Dublin Event Guide

Hi all!

I am one day late this week, but I am trying to organise a Gospel Concert for next week and am organising the visit to Dublin of a 82-people group. All that in addition to work is making life a little hectic at the moment.

Anyway, I will tell you what is happening at the weekend first and will tell you a bit more about that concert further down.

Already on Wednesday the Ranelagh Arts Festival (www.ranelagharts.org) started and it will go until Sunday. There are loads of free events and I suggest you have a look on the website. There is plenty of music in different pubs and at least three arts and two photography (History of Ranelagh + Elderly People of Ranelagh) exhibitions. There is a one-man Pub Theatre show “Bockety” going around the pubs in Ranelagh and there are Free Historical Walking Tours. Two events I want to pick here and give you more detail:
The first is “Battle of the Bands and Rock Fest” in Ranelagh Gardens on Saturday from 13:30, where local teenage bands compete and which will be crowned by the performance of “rockabilly kingpins” The Mosquitos. The second event is an “Open Day for Families” on Sunday from 14:00-17:00 in Ranelagh Gardens with LOTS of children’s entertainment.

The Dublin Theatre Festival is starting this weekend and will run until the 14th of October. (www.dublintheatrefestival.com) There are two free events. The first one I wrote already about a number of times, it is “On the case” at George’s Dock and it is free but ticketed. The good news is that there are still some tickets available for Friday at 20:00 (2x), for Saturday at 22:00 (6x) and maybe for Sunday at 22:00. If you are interested, please send me a mail as soon as possible. A number of people came together, have pooled all the tickets and re-distributed them because the original allocation didn’t allow to choose a day.

The second free Theatre Festival event is NEXT week and is called “La Marea”. But because it is on Thursday already and I am not sure when I get to send the next Event Guide am including it this week. The good news is that it will be on on Friday (05th) and Saturday (06th) as well, so there is plenty of chance to see it. It runs each day from 21:00-23:00 in the Italian Quarter (northside of the Millenium Bridge). What is it? There are nine different episodes, each lasting 10 minutes and the description is “A poetic and revealing site-specific work that will change the way you perceive strangers on the street forever.” I will catch it on Thursday!

This weekend the 3rd Irish Tango Congress is on from Thursday until Sunday. Unfortunately there is not a single free event directly part of the congress. But indirectly you can still enjoy Tango if you go to Floridita (Irish Life Mall in Abbey Street) on Saturday. After the workshops, Floridita is the official party venue and will have a Tango DJ in addition to the regular Cuban Salsa band. Free admission until 22:00. www.tangoireland.com/program29-07.html

Now to finish up for this week, let me tell you about an event I am organising and for which I VERY much would appreciate your support: Next weekend the Lingenfeld Gospel Choir from Germany is coming to Dublin for a visit. My brother sings in that choir and so I got the dubious “honour” ;-) to organise their trip for them. A big challenge, but we are getting there. The choir is 62 people strong and with band and some spouses they are coming over with 82 people. Whenever they are on tour they do perform at a concert and we have something special put together:

On Saturday (6th Oct) the Lingenfeld Gospel Choir will be special guests at “An Evening of Gospel Music” in St. Andrews Church in Westland Row (next to Pearse Street Dart Station). And to do it right, we are not just having this huge and brilliant Gospel Choir! The top act will be Ireland’s foremost Elvis performer Kevin Doyle who is supported by the Way It Was Orchestra and the Graceland Gospel Choir and who will perform Elvis’ Gospel Songs. The event starts at 20:30 and is in aid of the Dublin Diocesan Children’s Pilgrimage. Tickets are 10 Euro and will be available at the door. Put it in your diary!!!

