Greetings from Third Castle
Dublin City Centre runs into the August bank holiday weekend with one of the fullest weeks of the summer, from 28 July to 4 August. Theatre, stand-up, reggae, tribute acts and three days of tequila, most of it inside the Dublin City Centre canals.
John Cleese's Fawlty Towers takes over Bord Gáis for five days. David O'Doherty plays three nights at the Craic Den. ALOK lands at the Ambassador on Friday, Julian Marley is at the Academy on Thursday, and Thin Lizzy's Eric Bell turns up at Opium on a Creedence tribute bill. The Blues, Roots and Brass Festival is free into Whelan's, the National Museum stays open past dark, and Parliament Street gets closed off for a free wellness weekend.
This is our pick of what's on this week. As always for a full event list check out the link at the bottom of the email.
Let's dive in 👇
EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
Fawlty Towers The Play
Tuesday 28 July to Saturday 1 August · 19:30, with 14:30 matinees · Bord Gáis Energy Theatre
John Cleese adapted this one himself, welding three of the best episodes into a single night, and it arrives in Dublin off a sold out West End run. Danny Bayne takes Basil, Paul Nicholas plays the Major and Joanne Clifton is Polly, with eighteen more bodies behind them. It runs two hours twenty including the interval, and the Friday 19:30 show is captioned. Every reason existed for this to be a lazy nostalgia trot, and the West End verdict says it isn't.
ALOK: Eat Pray Leave!
Friday 31 July · 19:00 · Ambassador Theatre
Alok Vaid-Menon is a poet and performance artist first and a stand-up second, which is what makes the show land differently to most touring comedy. Eat Pray Leave is built around love, heartbreak and the end times, and Dublin closes out four Irish dates in one week after Belfast, Cork and Limerick, so the material will be well bedded in by Friday. Allie O'Rourke opens.
David O'Doherty + Guests @ Craic Den Comedy Club
Thursday 30 and Friday 31 July · 20:00 · Sunday 2 August · 19:00 · The Workmans Club
An Edinburgh Comedy Award winner doing three nights in a pub room on Wellington Quay for less than the price of two pints is the best value in town this week. Gar Murran, Breda Hegarty and Brian Gallagher fill out the bill, with a different secret MC each night. Doors at eight, show at half past, and they genuinely do turn latecomers away.
Glass Gallery
Wednesday 29 July · 20:00 · Whelan's Upstairs
Melodic Dublin guitar pop in the upstairs room, which is where a decent share of the acts now filling the main stage downstairs cut their teeth. Newly announced, so there are still tickets going. A cheap Wednesday punt on a band you can say you saw early.
Clearwater Creedence Revival
Thursday 30 July · 19:00 · Opium
A Creedence tribute act on a 55th anniversary tour, which is a funny thing to celebrate given the original band lasted four years. The reason to go is further down the bill: Eric Bell, the guitarist who wrote the riff to Whiskey in the Jar with Thin Lizzy, is on this. Standing, over 18s.
Emergent Ensemble
Thursday 30 July · 19:30 · The Grand Social
Drummer Eoghan McCloskey put this five-piece together after twenty five years playing in Austin, Texas, and they work through the jazz nobody programmes: Bobby Hutcherson, Lee Morgan, Jackie McLean. Hayley Kavanagh on sax, Bill Blackmore on trumpet, Scott Flanigan on keys, Cormac O'Brien on bass. It is in the Ballroom upstairs because the Cooler has no permanent home at the moment, which is its own small tragedy.
Go Your Own Way: The Ultimate Tribute To Fleetwood Mac
Thursday 30 July · 19:30 · The Helix
Built specifically around the Rumours lineup rather than the whole fifty year sprawl, so expect Dreams, Rhiannon, Gold Dust Woman and Little Lies rather than deep cuts. Those songs were written for a room this size and a decent PA. Under 16s need an adult with them.
Julian Marley
Thursday 30 July · 19:00 · The Academy
Bob's son has spent thirty years building his own catalogue rather than trading purely on the surname, and the live band is the point of a Julian Marley show. Around €40 with fees, over 18s with ID. A Thursday night reggae gig in a room that holds under a thousand is a fair trade for the Friday morning.
Clara Rose Band at the Blues, Roots and Brass Festival
Friday 31 July · 20:30 · Whelan's
Whelan's runs this one every summer and keeps it free, which is why it fills early rather than late. Clara Rose has the voice for it, and the main room with a brass section in it is a specific kind of good. Get in before nine or stand at the back.
