Greetings from Third Castle
This is one of the biggest weeks Dublin City Centre will see all summer. The parks are booked solid, Pride takes over the city from Wednesday, and there is barely a night between now and the weekend without something worth leaving the house for.
Lewis Capaldi plays two nights at Marlay Park with CMAT in tow. The Cure bring Just Mustard and The Twilight Sad to the same stage on Friday. Two Door Cinema Club and Dropkick Murphys light up Fairview Park.
Dublin Pride runs Wednesday to Sunday with the parade down O'Connell Street on Saturday. And somewhere in the middle of all that there is a Brazilian rap headliner at the Button Factory, a Joni Mitchell tribute, and Oklahoma! at Bord Gáis.
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
Dublin Pride Festival 2026
Wednesday 24 to Sunday 28 June · Across the city
The city goes rainbow for five days, and this year the theme is One Story, Many Voices. It opens Wednesday at 7:30pm in the Button Factory, there is a new festival hub running in Meeting House Square from Wednesday to Friday with queer artists, crafters and performers, and the parade itself steps off Saturday at 12:30pm on O'Connell Street led by Grand Marshal Philippa Ryder. If you only do one thing in town this week, this is it.
The Cure
Friday 26 June · Marlay Park
Robert Smith has been doing this for nearly fifty years and the live show only seems to get more enormous. The 2026 outdoor run is built around a genuinely strong support bill too, with Just Mustard and The Twilight Sad both on before them, which is closer to a festival lineup than a warm-up. A long Friday evening of it in an open park is about the best way to hear these songs.
Lewis Capaldi
Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 June · Marlay Park
Capaldi's return after stepping back from touring has turned into one of the most in-demand runs of the summer, and Marlay Park got a second night added when the first sold out. CMAT is the special guest both evenings, which on its own would sell a room this size. The Wednesday is gone, so Tuesday is your shot.
Baco Exu do Blues
Tuesday 23 June · 20:00 · Button Factory
The Brazilian rapper's third time at the Button Factory, this round built on his fourth album HASOS, eighteen tracks that run a lot heavier and more reflective than the dancefloor stuff he made his name on. Dublin is one of only five European dates on the run. Over 18s.
Two Door Cinema Club
Wednesday 24 June · 19:00 · Fairview Park
The Down trio have spent fifteen years turning indie disco staples into festival main-stage singalongs, and an open-air Fairview Park show is exactly the room those songs were built for. Bring a jacket, leave the heels at home.
Dropkick Murphys
Thursday 25 June · 19:00 · Fairview Park
Boston's loudest Celtic punks back outdoors, and a Dropkick show is less a gig than a controlled riot with bagpipes. If you have ever wanted to hear two thousand people roar "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" in a Dublin park, Thursday is the night.
GMT Jazz Club: A Night of Joni Mitchell
Thursday 25 June · 19:00 · Glass Mask Theatre
Shadows and Light take on the Joni songbook in a room that holds maybe sixty people, which is the whole point. This is for the people who think Blue deserves to be heard properly and not through a phone speaker at 1am.
Have Mercy
Thursday 25 June · 19:30 · The Workmans Club
The Baltimore emo outfit on a rare Dublin stop, the kind of touring band that fills the Workmans with people who knew every word a decade ago. A sweaty upstairs-room gig in the best sense.
Stipe: A Tribute to R.E.M.
Saturday 27 June · 20:00 · Whelan's
A just-announced night of R.E.M. done properly in the room that has hosted half the city's best gigs. No nostalgia act gets away with "Nightswimming" in Whelan's unless they mean it, so this lives or dies on the singing. Worth a punt.
BASED Festival
Sunday 28 June · 20:00 · Button Factory
Ninth edition of the all-ages festival that has quietly become one of the better places to catch Irish indie and rock acts before they outgrow rooms this size. Worth going in not knowing the lineup and leaving with three new favourites.
The Dublin Jazz Co-op
Sunday 28 June · 15:00 · Cobblestone
A Sunday afternoon of jazz in Smithfield's finest trad pub, run by the musicians themselves. Pull up a stool, order a pint, stay longer than you planned.
Oklahoma!
Tuesday 23 to Monday 29 June · 19:30 · Bord Gáis Energy Theatre
Rodgers and Hammerstein's first great musical, the one that more or less invented the form as we know it, in for a full week with a Saturday matinee. Big tunes, bigger staging, and a show that has survived eighty years for good reason.
Disabled Artists Scratch Night
Thursday 25 June · 19:30 · Project Arts Centre
A curated evening of work-in-progress from emerging disabled artists, the kind of night where you see something six months before anyone else does. Scratch nights are where the interesting stuff starts.
Synapses
Wednesday 24, Friday 26 and Saturday 27 June · 20:00 · Viking Theatre
A fast comedy-drama about two young parents picking back through their own history to work out their future. The Viking is a small Clontarf room above a pub, which is exactly the scale this kind of writing wants.
Dublin By Dusk at EPIC
Thursday 25 June · 18:00 · EPIC The Irish Emigration Museum
The emigration museum after hours, which is a different and better experience than the daytime crowds allow. Late access, a quieter run of the galleries, and one of the most genuinely moving museums in the country.
Dear, Dirty Dublin
From Wednesday 24 June · Museum of Literature Ireland
MoLI's 3D walk through Joyce's Dublin, timed nicely for the run-up to Bloomsday's afterglow. Short, smart, and a good hour out of the heat if the sun actually shows up.
Disney Descendants, ZOMBIES and Camp Rock Live
Tuesday 23 June · 18:00 · 3Arena
The Disney Channel back catalogue turned into a full arena song-and-dance show. If there is a nine-year-old in your house, this is already in the diary and you know it.
Dublin Alternative Market: MidSummer FullMoon Edition
Sunday 28 June · 12:00 · The Grand Social
Independent makers, vintage, oddities and the odd tarot reader spread across the Grand Social for the solstice edition. Free in, easy way to lose an afternoon by the Liffey.
Belong To LGBTQ+ Summer Project 2026
From Monday 29 June · Dublin City Centre
A run of free events and workshops for LGBTQ+ young people aged 14 to 23, themed across creativity, health and community, landing right as Pride wraps. Pass it on to anyone who could use 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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