Oh, and the Positive Ageing Week is starting today, but since all of you are not old enough for it, I will tell you again in 35-40 years! ;-)

Enjoy the weekend,

–Joerg

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Disclaimer: This Event Guide is sent to friends, colleagues and whoever else is interested to let you know about (mostly free) events in the Greater Dublin Area! Ticketed events usually make enough money to do their own advertisement, they don’t need extra help.
I started this because some friends asked me to share my weekend
plans with them as I went to all types of festivals and searched for
more. ;-) If you don’t want to receive this mail, just let me know. If
you have feedback, good or bad, PLEASE tell me. If you want to be added to the mailing list or know somebody who would like to receive this guide, just send a mail to dublineventguide@gmail.com.
BTW: I have no affiliation with any of the organisers and don’t get any “reward” from them for advertising their events.
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Hi all!

Another week coming to an end, another Event Guide is waiting for you in your Inbox!

The Culture Night last week was brilliant and together with some others that I met there we agreed that there should be at LEAST two Culture Nights every year. If I get more readers for this guide (do you know anybody who would be interested?), I will start lobbying organisers, but this is currently rather aspirational, so I will stick to telling you about events instead of “creating” them for another while. ;-)

I already have events information for the coming weeks, but at some stage it looked a little bleak for this week. However, the Fringe Festival is still running and there are quite a few free events again this weekend.

Before I start with the Fringe Festival Events list, let me tell you that on Thursday night (today!) Jamie’s band “Penfold DM” is in “4 Dame Lane”. Doors at 21:30 and entry is free. Who is Jamie, you ask? He is the guy who engineered the sound of “Elvis – The Way It Was” in the sound that 5000 people enjoyed in the Tivoli a few weeks back. Penfold DM have some tracks on their website www.penfolddm.com and I like their sound and music. Listen to them tonight!

Now the Fringe Festival:
The last Mamuska Night is on Saturday (22nd) from 20:00 in the Backloft (www.fringefest.com/shows/12), it sounds really interesting, but unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to go myself yet.

From Thursday (tomorrow) until Saturday “Lost Luggage” will be performed at Georges Dock in the IFSC every day at 13:00 and 17:00 (Duration 60min).It is described as “A kinetic installation in which twelve identical self-propelling suitcases wander randomly but with an appearance of purpose.” Sounds strange but at the same time fascinating! I will definitely try to see that on Saturday. (www.fringefest.com/shows/110)

At “Block Party” on Sunday in Temple Bar (Meeting House Square) Dance Theatre of Ireland performing with and around giant Rubik’s Cube Blocks. The show only lasts 15 min and is on at 14:00-19:00 every hour on the hour.

Something that promises to be fun – as long as you are NOT on the receiving end is “Haircuts by Children” in the CHQ Building at George’s Dock. Thee event will run form 13:00-18:00 on Saturday and Sunday. www.fringefest.com/shows/123 The description is good “Haircuts By Children invites you to take part in an event that will test your courage and faith in the future. Surrender your preconceptions (and your scalp) to the aesthetic choices of these mini-barbers.” :-) It is Free to watch but for the pleasure to be cut into shape you have to pay EUR 6.

So “Lost Luggage” and “Haircuts by Children” can nicely be integrated in a trip to George’s Dock on Saturday if you have some time.

If plays are your thing, three SEEDS3 Play Readings will take place in the Project Cube in Temple Bar (39 East Essex Street). They will be on at 13:00 on Saturday www.fringefest.com/shows/64, at 15:00 on Saturday www.fringefest.com/shows/65 and at 13:00 on Sunday www.fringefest.com/shows/66. Each Reading will go on for 90 minutes. At 15:00 on Sunday there is a panel discussion about the SEEDS3 project www.fringefest.com/shows/45. SEEDS3 is “A structured development initiative for emerging playwrights, directors, designers and a producer.”