No Scrubs: 90s & 00s R&B Party
Friday 31 July · 23:30 · The Workmans Club
TLC, Usher, Destiny's Child and Nelly from half eleven until it stops. No pretence about it being anything other than what it is, which is the honest way to run a throwback night.
CURVEBALL: 3Phoria Day Party
Saturday 1 August · 17:00 · Button Factory
The debut event from 3 Typical Talkers, running DJs and live performance from teatime rather than midnight. A day party that starts at five and a bank holiday Sunday to recover in is close to ideal scheduling.
DJ Finno presents A Night of House & Rave Classics
Saturday 1 August · 18:00 · The Sound House
The second run at this, which usually means the first one worked. Rave classics played early in the evening to a crowd who mostly want to be home by one is an underrated format.
Index: Silva Bumpa
Saturday 1 August · 23:00 · The Academy
The Leeds producer brings UK garage and bassline to Index's after party slot, doors at eleven. If your Saturday starts when everyone else's is ending, this is the one.
Wild Earth
From Tuesday 28 July · Museum of Literature Ireland
Over ninety texts from Irish writers on nature, language and what happens to a place once you have words for it. MoLI does this sort of thing better than institutions ten times its size, and it is a good hour indoors when the weather turns.
Dublin Alt Comedy 007
Wednesday 29 July · 19:30 · The Sound House
The seventh outing for the alt comedy night, which is where the material too odd for the big clubs gets tried out. Half of it will not work. The half that does is better than anything you will see on a proper stage this week.
Dublin by Dusk
Thursday 30 July · 20:00 · National Museum of Ireland
Yoga, live music, guided tours and Japanese woodblock printing in a museum after closing time. The galleries at night with a fraction of the daytime crowd is the actual draw here, and the woodblock printing is the bit people end up talking about afterwards.
When Doves Cry: A Prince Film Night
Friday 31 July · 19:30 · The Sugar Club
Prince on a proper screen with a proper sound system, in a room with table service and tiered seating. Purple Rain has aged into something stranger and better than it was in 1984, and the Sugar Club is the right size for finding that out.
The Bodyguard
From Tuesday 4 August · Bord Gáis Energy Theatre
The Whitney Houston songbook wrapped around the Kevin Costner plot, in for five nights from next Tuesday. It lives or dies entirely on whoever is singing I Will Always Love You, which is a lot of pressure for one note. Booking now for the run.
Tequila Town 2026
Friday 31 July to Sunday 2 August · 12:00 to 23:00 · Wigwam
More than fifty tequilas, mezcals and piscos across three days, with taco specials and tiki bingo running alongside. Middle Abbey Street is not the first place you would look for agave spirits, which is roughly the point. No refunds, so mind the date you book.
Children's Friday Films
Wednesday 29 July · 11:00 · Central Library
Free films for kids in the Ilac Centre library, running through the summer holidays. Free, indoors, and eleven in the morning, which covers the three things that matter when it is lashing and school is out.
Summer Programme 2026: Stories from Around the World
Wednesday 29 July · 12:00 · Central Library
Storytelling from different cultures, straight after the film session in the same building. Pair the two and you have the whole middle of a Wednesday sorted for nothing.
Drop-In: Rocks of the Stone Age, Megalithic Art
Thursday 30 July · 14:00 · National Museum of Ireland, Kildare Street
Hands-on making inspired by Ireland's Stone Age monuments, drop-in so there is no booking to remember. Kids carving spirals off the back of Newgrange stonework beats another afternoon of screen time by a distance.
Wellness World
Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 August · 12:00 to 16:00 · Parliament Street
Parliament Street gets closed to traffic for two afternoons of yoga, movement zones and sports demonstrations, part of Dublin City Council's Summer in Dublin run. Free, no booking, all ages and abilities. Turning a street over to people rather than cars for a weekend is the single best thing the Council does all summer.
Dublin Social Party Run #2
Sunday 2 August · 14:00 · Dicey's Garden Club
A five kilometre social run that finishes at a beer garden with music on, which is either the healthiest or the least healthy thing on this list depending on how the afterparty goes. Two in the afternoon start, so there is a whole evening after it.
For a full overview of all events on this week in Dublin City check out our event listings page
UNTIL NEXT WEEK
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