Bloomsday celebrates Thursday 16 June 1904, the day depicted in James Joyce’s novel Ulysses. The day is named after Leopold Bloom, the central character in Ulysses. The novel follows the life and thoughts of Leopold Bloom and a host of other characters – real and fictional – from 8am on 16 June 1904 through to the early hours of the following morning. Celebrations often include dressing up like characters from the book and in clothes that would have been the style of the era. One of the hallmark fancy dress items of Bloomsday is the straw boater hat. Celebrations come in many differen

MusicTown is a shapeshifting programme of live events created to reflect this ever-changing world of live music in Dublin City. Within this programme, there is music as experimental theatre, a reflection of one of history’s great singers/composers by a group of young musicians, an all-ages DIY afternoon show, a 62-year-old songwriter performing his solo work live for the first time, a sensational young performer from Fermanagh summoning the ancient and the modern, and much, much more. Staged throughout the nooks and crannies of the National Concert Hall, this year’s MusicTown will featu

A community driven arts festival in the heart of Dublin 8. Welcome to the Rialto Community Arts Festival! We’re not like other arts festivals. There’s no ‘big names’ involved with this, just grassroot groups and people, all based in or around Dublin 8. Dublin 8 is home to an amazing range of talented people, from photographers and weavers, to poets, authors and film-makers. The Rialto Community Arts Festival is here to shine a light on these amazing people, while inviting our neighbours to see just what Rialto has to offer. What began as a conversation between a couple of people