The Fringe Festival unfortunately closes its virtual doors on Sunday and at the end the “2007 Fringe Awards” will be presented. This event is taking place in the Lobby Bar in Harcourt Street on Sunday from 14:00-16:00. Entry is free, but the event is (according to some sources) ticketed and I would check with the box office in 12 East Essex Street or on 1850 374 643 how and where tickets can be obtained. www.fringefest.com/shows/126

So only 4 more days to the end of the Festival and one event nearly slipped through my fingers: The Shiatsu Society of Ireland is offering 20min long Shiatsu massages for free between 12:00 and 14:00 every day. The massage is provided in the Fringe Festival office in Sackville House, Sackville Place (near O’Connell Street). Pre-booking is required and I would suggest to ring the ticket hotline on 1850 374 643 to enquire.

A little further away, but still in the Greater Dublin Area: The Skerries Soundwave Festival is on this weekend (www.skerriessoundwaves.com/soundwaves_2007.pdf). I hadn’t heard about it before and didn’t realise that it had started last weekend already. Still there are some free events this week, if you are in that area. Check the link above, it will bring you to the programme leaflet.

If you regularly read this Event Guide, you have read a few weeks back that free tickets were available for order for an Dublin Theatre Festival event. The performance is called “On the Case” and will take place at the George’s Dock in the IFSC on 28/29/30 of September at 20:00 and 22:00 (Duration: 25 minutes). Tickets were allocated on a first come first serve basis and preferences for a day or time were not considered. As a consequence some of the readers of this mail received tickets on days or at times that doesn’t really suit them and we are now trying to re-allocate the tickets. If you have tickets at an unsuitable time OR if you are still interested in tickets, send me a mail. I definitely have at least 6, maybe 12 tickets for the Sunday night performance at 22:00. But we might have some more available. So. please let me know if you are interested, it would be a pity not to use the tickets. Hmmm, maybe I should mention that the organiser made a big mistake and sent DOUBLE the ordered amount to some people, that is the main reason for the ticket surplus!

And a reminder for another event that I had mentioned before: The Norwegian Cruise specialist “Hurtigruten” is presenting their holiday and cruise/tour programme to potential customers. The free event is on Thursday 27/09 at 14:00 and at 19:00 in Dun Laoghaire and you can reserve one of the few remaining places on www.hurtigruten.ie/w_events.asp

Now, to finish of for this week, I want to come back to the most asked question about this guide. The question is “Where do you get all your information from? Is there someone that send you all that?” The answer to the second question is “No!” As far as I know there is no similar list available that summarises all free event for the coming weekend. So in order to bring you all the news, I am trawling through heaps of websites, magazines and leaflets every week. Wherever I hear something about an event, I check if it is free and if so gather more information. To find out about events, I am regularly in the Temple Bar Information Office, I check www.visitdublin.ie, www.discoverireland.ie, www.templebar.ie, www.entertainment.ie, www.thedubliner.ie, www.dublincity.ie, www.dlrcoco.ie, the InDublin magazine, the Temple Bar Magazine, specific websites for the Fringe Festival, the Opera Festival, the Theatre Festival, the Festival of World Cultures and different Arts and music festival websites. And all the information from these websites and magazines I search for free and interesting events and try to summarise in this guide. Writing this guide takes about 1.5 – 2 hours, but that doesn’t include the time I spend on filling my own event database before the weekend I write about. So I hope that question is exhaustively answered. :-)

Now it is time to focus on the weekend, it is just around the corner! ;-)

Don’t forget to send me a mail if you are interested in tickets for “On the Case”!

Enjoy the weekend,

–Joerg

***********************************************
Disclaimer: This Event Guide is sent to friends, colleagues and whoever else is interested to let you know about (mostly free) events in the Greater Dublin Area! Ticketed events usually make enough money to do their own advertisement, they don’t need extra help.
I started this because some friends asked me to share my weekend
plans with them as I went to all types of festivals and searched for
more. ;-) If you don’t want to receive this mail, just let me know. If
you have feedback, good or bad, PLEASE tell me. If you want to be added to the mailing list or know somebody who would like to receive this guide, just send a mail to dublineventguide@gmail.com.
BTW: I have no affiliation with any of the organisers and don’t get any “reward” from them for advertising their events.
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