The Guide: Events to see, shows to book and ones to catch before they end

EVENT OF THE WEEK

Clonmel Junction Arts Festival

From Saturday, July 1st to Sunday, July 9th, various venues/times/prices; junctionfestival.com

Part of the annual cultural calendar for more than 20 years, this Clonmel-based multidisciplinary arts festival (which this year features two hub venue spaces on the town’s newly minted Civic Plaza) features a broad range of events. Highlights are many, but especially worthwhile are Eamon O’Malley: Xlassical (a program of solo acoustic piano pieces from neoclassical composers such as Nils Frahm, Aphex Twin and Martin Kohlstedt, Sunday, July 2nd); Art Enriches Life (a group exhibition, featuring 30 artists whose works reference the exhibition title, until Saturday, July 8th); and author Rónán Hession in conversation with Jackie Lynam (Saturday, July 8th). Full details on the festival website.

GIGS

Madness

Saturday, July 1st, Trinity College Dublin; 7pm; €49.90 (sold out); ticketmaster.ie

One of the most successful pop groups of the past 40 years may no longer bother the charts, but their legacy continues to make a mark. Between 1980 and 1986, more than a dozen of their singles reached the UK top 10, yet while the band’s early cheeky-chappy image is nigh on impossible to forget, it would be no harm to be aware of their latter creative purple patch, in particular 2009′s concept album, The Liberty of Norton Folgate, which (now defunct magazine) The Word described as “Peter Ackroyd writing for The Kinks… A Mike Leigh movie of Parklife…” Special guests are Dundalk neo-soul/RnB duo, Negro Impacto. Welcome to the house of fun!

Longitude

Saturday, July 1st to Sunday, July 2nd, Marley Park, Dublin; 1.30pm; €220/€150/€99.90; ticketmaster.ie

The major dance/rap event of the summer is upon us, and if you’re wondering why you don’t recognise most of the names on the line-up then it’s because – let’s face it, oldsters – you’re just not cool enough. Make way for a weekend of high jinks, hands in the air like they just don’t care, DJs presiding over decks, club anthems, and more hip-hop than you’ll find in a rabbit sanctuary. Music acts across the weekend include Calvin Harris, Anne-Marie, Travis Scott, Joey Bada$$, Lil Uzi Vert, GloRilla, MK, Joel Corry, Raye, and Ice Spice; Irish acts include Belters Only, Jazzy, and Chantel Kavanagh.

Róisín Murphy

Sunday, July 2nd, Trinity College Dublin; 7pm; €49.90 (sold out); ticketmaster.ie

Let’s hope that Róisín Murphy’s fall from the stage at a recent gig in Hungary hasn’t diminished her prowess at giving it her all. That, of course, is highly unlikely (as she herself said, following the show, only “the ego is bruised”), so prepare yourselves for her usual melange of superb sashay-swish dance/pop tunes and the kind of stage clothes that grandmothers across Ireland think are “lovely, but I wouldn’t go out dressed like that, to be honest with you”.

Dermot Kennedy

Friday, July 7th to Sunday, July 9th, Thomond Park, Limerick; 5pm; €64.45/€53.65; ticketmaster.ie

Three headline concerts here after his two recent Marlay Park gigs is a sure-fire sign that if anyone in a certain music promotions company were on the lookout for an Irish music act (aside from U2, that is) to headline Slane Castle in 2024, then Dermot Kennedy might just be the one. The Irish public, it’s clear, just can’t get enough of his emotion-heavy, intense, eminently melodic songs. Special guests across the three nights – all of whom are Irish, so fair play for that – include Cian Ducrot, Nell Mescal and Kingfishr.

STAGE

Fun Home: an adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s 2006 titular graphic memoir, it details the author’s sexual awakening.

Fun Home – The Musical

From Thursday, July 6th to Saturday, August 26th; Gate Theatre, Dublin; 7.30pm; €46.50/€41.50/€36.50/€31.50; gatetheatre.ie

The first Broadway musical with a lesbian lead character, Fun Home is an adaptation of Alison Bechdel’s 2006 titular graphic memoir, which details the author’s sexual awakening and her coming to terms with her (closeted) gay father. Frances McNamee and Killian Donnelly feature in a multi-award winning work (garnering Tony, Obie and Outer Critics Circle plaudits) described by the New York Times as “a beautiful heartbreaker of a musical”. Book/lyrics by Lisa Kron; music by Jeanine Tesori. Róisín McBrinn directs.

FILM

Greta Gerwig: The Art of Awkward

From Saturday, July 1st to Wednesday, July 19th, Lighthouse, Dublin/Pálás, Galway; various times/prices; lighthousecinema.ie/palas.ie

With the imminent unwrapping of Barbie, the live action fantasy comedy movie directed by Greta Gerwig, comes this smart bi-located curation of the work of the director, actor and writer. From directing/writing (Little Women, Ladybird), acting/writing (Frances Ha, Mistress America) and acting (20th Century Women, Maggie’s Plan, White Noise), we gain access to Gerwig’s creative and highly individualistic worldview. The respective cinema websites have full details of showings and timings. (And, while we are here, more imaginative programming like this would be welcome.)

EXHIBITION

WIND UP! Susan Wood Photographs: 1960s and Beyond

Until Sunday, July 23rd, City Assembly House, Dublin; ags.ie

New Yorker photographer Susan Wood has lived through the “Mad Men” Madison Avenue era, and has had her work published in Vogue, People, Life, New York, and Look magazines. Featuring hundreds of projected, random-order images from Wood’s comprehensive archive, the exhibition is more immersive than in a conventional gallery backdrop and offers a mind-boggling parade of famous names: Andy Warhol, John Lennon/Yoko Ono, Susan Sontag, Tom Wolfe, Bono, Gregory Peck, Nora Ephron, Frank Gehry and Gloria Steinem (to list but a handful). “I’m interested in the inner person,” says Wood in a press release accompanying the exhibition. “I’ve been called a romantic in my photographs because I often look for the beauty and the grace in my subjects.”

STILL RUNNING

Kaleidoscope

Until July 2nd, Russborough House, Blessington, Co Wicklow; €125/€85/€75/€64/€40; kaleidoscopefestival.ie

Roll up, roll up for the country’s primary family-friendly multi-stranded arts-music festival. Alongside an impressive music bill (Nile Rodgers & Chic, Gavin James, B*Witched, King Kong Company, and Róisín O) are a movie sing-a-long, robotics workshop and conservation talks.

BOOK IT THIS WEEK

Tradition Now, NCH, Dublin; October 7th-8th; nch.ie

Arab Strap, Button Factory, Dublin; October 27th; foggynotions.ie

McFly, 3Arena, Dublin; November 18th; singularartists.ie

Queens of the Stone Age, 3Arena, Dublin; November 22nd; ticketmaster.ie