Event of the week
Forest Fest
Friday, July 21st-Sunday, July 23rd, Emo, County Laois; 1pm; €190 (weekend)/€85 (daily); forestfest.ie
Last year’s inaugural Forest Fest was so successful that putting a line-up together for 2023 was a no-brainer, and in keeping with the demographic of come-one-come-all, the acts performing across next weekend include tried and tested pop/rock (Suede, Sister Sledge, Suzanne Vega, Gabrielle, Big Country, James, The Primitives), a comprehensive Irish contingent (Ash, The Undertones, Paul Brady, BellX1, Pillow Queens, Bronagh Gallagher, Duke Special, Frank and Walters, Something Happens, The Riptide Movement, Stevie Appleby), and a new stage, The Forest Fleadh. The latter gathers a rake of Irish traditional/roots acts (including Sharon Shannon, The Raines, Daoirí Farrell, Greenshine, Kíla, and Stockton’s Wing). Something for everyone in the forest? You bet.
Gigs
Morrissey
Saturday, July 15th/Sunday, July 16th, Vicar Street, Dublin; 6.30pm; €81 (sold out); ticketmaster.ie
Following a few health scares, an abandoned gig (last November at the Greek Theater, Los Angeles), little or no assistance from a record label, an unreleased album (Bonfire of Teenagers), a forthcoming new album (Without Music the World Dies), and the recent passing of The Smiths’ bass player, Andy Rourke, it has been the usual scenario of bewilderment for Morrissey. ‘Artists are here to disturb the peace’ is the quote (from James Baldwin) on his official online mouthpiece, morrisseycentral.com and, in fairness, that is exactly what he has been doing for some years. Expect a liberal sprinkling of Smiths’ classics as well as solo material old, new, and unreleased.
The Little Lighthouse Tour
Saturday, July 15th, Loop Head, 4.30pm
Irish musician Alan Daniel Tobin, aka ADT, has been gigging at various lighthouses around Ireland to raise funds and awareness for the RNLI, and as part of the Carrigaholt Maritime Festival he performs at Loop Head. The Little Lighthouse tour winds up early next month with gigs on Thursday, August 3rd (venue/time tbc, as part of the Skibbereen Arts Festival) and Saturday, August 5th, 8pm, Sea Church, Ballycotton, County Cork. The latter show is the tour finale fundraiser for the RNLI. ADT’s latest single, From the Eastern Shore, will be played along with material from his band, LOWmountain.
Bell X1
Friday, July 21st, Iveagh Gardens, Dublin; 6pm; €49.50/€42 (sold out); ticketmaster.ie
The popularity of BellX1 shows no signs of fading away in the rear view mirror – that must be a good feeling for a band that has been around for almost 25 years. Their latest album, Merciful Hour, provides enough evidence of their continued creativity, with this paper praising its “playful and adventurous” musical template” and the band for never having had “the urge to stand still.” Special guest is Cork musician Eoin French, who is much better known as Talos.
Comedy
Tim Minchin – and his Piano
Wednesday, July 19th-20th, Vicar Street, 6.30pm; €49 (July 19th sold out); ticketmaster.ie
We are advised that this is ‘not a comedy gig’, but that the promoters (and, indeed, Tim Minchin) can’t guarantee occasional bouts of mirth. That’s what happens when you don’t plan ahead, which is something that Grammy, Tony and Olivier Award-winning comedian/actor/songwriter/musical theatre composer Tim Minchin is doing on a brief series of solo shows. – just him, a piano, and songs that, he says, “just happen to be funny.” Smart? Funny? Incisive? A hat-trick of treats awaits.
Stage
In The Middle of The Fields
Tuesday, July 18th-Saturday, July 29th, Richmond Barracks, Dublin; 7pm; €22.42; eventbrite.ie
Director Joan Sheehy and an award-winning creative team (which includes accordionist Dermot Dunne and former lead Riverdance performer, Colin Dunne) present an open-air reimagining of Mary Lavin’s short story. Often referred to as one of her ‘widow’ stories from the late ‘60s (reflecting her worries about widowhood), this innovative staging taps into the narrative topics of vulnerability, grief, fear, and sexism. The production concludes its run at Lavin’s home place, Bective Mills, Bective, County Meath, Tuesday, August 1st-Saturday, August 5th.
Arts festival
Galway International Arts Festival
Monday, July 17th-Sunday, July 30th; various venues/times/prices; giaf.ie
Where to start and what to highlight? The Godfather, if not the capo di tutti capi, of Irish arts festivals returns with a packed and stacked programme of events that will take the mastery of the art of bilocation to a new level. In brief: there is music (Martha Wainwright, Robert Forster, Pavement, Saw Doctors), visual art (Diana Cooperwhite, Lorraine Tuck), comedy (The Laughter Loft) and theatre (the dynamic trilogy of Druid O’Casey, a new production of Enda Walsh’s Bedbound, featuring Colm Meaney and his daughter, Brenda, and Not a World, featuring Raymond Keane). Factor in impressive sidebar events such as First Thought Talks (journalist Fintan O’Toole, historian Diarmaid Ferriter, writer Lucy Caldwell) and outside displays (Planéte Vapeur’s Dragon), and you surely have enough to be going on with.
Exhibition
Adrift
Until Saturday, August 19th, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, County Louth; highlanes.ie
County Wexford-based Belgian visual artist and film-maker Els Dietvorst presents a varied collection of work that embraces installations, prints, drawings, sculptures, performative activities, and cinematic projects. Using discourse, instinct, and partnership as her primary creative methods, Dietvorst’s willingness to advance a collective practice is a boon to artistic outliers. Curated by Catherine Bowe and Karla Sánchez Zepeda, the exhibition features previous and new work.
Still running
Continuous Patterns – IMMA Summer Party
Today, July 15th, IMMA, Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin; 6pm; €32.11; imma.ie
The final day of Continuous Patterns features live performances from Caoi De Barra, Cian Nugent, Ailbhe Reddy, and Talos. DJs featured include Pablo Santos, Hewan Mulugeta, and Donal Dineen.
Book it this week
The Charlatans, City Hall, Cork, October 27th; ticketmaster.ie
The Murder Capital, Claregalway Castle, Galway, September 17th; fallrightintoplace.ie
Hozier, 3Arena, Dublin, December 19th; ticketmaster.ie
Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, March 2nd; ticketmaster.ie
