Organisers of Culture Night 2010 are promising it is set to be the biggest yet with over 20 areas throughout the country participating.
The annual event sees galleries, theatres, artists’ studios, churches, and other public spaces host free exhbitions and entertainment ranging from the artistic to the musical and beyond.
It was first established by the Temple Bar Cultural Trust (TBCT) in 2006 and originally attracted a fairly modest 40,000 visitors to a series of events in Dublin.
This year’s open-night will be taking place on September 25th, and events will be staged throughout the Gaeltacht and on the islands of Tory and Inis Meáin for the first time.
Following its relatively humble beginnings, the open night expanded from the capital for the first time in 2008. Last year Dublin alone drew 152,000 visitors to the various events organised throughout the city in landmark buildings such as Dublin Castle and St Stephen’s Church.
However, the Temple Bar Cultural Trust said it is confident 2009’s record numbers can be beaten and view the expansion of this year’s event as another step towards achieving its vision of an All-Ireland Culture Night in 2011.
The Department of Tourism, Culture and Sports is contributing €70,000 towards events in Dublin this year, the same figure it allocated in 2009. It is making a total of €170,625 available for events throughout Ireland for 2010.
A programme of this year's events will be available on the Culture Night website from August 18th.