Galway Races
The world renowned seven day Galway Races Summer Festival takes place on Monday 30th July to Sunday 5th August 2018. Widely regarded as the highlight of the Summer season in Ireland, Galway Races offers you fantastic horse racing, live music and entertainment, stunning fashion, family fun and an electric atmosphere that continues to draw people from all over Ireland and abroad to experience first-hand the infectious sense of fun. Galway Racecourse plays host to one of the greatest race meetings in the world, the famous and iconic Galway Races Summer Festival, that boasts seven days of superb racing, hospitality, entertainment, stunning fashion and an electric atmosphere that continues to draw people from Ireland and abroad to experience the magic that is ‘The Galway Races’. The racecourse offers a great selection of hospitality facilities and continually strives to offer the race goer a wonderful raceday experience.
Over 140,000 people attended the Summer Festival Meeting in 2017 where betting turnover reached great heights once again. The total prize fund for the fifty-two sponsored races reached an impressive €2 million. If you fancy a flutter while at the course, there are various options for placing a bet at the Galway Races; the Tote, on-course betting shops and on-course bookmakers. Turnstiles will open each day at approximately two hours before the first race.
Galway Arts Festival
Galway International Arts Festival (GIAF) is a major cultural organisation, which produces one of Europe’s leading international arts festivals; develops and produces new work that tours nationally and internationally; and presents a major discussion platform,First Thought Talks. The organization has played a very significant role in placing Galway firmly on the map, as both a key cultural centre for the arts and a cultural tourism destination on the Wild Atlantic Way. It now looks forward to playing a central role in the European Capital of Culture 2020 designation awarded to Galway.
The multidisciplinaryfestival takes place each July in Galway, Ireland and covers a range of art forms, including theatre, dance, music, opera, street spectacle, visual arts, discussion and comedy. In 2017, over 200 events took place in 33 venues over the course of 14 days with an attendance in excess of 210,000. The Guardian named the festival as one of the Top 5 Summer Festivals in Europe. The 41th Galway International Arts Festival takes place from 16-29 July 2018 and the full programme will be announced in May. Among the early announcements are: one of the most prominent bands of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Madness, or The Nutty Boys as they are commonly known; double platinum selling indie rock bandWalking on Cars, whowill play the Festival Big Top on Saturday 21 July; indie sensationCaribou, whoare set to play their only Irish gig of the summer on Saturday 28 July; Choice Music prize winner Gavin James; the hugely popularKodaline, who have already sold out; and Irish National Opera, who will present a new opera production ofOrfeo ed Euridice. To hear about announcements first, follow Galway International Arts Festival on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or sign up to its newsletter.
Previous festival highlights include Brian Wilson, Joni Mitchell, Bill Viola, The National, Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, St. Vincent, John Grant, The Gloaming, Elvis Costello, John Gerrard, Hughie O’Donoghue, Sophie Calle, Louise Bourgeois, Cormac McCarthy, Ivo van Hove, David Hockney, Kronos Quartet, Philip Glass, Fabulous Beast, Michael Clark, Hofesh Shechter, Marina Abramovic, Steppenwolf, Royal Court, New York Theatre Workshop and Circa. GIAF also works regularly with leading Irish companies including Druid.
Fr Ted Festival
Tea and sandwiches and all of the usual high jinx activities are being prepared for the 11th Annual Fr. Ted Festival – Tedfest. The 2017 Tedfest takes place from Thursday 22 Feb to Sunday 25 Feb with events taking place Inis Mór (Inishmore). This festival on will either completely baffle you or make you want to up sticks and head for ‘Craggy Island” for a few days of completely off the wall madness! The festival celebrates (if that is the right word!) the cult TV series Father Ted, and as anyone familiar with it will know that means madness, mayhem and total chaos are not just inevitable but desirable.
Planned events (though who knows what will actually happen) include Buckaroo and Movie Charades, a Jesuit Country & Western Hour, Priests v Nuns Beach Volleyball. Oh, and of course the annual Lovely Girls Competition!
