The Guide: CMAT, Fontaines DC, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and other events to see, shows to book, and ones to catch before they end
Lovely Days Live
From Friday, May 23rd, until Sunday, May 25th, S James's Gate, Dublin, 5pm, €44.50 (sold out),
guinness-storehouse.com
An enclosed three-day festival with no concern for what the weather might hold sounds like a plan, right? The Guinness brewery's popular Storehouse visitor attraction and its associated areas will open their doors to some of the best Celtic music acts around. The big hitters at these over-21 events include the Scottish producer and DJ Barry Can't Swim (Friday, May 23rd), the rapidly rising Irish singer-songwriter
CMAT
(Saturday, May 24th, with support from Morgana) and the all-conquering
Fontaines DC
(Sunday, May 25th, with support from
Lankum
). Proceeds go towards the recently established Guinness Dublin 8 Community Fund.
Gigs
Drawing from the Well
Tuesday, May 20th, NCH, Dublin, 8pm, €35/€30/€25,
nch.ie
Drawing from the Well: Edwina Guckian. Photograph: Maurice Gunning
The seventh collaboration between the Irish Traditional Music Archive and the National Concert Hall continues with a line-up of leading traditional musicians delving into archive collections. Veteran greats such as Andy Irvine, Dónal Lunny and Matt Molloy will perform alongside the Ye Vagabond brothers, Diarmuid and Brían MacGloinn, the harpist Laoise Kelly, the sean-nós dancer Edwina Guckian and the flautist and singer Ríoghnach Connolly. An extra welcome addition to the concert is a rare performance by the Begley family – Cormac, Breanndán and Clíodhna.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Wednesday, May 21st, and Thursday, May 22nd, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, 7pm, €44.20, ticketmaster.ie
Five years ago, during Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, the English pop singer and songwriter Sophie Ellis-Bextor performed weekly lo-fi concerts live from her kitchen on Instagram. Those kitchen disco shows and her subsequent podcast,
Spinning Plates
, led to a resurgence in her popularity, which was advanced further by the use of her song Murder on the Dancefloor in the final scene of the 2023 film
Saltburn
. Will Barry Keoghan, its Irish star, be in town to re-enact that most audacious dance-off? You wish!
Throwing Muses
Wednesday, May 21st, Cyprus Avenue, Cork, 7pm, €28,
eventbrite.ie
; Thursday, May 22nd, Róisín Dubh, Galway, 7.30pm, €29,
roisindubh.net
; Friday, May 23rd, Whelan's, Dublin, 8pm, €32.50 (sold out),
whelanslive.com
Throwing Muses: Kristin Hersh
Intimate shows from one of the United States' finest alternative rock groups are rare, so to have three in a row is a godsend. Touring as a trio – original founding member Kristin Hersh, original drummer David Narcizo and bass player Bernard Georges, who has been a member since 1992 – Throwing Muses will be delving into their acclaimed back catalogue as well as their most recent album, Moonlight Concessions. The must-see support act for all shows is the Dublin-based band Dose, featuring the former Bitch Falcon singer Lizzie Fitzpatrick.
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Stage
Dathanna Geala Amháin: Bright Colours Only
Saturday, May 17th, Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar, Co Mayo, 8pm, €18/€16,
thelinenhall.com
; Wednesday, May 21st, Axis Ballymun, Dublin, 8pm, €18/€16,
axisballymun.ie
; Friday, May 23rd, and Saturday, May 24th, Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich, Belfast, 8pm, £16/£14,
culturlann.ie
Dathanna Geala Amháin
Pauline Goldsmith's play about an Irish wake has toured internationally to acclaim, but for the first time it tours as Gaeilge (translated by Séamas Mac Annaidh) under the guiding hand of Muireann Kelly, artistic director of An Taibhdhearc, the National Irish Language Theatre. Brídín Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh stars. Performances include English surtitles.
