Get ready to be spooked as the Bram Stoker Festival returns to Dublin for a frightful weekend!
Water-borne Spectacles, Séances and Spooktacular Surprises all await at Bram Stoker Festival this October Bank Holiday Weekend. The jam packed programme of events celebrates the legacy of one of Ireland’s most treasured authors, Bram Stoker, the man behind the Gothic novel Dracula.
This year’s programme is packed into four days and nights; from a séance held in complete darkness to daring new theatre, a spectacle on water, dress-up film screenings, a devilishly delicious food trail, a haunted Instagram adventure, a Victorian pop-up fun park for families and much more. For events information and tickets sink your teeth into see bramstokerfestival.com
Events not to be missed!
- Night Watch (Fri 25 – Mon 28 Oct, all day, best viewed from dusk)
Set in the ancient modern of Dublin’s Grand Canal Dock, this is an outdoor spectacle by the internationally renowned Lantern Company taking place across all four days of the festival. Best enjoyed from dusk, but visible from Friday 25 Oct until late on Monday 28 Oct, this atmospheric and darkly theatrical installation will see a ghostly ship summoned from the dark, swathed in fog and foreboding lights, accompanied by an eerie, maritime forest of beings and bodies arising from the depths . A must-see for families, visitors and Dubliners of all ages, the water borne installation reflects age-old anxieties of predator and prey, watcher and watched, with tales of the strange and sinister from the high seas.
- Sounds of Wood on Muscle (Fri 25 Oct 9pm & Sat 26 Oct 6pm & 8.30pm, €18)
Dying to hear what a stake through the heart actually sounds like? In 1938, Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre project broadcast a live radio recording of Dracula. In the world premiere of Sounds of Wood on Muscle an ensemble of Ireland’s funniest and most thought-provoking theatre makers will present a modern take on Welles’ iconic radio play. Find out if they can improve on Welles’s watermelon and hammer technique in this restaging which plays with how technology has changed our relationship to imagination. Directed by Eoghan Quinn (Collapsing Horse), taking place in St. Ann’s Church, where Bram Stoker married Florence Balcombe in 1878.
- Meeting House Horrors
A series of dress-up outdoor horror movie screenings takes place in Meeting House Square. Join the real weirdos, Mister, and throw on your best 90s goth threads and chokers at The Craft (Fri 25 Oct, 8pm, €16); Have moon howls at the ready for a delicious combination of macabre horror and dark humour in the lycanthropic horror An American Werewolf in London (Sat 26 Oct, 8.30pm, €16); and feel free to Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never die (that last one’s important) at Lost Boys (Sun 27 Oct, 8pm, €16).
Meanwhile, firm family favourite, Stokerland (Fri 25 & Sat 26 Oct, 11am-4.30pm, free) returns to take over St. Patrick’s Park for two days of Victorian fun and frolics. With one of Dublin’s most stunning cathedrals as a striking backdrop, this Gothic gathering is full of entertainment to keep little monsters amused, including the macabre talents of world class street-performers as well as rides and attractions to ensure a fangtastic time for all. Other family fun includes Dracula’s Disco (Mon 28 Oct, 2pm, free) returning to Meeting House Square with DJ Will Softly on The Ark’s outdoor stage, complete with confetti cannons to inspire some seriously deadly dancing.
For the full programme of events see bramstokerfestival.com
Commenting on the programme, Festival Co-Director Maria Schweppe said, “Bram Stoker Festival has gone from strength to strength since its inception, and last year reached its biggest ever audience, with people coming from all parts of the city and country, joined by thousands of international visitors.
This year’s programme contains lots of free events, events rooted in Stoker and his life, literary explorations and craic-filled night out, as well as fun experiences for people of all ages.
The festival footprint continues to grow, and for the first time this year, we’re taking to the water with a stunningly beautiful, evocative, chilling and haunting spectacle-meets-art-installation called Night Watch at Grand Canal Dock – don’t miss it!”.
Dubliners and visitors to the city are invited to follow the fun using #bitemedublin #fiaclafola at www.facebook.com/BramStokerDublin and @bramstokerdub on Twitter and Instagram.
