IF YOU’VE NEVER participated in Culture Night in your area, we’ve just one recommendation: do it this year.
Next Friday, 19 September, is Culture Night 2014 when thousands of venues around the country throw their doors open to the public for a celebratory evening of heritage, culture, arts, fun and events of all sorts, for all tastes, for all ages.
A full database of what’s on in towns and cities around the country is here on culturenight.ie but to give a taste of what is on in the capital, TheJournal.ie teamed up with Dublin Bus to get 50 readers on a bus and tote them on a whistlestop tour of just three of hundreds of brilliant locations open next Friday.
Dublin Bus is putting on free bus routes every 20 minutes on Culture Night to whisk people across the city to various cultural quarters*.
They will have a bespoke programme of performances on the buses including music, spoken word and – for people lucky enough to catch her – this year’s incredibly talented winner of the Texaco Children’s Art competition, Shania McDonagh, will be doing quick pencil sketches of passengers.
TheJournal.ie Dublin Bus #CultureNight Preview Bus took off from Bachelor’s Walk last Thursday night. The craic started early with fiddlers on the roof (okay, the back seat) of the bus creating the atmosphere on our way to Windmill Lane Recording Studios in Ringsend.
Windmill Lane is, of course, synonymous with U2 – although it has built up a global reputation with recording artists so that everyone from Lady Gaga (who was there just a month ago) to The Rolling Stones have set up shop in there to record.
Interesting fact: the recording studios are not, in fact, “where the graffiti is” on Windmill Lane – they have been in Ringsend in a fabulous old art deco building for decades. But let’s not tell the hordes of Spanish students who descend on the lane that Bono’s not knocking around there.
A little tip for Culture Night – Windmill Lane Recording is open for tours to see where the magic happens, but it’s also hosting two intimate gigs from Relish that night – they are free, but for 50 people each time, so it’s first come, first served (ie, get there when doors open at 5pm).
On then to the lavish State apartments of Dublin Castle – with a storytelling session from the energetic folks at Storymap along the way (lesson of the particular story we heard – don’t get too big for yer boots):
Dublin Castle is a place we normally only get to see the gilt-edged inside of when there is a State function, such as the banquet to welcome Queen Elizabeth I, or the inauguration of President Michael D Higgins…
But it was access (almost all) areas, led by surely the most knowledgeable tour guide in the Castle. Any question about who’s who in those portraits, what happened to the Irish Crown Jewels, and any other trivia you can think up – and TheJournal.ie readers are an inquisitive lot – he was up to the challenge.
Including this tidbit – the little footstool below this throne was made for Queen Victoria, so she would look more elegant clambering into the throne vacated by the overweight and oversized King George…
Back on the bus, the poetry slam was getting energetic…
And so on to a well-deserved slurp of coddle at the James Joyce House of the Dead on Usher’s Island:
The house is that which Joyce’s aunts lived in, and which inspired his short story masterpiece, The Dead. The Georgian building has itself been resurrected from a near grave by Brendan Kyne and his army of volunteers.
We were led through the history-laden and artistic surroundings by Kyne himself, a man whose passion and vigour for the project prompted a round of applause from the 60-odd of us watching him operate a hand press in the reclaimed basement. (And yes, Brendan, we do think you should put in a wine bar there, so we can all come back and visit).
This was just a taster of the vast array of events for Culture Night. In Dublin, there is also a nice central touch with RTÉ Radio’s Arena culture programme taking to the stage in Meeting House Square from 7pm with a line-up of interviews, music, drama and comedy, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Jack L, Oliver Callan, readings from John Banville and Pat McCabe and more.
Our friends at Culture Night recommend clicking through to see what is on in your part of the country. But they have a few special recommendations:
* The Dublin Bus routes for Culture Night see buses depart every 20 minutes from Bachelor’s Walk, Aston Quay, Trinity College and Parkgate Street. The Parkgate Street one will cater for this year’s new Culture Night locations in the Phoenix Park (Áras an Úachataráin and Farmleigh).
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say