In conversation
Rebecca Solnit
Friday, May 23rd, Merrion Square Park, Dublin, 8pm, €14/€12, ilfdublin.com
There isn't an important subject under the sun that the US writer and activist Rebecca Solnit hasn't tackled. From politics, human rights and art to environmentalism and feminism, she is, as the New York Times has described her, 'the kind of rugged, off-road public intellectual America doesn't produce often enough', with 'a rare gift to turn the act of cognition, of arriving at a coherent point of view, into compelling moral drama'. Solnit will be in conversation with Caroline Erskine to discuss topics from her new essay collection, No Straight Road Takes You There: Essays for Uneven Terrain. The event is part of International Literature Festival Dublin.
Film
Fastnet Film Festival
From Wednesday, May 21st, until Sunday, May 25th, Schull, Co Cork, various venues, times and prices,
fastnetfilmfestival.com
It might be bold to claim, as its artistic adviser, the director Lenny Abrahamson, does, that this is the world's friendliest film festival, but when it comes to an event that connects film-makers, industry guests and the local community in celebration of film, there's little doubt he's right. Alongside the array of screenings, workshops and masterclasses are must-see public interviews with Domhnall Gleeson, Nicola Coughlan, Barry Keoghan, Rebecca Miller, Aidan Gillen, Bill Pullman, Clare Dunne, Maria Doyle-Kennedy and Ronan Day-Lewis.
Visual art
An Artist's Presence
From Saturday, May 17th, until Sunday, September 15th, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, free,
nationalgallery.ie
Helen Mabel Trevor: Self-Portrait
How artists position themselves in their work, figuratively at least, is the focus of this exhibition, which is curated by Katie Buckley of the gallery's prints and drawings collection. Artists from the 18th to 21st centuries are represented, including William Orpen, Nancy Lee Katz, Seán Keating, Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun (Marie Antoinette's favourite painter) and Amelia Stein. On Tuesday, May 27th (Education Studio, Level 1, 11am, €5), Buckley will be in conversation with Stein, the Dublin-based photographer, as part of the gallery's informal Talk and Tea series.
Still running
Ollie ... One Love, One Life
Saturday, May 17th, and Sunday, May 18th, Helix, Dublin, 8pm, €37,
thehelix.ie
Gary Cooke
This has to be a first: the dramatisation of the career of the committed chairman of an Irish soccer club, in this case Ollie Byrne of Shelbourne FC. The actor and comedian Gary Cooke's solo show, written by Gary Brown, brings to life not only Byrne's dynamic, ebullient character but also the passionate nature of football devotees. Joe O'Byrne directs.
[
Ollie Byrne: 'I have invested in shares and I have done well, but also not so well'
Opens in new window
]
Book it this week
Hibernacle at Orlagh House, Dublin, July 4th-6th,
hibernacle.ie
Beth Orton & Sam Amidon, Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, July 16th and 17th,
foggynotions.ie
Barbara Knézevič, Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, Co Cork, October 4th-December 20th,
siriusartscentre.ie
Miss Saigon, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin, January 13th-17th,
bordgaisenergytheatre.ie
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Irish Times
an hour ago
- Irish Times
All Together Now 2025 highs and lows: ‘CMAT for president', €8 for two cans of Sprite
HIGHS CMAT's headline set CMAT solidified her place at the forefront of Irish music with her All Together Now headline set . Alongside her powerhouse performance, the Irish country-pop singer also got the crowd to do what she called the 'Dunboyne County Meath Two-Step', in which thousands of fans swayed from side to side, in a trance to her lyrics. They then applauded thunderously for a sign in the crowd that was shown on the main stage's screen: 'CMAT mar uachtarán' – 'CMAT for president'. After the performance she gave at Curraghmore Estate on Saturday night, they might just be right. [ CMAT's powerhouse set could be the best performance at All Together Now 2025 Opens in new window ] Irish artists ruling the weekend The other big stand-out performance was from Fontaines DC , who, like CMAT, drew one of the largest main-stage audiences of this year's festival. How thrilling to see Irish musicians at the very top – and perfectly comfortable