Event of the week
Electric Picnic
From Friday, August 29th, until Sunday, August 31st, Stradbally, Co Laois, noon (sold out), electricpicnic.ie
With capacity increased to 80,000 people, this year’s Electric Picnic is the largest in the festival’s history. If you’ve a gold-dust ticket you’ll be looking forward to three days of headliners (including Chappell Roan, Hozier, Sam Fender, David Gray and Kings of Leon), established crowd-pleasers (including The Coronas, The Saw Doctors, Nile Rodgers and The Kooks), a diverse array of Irish acts (including Kneecap, Amble, Jazzy, Biig Piig, For Those I Love and Orla Gartland) and music and arts events in every cranny of the site’s 250 hectares. The recent addition to the line-up of Noel and Mike Hogan of The Cranberries, reuniting for the first time since the death, in 2018, of Dolores O’Riordan, took many by surprise. They will be joined by the RTÉ Orchestra and a “special mystery guest”.
Gigs
Robbie Williams
Saturday, August 23rd, Croke Park, Dublin, 5pm, €151.25/€111.25/€91.25/€76.25, ticketmaster.ie
With a dozen albums in his back pocket, Robbie Williams has sold more records in Britain and Ireland than any other British artist. So just about everyone knows at least some of his songs. Williams, described by the journalist Caroline Sullivan as a “perfect meeting of ego, self-deprecation and hits ... who combines monumental hamminess and bone-deep vulnerability”, has overcome numerous personal obstacles during his long career. A born entertainer? Keen as mustard to ensure everyone’s having a good time? Yes and yes. His guests are Elbow and The Lottery Winners.
Addison Rae
Monday, August 25th, 3Arena, Dublin, 6.30pm, €61.90/€37.50, ticketmaster.ie
With almost 90 million followers on TikTok, it is no surprise that the venue for Addison Rae’s debut headline show in Ireland has been upgraded (from the National Stadium). Initially a content creator on TikTok, the American has added acting and songwriting to her CV, with her recently released debut album, Addison, further broadening her appeal. Critics love her – “her rise to main pop girl is equal parts master class and modern spectacle,” according to Billboard, the US music-industry bible – and her fans adore her. This concert is the first of Rae’s European tour, which concludes in Cologne, Germany, on Monday, September 8th.
Sam Fender
Thursday, August 28th, Boucher Road Playing Fields, Belfast, 4pm, £60.50, ticketmaster.ie
Five years ago very few of us had heard of Sam Fender. Now the North Shields songwriter is headlining the likes of 3Arena, where he played late last year, and Boucher Road Playing Fields. After this show he’ll zip down to Stradbally, Co Laois, to grace the main stage at Electric Picnic, where his strand of supercharged Springsteenesque rock/pop will no doubt add a mighty heave-ho to Saturday night at the festival. Fender’s special guests are the increasingly brilliant CMAT and the emerging singer-songwriter Aaron Rowe.
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Gazefest
Friday, August 29th, Grand Social, Dublin, 7.30pm, €16.50, thegrandsocial.ie/eventbrite.ie; Saturday, August 30th, Oh Yeah Centre, Belfast, 2pm, £20, ohyeahbelfast.com/eventbrite.ie
Ireland’s shoegaze festival returns with another batch of bands for two shows, north and south. Making their Irish debut is the British band Whitelands, whose 2024 album, Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind to the Day, earned them a support slot with the acclaimed shoegazers Slowdive. Other acts performing across the two days include Belfast’s Virgins, and Wynona Bleach, Dublin’s Dream Boy, and Scotland’s Sunstinger. The Belfast show is age 14-plus.
Festival
Ukulele Hooley
Saturday, August 23rd, and Sunday, August 24th, People’s Park, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, 11.30am, free, ukulelehooley.com
Now in its 14th year, Ukulele Hooley is perhaps Europe’s leading celebration of the musical instrument. Alongside home-grown talent such as Shillelagh Northside Ukulele Group, Rathfarnham Ukulele Group and the Ukuhooligans, the festival will welcome strummers from Poland (the Poznań Non-Symphonic Ukulele Orchestra), the United States (Victoria Vox), Italy (Julia Traser, Alessandro Pedroni) and Portugal (Rita Braga).
Podcast
Saving Grace: Jungle Fever
Friday, August 29th, Helix, Dublin, 7pm, €45; Saturday, August 30th, Ulster Hall, Belfast, 7pm, £40, ticketmaster.ie
Grace Keeling, aka GK Barry, has graduated from sharing videos on TikTok to being the youngest regular panellist on ITV’s long-running talkshow Loose Women. She also appeared on last year’s I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!, hence the title of this latest podcast tour. Fans of reality TV can expect to experience “wild stories, even wilder games and all the iconic chaos you’d expect”.
Visual art
EVA International
From Friday, August 29th, until Sunday, October 26th, various venues, Limerick city, eva.ie
An invitation to think from numerous perspectives about how we can participate in a combined and even-handed future, the 41st EVA International features new commissions and presentations by many artists. International names include Reza Afisina, Ana Bravo Pérez, Anikó Loránt, Rudsel Martinus and Naeem Mohaiemen. Irish artists include Ciarán Ó Dochartaigh, Eimear Walshe, Laura Ní Fhlaibhín and the collaborative artists Niamh Moriarty and Ruth Clinton (the latter also known as a member of the folk ensembles Landless and Poor Creature). The festival’s opening weekend will feature live performances, panel discussions and artists’ talks.
Still running
The Beatles Weekend
Saturday, August 23rd, and Sunday, August 24th, various venues, times and prices, Dublin, dublin.ie/beatles
Celebrating Dublin’s twinning with Liverpool, the capital’s inaugural Beatles Weekend continues with tribute bands and Liverpool DJs (Saturday, August 23rd, Wigwam, 8pm) and a Fab Four-themed family day (Sunday, noon-5pm, Meeting House Square/Parliament Street) featuring live music, markets, interactive workshops and outdoor screenings.
Book it this week
Mick Flannery and Susan O’Neill, Vicar Street, Dublin, October 25th, ticketmaster.ie
Wet Leg, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, November 26th, ticketmaster.ie
Talking Sopranos, Waterfront Hall, Belfast, February 16th, ticketmaster.ie
Derren Brown, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, May 12th-16th, ticketmaster.ie
