Kilkenny Arts Festival/Wired

Various venues, Kilkenny, various dates, times, prices Aug 8-16 See listings for details 056-7752175 www.kilkennyarts.ie

Up until a few years ago, the Kilkenny Arts Festival seemed to be a no-go area for any music other than classical, which was all well and good if you knew your Verdis from your Mozarts, but not terrific if you yearned for something a tad more contemporary. Now that the festival has expert curators for the various strands, it has blossomed into an inclusive, genuinely interesting entity. This is most obvious in the Wired strand of events, curated by Matthew Nolan.

This week’s acts include the maverick, elegant Julie Feeney (tomorrow, St Canice’s Cathedral), the sensory blitz of RSAG (tomorrow, Set Theatre), the beauty and delicacy of Amiina (Sunday, St Canice’s Cathedral), and the innovation of J Spaceman, aka Jason Pierce of Spiritualized (Thursday, Kilkenny Castle). The week after sees performances from Low, 3epkano, Halfset and Adrian Crowley.

Can’T See ThaT? CaTch This

Neil Hannon/Divine Comedy

Sunday, Belfast