there, to boot. [ Fontaines DC: Biggest Irish group since U2 hit ferocious highs at all-conquering homecoming gig Opens in new window ] Relocated Arcadia stage The steam-punk goth arena's new location made it easier to access and increased its capacity – a great innovation if you wanted to rave until 4am to hardcore techno accompanied by theatrical flames spewing from the baroque stage. Ollie, Gavin and James from Dublin arrive on site for All Together Now. This year the campsites were close to the main arena, meaning carrying gear in and out was less hassle than in previous years. Photograph: Dan Dennison Campsites' closeness The campsites' proximity to the main arena was an absolute win. It meant that, during the day, people could gather in the communal areas, get lunch and listen to the daytime acts – something that doesn't feel as viable at bigger festivals, such as Electric Picnic. The Bandstand area, in particular, had crowds sitting on the grass, catching up, having food and listening to acts throughout the day. READ MORE Chilling in the Curraghmore gardens One of the other ways that some of the weekend's 30,000 festivalgoers chilled out was by heading for the gardens of the Curraghmore Estate. Sitting back as a seanchoíche storytelling session unfolded in the background was the perfect way to get a quick respite. Getting a wave from the lucky few staying in the big house was a bonus. Festival look If you were to bottle up the vibes of Drury Street in Dublin and send them on the train down to Waterford, that would be All Together Now 2025. This year's festival look included jerseys, Fontaines DC and CMAT merch, short shorts and ruffled mini skirts, not to mention Pellador jumpers, Bohs jerseys – see Lows, below – and mullets. Also, solidarity to the girls wearing cowboy boots: the blisters can't be forgiving. Ecofriendly festivalgoers and a team of staff kept the area clean, constantly tidying up rubbish. Photograph: Dan Dennison Ecofriendly audience The arena felt very clean – much cleaner than at other festivals. This was presumably in part down to the staff who were constantly cleaning up rubbish, but also down to ecofriendly festivalgoers who made sure to take their waste away with them. LOWS Preposterous cost of food Festivalgoers felt the sting of the cost-of-living crisis at the festival's food trucks. Photograph: Dan Dennison The lowest price for a meal at an Irish festival is now €15 – assuming you don't want to a drink to go with it. Festivals are supposed to be where we go to escape the pressures of every day life, but the cost-of-living crisis was making its presence felt at All Together Now. At Glastonbury three-quarters of the food trucks have a £6 offering , according to the huge British festival. That sounds like an idea well worth emulating. Prices at the 24-hour Londis In what economy is it acceptable for two cans of Sprite to cost €8? In the economy of the All Together Now's campgrounds, it seems. But the flagship shop on what quickly became known as the strip – a string of shops that attracted behaviour similar to what you might see in Albufeira or Zante – was nevertheless a lifeline for many. It sold essentials like a pint of milk and meal-deal sandwiches, possibly sustaining thousands over the weekend. Water waits On the ecofriendly front, many people brought their own water bottles. This is great in theory, but the campsites could have had a few more taps to facilitate refilling them as the queues got pretty long at times. Bohs' Fontaines DC overload Bohemian FC's Fontaines DC shirts are eye-catching – and how great to see an Irish soccer team in the spotlight – but it would have been nice to see some variety around the site. Also, have the hipsters moved on and embraced GAA jerseys as ' League of Ireland is cool' fatigue sets in? The prominence of GAA club tops suggests that may be the case. Rain couldn't stop fans flocking to see Nelly Furtado perform on the main stage on the last night of All Together Now. Photograph: Kieran Frost/Redferns Sunday-night rain You always want to go out on top, so it was slightly disappointing when it began to drizzle on Sunday night, especially after a particularly dry and sunny weekend. It didn't stop the crowds from flocking to Nelly Furtado to round out the weekend, although it did mean the predrinks were rather wet if your group didn't think ahead of time and bring a marquee.
