ensemble blending Mediterranean music, comedy, and theatrical flair; Electro 28 with imaginative street theatre performance The Frame, featuring chairs, eyes, words and sounds in a spontaneous 45-minute spectacle; and Tête de Mules Compagnie presenting Parasite Circus, a bold fairground-theatre piece with puppets, burlesque music and tragicomic clowns — part comedy and part Greek tragedy.
spraoi.com
Féile an Phobail (West Belfast Festival)
July 31–August 10
Féile an Phobail, now in its 37th year, features music, comedy, talks, theatre, and family events, with highlights including the Feile Country Fest on August 2 in Falls Park, starring Nathan Carter and Lisa McHugh. The festival celebrates the creativity and resilience of the local community with a strong Irish-language and cultural focus. Events take place across a variety of venues. There are tours and talks, comedy shows, workshops, music classes, Irish language events and tuition — as well as a trad trail.
www.feilebelfast.com
Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann (Wexford)
August 3–10
Ireland’s premier traditional music competition and festival with concerts, céilí dances, parades, and sessions all across Wexford. Guests include An Evening With Martin Hayes, traditional dance with a difference from the Danceperados of Ireland, and Pierce Turner’s O’Riada.
fleadhcheoil.ie/
Puck Fair (Killorglin, Co. Kerry)
August 10–12
One of the country’s oldest fairs (dating back to antiquity, maybe even pre-Christian times), featuring street markets, music, fireworks, and late-night traditional seisiúns.
Statue of King Puck in Killorglin (Pic: Jennifer O'Sullivan for Fáilte Ireland)Kilkenny Arts Festival (Kilkenny)
August 7–17
A ten-day celebration of arts featuring theatre, classical music, visual art, poetry, street performances, and large-scale outdoor installations. Highlights include The More Beautiful World, with a live performance by Ciarán Hinds, Sharon Carty and The Fews Ensemble, and Custom of the Coast, a haunting world‑premiere opera by composer Kamala Sankaram and poet Paul Muldoon at St Canice’s Cathedral.
www.kilkennyarts.ie
Rose of Tralee
August 15–19
Tralee, Co. Kerry
The annual Kerry beauty bash, when Tralee plays host to the world. The centrepiece is the Rose Competition, where the Rose from Ireland or the Diaspora is chosen. The Festival is themed on the love song The Rose of Tralee, by William Mulchinock, a nineteenth-century wealthy merchant who was in love with Mary O’Connor, his family’s maid.
www.roseoftralee.ie
The Ould Lammas Fair returns to Ballycastle this monthOuld Lammas Fair
August 23–26
Ballycastle, Co. Antrim
Ballycastle has been holding this event for almost 400 years. A cross between a large village fete, a country fair and a gigantic car boot sale (in days gone by it would have been a gigantic cart boot sale), the narrow streets of the Co. Antrim seaside town are crammed with stalls selling swag ranging from farm produce to toys and bric-a-brac. On sale is everything you could possibly want — and much you wouldn’t, to be fair.
Romance could be in the air. The BBC once did a call-out for people with unusual names. Mr Lammasfair Rossman responded: “At school I used to get annoyed when people made fun of my name. My parents (both sadly deceased) gave me the name because they met at the Lammas Fair in Ballycastle. Now I think Lammasfair is a wonderful name because people always ask me about it and I can tell them the story of how my Mum and Dad met and fell in love.”
It’s certainly a tad more romantic than the farmer who told an RTÉ reporter that he’d fallen in love with his wife after he’d seen her milk an Aberdeen Angus at the Balmoral Agricultural Show in Belfast.
visitcausewaycoastandglens.com
Dublin Fringe Festival
September 6–21
The Dublin Fringe Festival 2025, a multidisciplinary arts festival, features 85 events ranging from improv theatre to immersive installations, 492 performances in 36 venues, with 56 world premieres and 67 Irish premieres, showcasing the work of over 650 artists. The festival's theme is "Be Brave. Be Bold. Be Wild. Be Here".
To prove the point, performers include Kundle Cru, an international circus and dance troupe presenting their show Birds, while Clara McSweeney and Mel Galley present their Remote Art Experience.
www.fringefest.com/
Clonakilty Guitar Festival
September 17–21
Hey big Fender! Two decades of guitar music including headline performances and free session trails. Artists include the wonderful Roy Harper (a long-time resident of Cork), Macdara Yates, the Bog Jazz duo, Muireann Bradley and many more heroes of the axe.
clonguitarfest.com/
Bere Island, Co Cork (Courtesy Marie Cremin for Fáilte Ireland)Bere Island Arts Festival
September 18–21
Music, visual art, poetry workshops plus the real star of the show — the beautiful Bere Island off the Co. Cork coast in Bantry Bay.
