I like a good festival, me: and even better than that, this weekend's Heineken (yum, my favourite) Green Energy festival takes place over the space of a few streets. So there'll be no trains, boats and planes, marching in a stupor through muddy fields, no queuing up for three hours for an overpriced burger and overheated, over-sugared and over-priced "pop". The problem with those rural weekend festivals is that you end up spending all your expenses on valium and cocaine just so you can get through the whole wretched affair. There have been better line-ups than this year's Green Energy (a lot, lot better) but it's always a case of never mind the quality, feel the width and-give-me-my-laminate now with these things. On the plus side, at least the organisers have spread it around a bit and introduced a real sense of "eclecticism" to the proceedings, given that the range of music on offer over the weekend spans techno, white soul, indie guitar stuff and reggae.

The bigger-than-thou gigs are all taking place in Dublin Castle and they're all a bit on the sorry side, if you ask me. Texas do the honours tomorrow night, proving once again how Scottish music continues to play "good cop, bad cop" in that for every Teenage Fanclub there's a Wet Wet Wet and for every Primal Scream there's an Annie Lennox. Texas haven't that much to offer musically, given that it's all overproduced MOR, but it will probably be the biggest-attended gig of the festival, so hey, whadda I know?

Kula Shaker will be bringing their retrophiliac, George Harrison B-side obsessed, sub-continental style to the same venue on Sunday night. Enough of the sitar already, Crispian (and the loony right-wing speeches, come to think of it). Local bands Juniper and Junkster, both with new product in the shops, will be supporting. One good reason to make the trip to the Castle, though, is for Finlay Quaye on Monday night. It's not just because he's Tricky's uncle (seriously - check out the name of Tricky's first album if you don't believe me) but his album of last year, Maverick A Strike, was the slowest of slow burners that eventually insinuated its way into everyone's record collection. Bring your own Rizlas. Across among the olde-worlde charms of the Temple Bar Music Centre, Whipping Boy will be proving that there is life after a major label in what is a highly recommended gig tonight, while it is well worth investigating the "French night" tomorrow, not just because of what you might pick up in the audience but also because the three featured bands - Louise Attaque, M and Autour De Lucie - are all a bit on the good side. What with Air and everything, France is the new Manchester. Maybe.

The highly touted but much over-rated Bentely Rhythm Ace are at the Olympia tonight with Catatonia and local band The Hormones there on Sunday, but the real gig of the festival is tomorrow night in the same venue, when the mighty Jesus and Mary Chain take to the stage. Having produced some of the most awesomely influential music of the last decade, the Reid brothers are now back on the Creation label and if the new album, Munki, is anything to go by, this could potentially lift the roof. Away from the music, and for something to do during the hours of brightness, there are some seminars in the Temple Bar Music Centre, which always promise the possibility of a good fight so are worth checking out for that alone. Start Making Sense (Sunday, 2 p.m.) is all about how new, and not so new, technologies are making music easier and more bedroom-friendly. If "uploading multi-media files from the STC website" is your can of Pringles, this is the one for you. Small Print Can Cost You (tomorrow, 12 noon) will lead you through the business side of the biz - contracts, royalties, publishing, managers, agents and all that jazz while No Presets Please (tomorrow, 2 p.m.) will "explore the methods of sound generation used by top electronic music and dance artists - including the Roland modular analog system". Let's hear for it the Roland.

There are also a few photographic exhibitions, including Jill Furmanovsky's Was There Then - a photographic retrospective of Oasis - which is at the Gallery of Photography in Meeting House Square from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. all weekend, while Colm Henry's Are The Musicians Irish? exhibition is at the Temple Bar Music Centre at the same times.

There's also a New Band competition, a few free rock'n'roll films in Meeting House Square, loads going on at the Da Club and Whelan's and a general vibe on the streets of our "cultural quarter". Stop reading, get moving - it starts now.