Irish Times
2 hours ago
- Irish Times
All Together Now 2025: The weekend in pictures
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Irish Examiner
5 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Bob Vylan, CMAT, Fontaines... 10 talking points and highlights from All Together Now 2025
1 Bob Vylan The UK punk-rap duo who have had tours and festival slots cancelled since their chants of 'Death to the IDF' at Glastonbury six weeks ago were warmly welcomed in Co Waterford on Sunday night. They mentioned they were originally due to play a smaller stage at ATN before 'everything that's gone on'. Cue the swelling crowd chanting 'Death to the IDF'. Not once during the 45-minute set do Bob Vylan mention 'Israel' or 'IDF' but they are synonymous with what is happening and the self-described BBC Bandits make a couple of impassioned pleas. 'Remember, it is one struggle, it is one fight that we must all join and fight together. You understand it more than those cowards back home.' They also thank the promotors and organisers of the festival 'for having a fucking backbone because they could have very really removed us like a couple of festivals did but they didn't, they stood firm with us and we appreciate that massively'. 2 Palestine is the issue All across the weekend, Palestinian flags are waved by crowds and watermelon clothing is abundant. People are here to have fun but Palestine is obviously at the forefront of many people's thoughts Friday night headliners Fontaines DC declare 'Free Palestine!' and the big screen states: 'Israel is committing genocide. Use your voice.' The following night, CMAT leads the crowd in a chant of 'Free, free Palestine' as she exits following one of the best shows the festival has ever seen. Even Bob Geldof - who drew opprobrium for only speaking out on the atrocities last month, some 21 months into the conflict in Gaza - brings the Boomtown Rats' Sunday afternoon show to a halt during their biggest song, I Don't Like Mondays, to draw attention to Palestinians' plight. 3 Fontaines the conquering heroes Fontaines DC on stage at All Together Now 2025. Picture: Aiesha Wong Fontaines DC's last show in Ireland was at Dublin's 3Arena before Christmas and it feels like the entire 30,000 attendees at the sixth edition of All Together Now have turned out at the main stage to welcome them back to Ireland on Friday night. In the interim they've played to 45,000 at Finsbury Park in London. On Friday, every second person seems to be sporting the Fontaines DC-emblazoned Bohemian FC jersey. Surely the best band merchandise in recent years. Chatten, clad all in black, conducts the crowd through the likes of Skinty Fia and Jackie Down the Line. A Hero's Death, with the hopeful refrain "Life ain't always empty", shows the simple but effective way in which Fontaines DC inspire devotion. It's not all amazing, though, as the middle section of the set needs Big to shake it free of a plodding couple of songs, In The Modern World then inducing another mass singalong before they finish with a riotous Starburster. Earlier in the evening, Spanish rock band Hinds told the crowd that their first gig in Ireland, back in 2016, featured Fontaines on support duty. It's been a meteoric decade for them since - who knows where they go next. Wherever they want - they haven't put a foot wrong yet. 4 Busy crowd All Together Now has been sold out for months and it feels busier than usual. It's the first year that they've opened the site up to all ticketholders for the Thursday, the handful of acts who performed on the night enjoyed good-sized crowds. All Together Now 2025. 5 Site tweaks Organisers have made a few tweaks to the site this year. As usual the main thoroughfare has the giant wooden deer statue looking over it towards beautiful Curraghmore House. The Bandstand, scene of lots of fun over the years - including a storming set by the Knocknaheeney's finest the Kabin Crew last year - has had a glowup, becoming the Bandstand Arena, with towering pillars of lights and speakers all around. It looks and sounds great. 6 Cork band Cliffords the next big thing Another new addition, between the main stage and Something Kind of Wonderful, is the small new bands tent, called Flourish. It plays host to Cork five-piece Cliffords on Friday afternoon - another band to benefit from the busier than normal early turnout. Judging by the reaction, with almost all the songs shouted back at them, they seem primed to lead the next generation of bands in 'doing a Fontaines'. Cliffords at All Together Now 2025. Picture: Eoghan O'Sullivan Iona Lynch already looks and sounds like the quintessential frontwoman, explaining how Cliffords hadn't even played a show outside of Ireland a year ago. She calls for a moshpit at one stage because "We haven't had one of those before; we're not Gurriers," she jokes of the Dublin post-punk noiseniks who play ATN on Saturday night. Lynch is happy to declare, halfway through the show, that it's already the best gig they've ever played. It feels like one everyone in the hot, heaving tent will remember for a long time past this weekend. 