bereislandartsfestival.ie/
The National Ploughing Championships
September 16–18
The National Ploughing Championships, Ireland’s muddiest bash, returns to Screggan, Tullamore, Co. Offaly, mid-September. Expect 700 acres of farming frenzy, where tractors and horse-drawn ploughs carve furrows straighter than a taut fiddle string. This Glastonbury for farmers promises millions for the local economy, with last year’s 244,000 visitors expected to be exceeded. Beyond ploughing, enjoy livestock displays, sheepdog trials (they’re all not guilty), and fashion shows — so look out your Hunter wellies and a tweed cap, and altogether now “We had joy we had fun / We had Fresians in the sun...”
www.npa.ie
Dublin Theatre Festival
September 25 – October 12
One of Europe’s oldest theatre festivals (beginning 1957), mixing international and Irish productions. The full list of productions will be published later this week.
dublintheatrefestival.ie/
Clonmel Applefest
September 25–28
North Tipperary celebrates its local food heritage with foraging, Tipp tapas, baking and chef demonstrations. Music from local and international artists is also an integral part of proceedings.
www.clonmelapplefest.ie/
A winner at the Galway Oyster and Seafood Festival in Galway (Emilija Jefremova for Fáilte Ireland)Galway International Oyster & Seafood Festival
September 26–28
It has been described by the Sunday Times as “one of the 12 greatest shows on earth" and was listed in the AA Travel Guide as one of Europe's Seven Best Festivals. The Galway Oyster Festival is the world’s longest-running Oyster Festival and probably the one that has the highest levels of craic. Alongside creamy-headed Guinness and crustaceans, the oysters take pride of place. The events include seafood trails, oyster hot spots, oyster opening (shucking) championships including the Oyster 'Olympics' or World Oyster Opening Championship, foodie talks and tasting events in some of Galway’s best restaurants, food producer tours, a Food Village at The Festival Marquee, and a Mardi Gras style gala event through the streets of Galway.
Festival of History
September 26 – October 12
Talks, workshops and debates with leading historians at the Mansion House, Dublin
dublinfestivalofhistory.ie/
Dingle Food Festival
October 3–5
Highlights: Food tastings, cooking demos, local produce and this year with a focus on zero waste
dinglefood.com/
Ballinasloe Horse Fair
October 5 – October 11
Europe’s oldest horse fair, live auctions, dog shows, street market, music — in fact all the fun of the horse fair.
Galway Comedy Festival
October 21–27
Everyone laughed when they suggested a comedy festival in Galway. Well, they’re not laughing now. (© Bob Monkhouse, circa 1967). And of course they are laughing – this has become one of the great comedy festivals in Ireland. Performers this year include Dylan Moran, Emma Doran and arguably one of the greatest performers in these islands, Rhod Gilbert.
Derry Halloween Festival
October 28–31
The northerly city has established itself as the Halloween capital of Europe — which is entirely proper as the festival, Samhain in Irish, was in large part a product of Ireland.
This year Derry Halloween runs October 28–31. Parades, gigs, pyrotechnics, music and street celebrations will be featured on each of the four nights.
Meanwhile the story of Halloween will be brought to life through illumination, aerial performance, song, music and dance.
The Carnival Parade along Queen’s Quay — begins 7pm on October 31 — involves hundreds of local performers from schools, clubs and groups right across the City and District. Organised by the North West Carnival Initiative, the Carnival Parade’s performers will present “a fearsome display of magic and mayhem” according to the organisers.
derryhalloween.com
Wexford Opera Festival 2024 (Pic: Patricio Cassinoni for Fáilte Ireland)Púca Halloween Festival
October 30 – November 2
The Púca Festival explores the ancient folklore and legends of Ireland’s Ancient East.
From the lighting of the ancestral fire to celebration of the year's end, Trim and Athboy come alive with music, story, tradition, banquets. The Púca Great Fire is a public event and tickets are not required — just as they wouldn’t have been needed 5,000 years ago when the event would already have been going strong.
pucafestival.com
Wexford Opera Festival
October 17 – November 1
When someone starts singing after being stabbed, it’s an opera. That’s the quick definition. But of course there’s rather more to it than that. Opera can be regarded as the greatest synthesis of art ever created — the culmination of music, theatre, story, scenery, lighting, design, drama, and coughing.
The world of opera at its very best features some of the greatest music ever written. Its comedies and tragedies, its highs and lows reflecting the human experience, its beauties and splendours — all will transport you to a different place where you’ll be unaware of the rest of the audience, no matter how susceptible to throat infection.
The 74th Wexford Festival Opera truly exemplifies that. This year the festival explores the theme of Myths & Legends with the main stage operas being Verdi’s Le Trouvère, Handel’s Deidamia and The Magic Fountain by Delius.
For more details about holidaying in Ireland, visit Ireland.com
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