7 Wet Leg look the part Another band who have enjoyed a meteoric ascent are Wet Leg, who exploded in popularity with the winking song of the summer 2021, Chaise Longue. Since then, there have been Grammys and Brit Awards and stadium support slots with the likes of Foo Fighters. For their second album Moisturizer, released last month, frontwoman Rhian Teasdale has completely transformed her look. Maybe it's simply after finding the unexpected new love that informs the new record, but she has gone from a previously unassuming brunette from the Isle of Wight to writhing and crawling around on the ground, flexing her muscles and shaking her ass in silver hot pants. She looks like the quintessential rock star now. She started the band with Hester Chambers who still writes and performs with Wet Leg but has taken a step back from the limelight due to a heady dose of social anxiety. It's interesting to watch her play guitar in their set ahead of Fontaines DC. She goes long stretches without looking at the crowd but still seems to be enjoying herself. How could anyone not have fun at a Wet Leg show? Strokes-esque new songs like Davina McCall and Mangetout sound great, while they also play the album closer, U andMe at Home Again, for what they say is the first time. 8 CMAT steals the show on Saturday CMAT on stage at All Together Now 2025. Nobody exits a CMAT show thinking she hasn't left it all on the stage. She's a capital-P pop Performer, regularly seen dramatically fainting to her knees or playing coy pantomime with the crowd. On her Saturday night show, Co Meath's finest surveys the huge crowd in front of her and confidently estimates it must indeed be more than the population of said town. After a summer of heavy touring ahead of the release of third album in four years Euro-country, she and the self-described Sexy CMAT band aka "the greatest Irish country rock and roll band" are all the screaming masses want. And boy do they get it. Eleven songs in about 75 minutes, it's not only the show of the weekend (sorry Fontaines DC) but probably the best gig in six years of All Together Now. She revels as frontwoman, stomping across the stage, waving her butt, joking "no school tomorrow" as she cracks open a can. She finishes, as usual, with Stay for Something, jumping into the moshpit for a bop. The set began with five old songs; it could easily be CMAT karaoke such is the fervour with which they're roared by the crowd. But it's the new songs that will take CMAT's star higher. Take a Sexy Picture of Me enjoyed a viral dance moment earlier this year. Penultimate song and latest single Euro-country is performed live for the first She mentions emigration and various other social ills, pinning it on the government of 20-25 years ago. The song is brilliant, detailing "all the Berties, all the envelopes who really hurt me" and how "I was 12 when the das starting killing themselves all around me". It all adds up to one of the great festival performances. 9 Irish acts As well as the headliners, there are plenty of impressive Irish acts scattered throughout the festival. During the afternoon, the queue to get into The Last City area is about a dozen deep, with DJ Rory Sweeney hosting a series of rappers as part of the Irish Hash Mafia Cypher. Enniscorthy rapper Lil Skag has built a connection with the young audience, just a "regular man doing regular activities". Morgana on stage at All Together Now 2025. Trapattoni, referencing the former Ireland soccer manager, is a smart track that marks Skag out as one to keep an eye on. Over at Something Kind of Wonderful, it's a rare outing for traditional Irish music foursome Landless, whose voices weave together majestically. The crowd is sitting and lying down letting the sound wave over them. Just over two years on since her death, they finish with a beautiful cover of a Sinéad O'Connor song, In This Heart, which they dedicate to the people of Palestine. Meanwhile, at Lovely Days, Morgana, formerly half of Saint Sister, is revelling in her new disco-pop direction. 10 Good vibes It felt busier than previous years at All Together Now 2025. But the vibe of the festival has not changed at all. Everyone is friendly and drinking it all in, enjoying themselves. It's a beautiful atmosphere - helped perhaps by the nice bank holiday weather. It also comprises age groups from young - fair play to the dad pulling his two kids up a hill with all his might during the afternoon - to savvy veterans with camping seats at hand.
