Over €260,000 in funding will support late-night cultural events across Ireland, as Culture Night Late invites audiences to experience culture after dark on Friday, 18 September 

Culture Night Late returns for 2026 with over €260,000 in funding supporting free late-night cultural events across Ireland, inviting people to experience a different side of their villages, towns and cities after dark on Friday, 18 September. 

As part of the broader Culture Night programme, Culture Night Late expands the night’s potential, with events spanning nightlife and club culture, music, performances, visual arts, film, spoken word, dance, and the innovative use of public and cultural spaces after hours. 

This is a Night-Time Economy initiative funded by the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, and supported with additional funding from the Arts Council.  

Reflecting the ambitions of the National Night-Time Economy Taskforce, Culture Night Late was developed to encourage audiences to engage with arts and culture later into the night, broaden access to cultural experiences, and support a more diverse and vibrant night-time economy.  

This year, dedicated Culture Night Late events continue to be delivered across Ireland’s nine Night-Time Economy pilot locations, showcasing culture as a key driver of evening and night-time vibrancy. The nine pilot locations include: Buncrana, Longford, Sligo, Drogheda, Kilkenny, Galway, Limerick, Cork, and Dublin. 

Culture Night Late supports arts organisations to develop ambitious and innovative events that extend cultural activity later into the night. The initiative places emphasis on artistic ambition, collaboration, creative use of spaces, engagement with younger audiences, equality, diversity and inclusion, and distinctive cultural experiences that encourage people to see Ireland’s towns and cities in a new way. 

The investment recognises the important role that artists and arts organisations can play in shaping a sustainable night-time economy, while giving audiences more choice in how and where they experience culture. 

Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, Patrick O’Donovan TD, notes: 

“This year’s investment of €260,000 in the Culture Night Late programme by my department, through the Night Time Economy Taskforce and the Arts Council, demonstrates our continued commitment to developing a vibrant and diverse night-time economy, where arts and culture have an important role to play. 

Culture Night has always been about creating opportunities for people to engage with Ireland’s rich cultural life. Through the Culture Night Late programme, we are supporting artists and arts organisations to take that ambition further, creating new experiences and giving people even more ways to participate in culture. 

I look forward to seeing communities across the country come together on Friday 18 September and experience everything Culture Night Late has to offer.” 

Andrea Horan, entrepreneur, night-time economy advocate and Culture Night Late Ambassador for 2026, said: 

“Culture Night Late is exciting because it opens up our expectations of a “night out”. It shows that after dark can be about art, performance, music, dancing, experimentation, meeting people, and experiencing familiar places in a completely different way. 

A healthy night-time culture needs diverse spaces and experiences, and people need to feel that the night belongs to them too. Culture Night Late gives us a chance to see what’s possible when we put creativity at the heart of the night and gives us all an invitation to break our habits and routines and get out into the night.  

My hope is that people go to something they wouldn’t normally go to, stay out a little later, and realise how easily accessible this world of after dark culture is and that it’s worth getting involved in all year round.” 

Highlights from this year’s Culture Night Late programme include: 

• Dublin – Bewleys Presents: Soul Juice x Culture Night Late: Soul Juice is Dublin’s live improvised music community, bringing together musicians, vocalists, rappers, poets, and music lovers for an evening of spontaneous creation. Performers simply bring their instrument and join the rotation, creating entirely new combinations of musicians and fresh sounds throughout the evening. 

• Cork – The Devils in the Dance Hall, Cork City Hall: An immersive dance and theatre performance inspired by the true story of Jimmy Gralton and Ireland’s historic dance halls, bringing Ireland’s own history of social dancing and gathering into a contemporary late-night setting. 

• Drogheda – Night Moves: Providing new, experimental, engaging intergenerational nighttime cultural experiences across accessible public & shared spaces including McHughs, Odd Mollies, The Coffee Box, Graft Burger Hub at Abbey Lane, The former Methodist Church, Droichead Arts Centre Barlow House, and Stockwell Street, Clarkes and Barney Macs. Including Drogheda Groove Movement presents Sunil Sharpe, one of Europe’s most renowned techno DJs, and a leading figure in Irish electronic music. 
   

• Kilkenny – Watergate Urban Park Block Party: Leading Irish music tastemaker and DJ Nialler9 will be on the decks for a fun, genre-spanning evening of disco, electronic, pop, and ’80s/’90s jams at the new Watergate Urban Park.  
   

• Sligo – Minor Disturbance: Sligo audiences are invited to experience Minor Disturbance, a free late-night event that transforms the ATU Innovation Centre into an immersive space for music, art and creativity as part of Culture Night Late 2026. Taking place in the Innovation Centre’s striking atrium, the event brings together live electronic music from Bodycam and E the Artist, Sligo DJ collective Making Waves, large-scale visual projections and participatory printmaking in a welcoming, alcohol-free environment designed for everyone to enjoy 
   

• Limerick – Top 8 Culture Night Late: Running from 8pm until midnight, Top 8 puts street dance and hip hop culture at the centre of Limerick’s Culture Night Late programme, showcasing an important part of Ireland’s contemporary cultural landscape. 
   

• Galway – 8 Bits of Galway: 8 Bits of Galway is a playful and visually captivating 3D mapping experience that reimagines the façade of Lynch’s Castle, one of Galway’s most iconic historic landmarks. Transforming the building into a vibrant, arcade-inspired world, the artwork draws on the visual language of classic 1990s platform games. Through a series of short visual “levels”, the artwork offers a glimpse of Galway in an 8-bit aesthetic. 
   

• Buncrana – Culture Night Trail ‘Edge of the Atlantic, Heart and Sound of the Arts’ – Buncrana’s Main Street comes alive from 6pm to 12:30am, as businesses transform into stages and cultural performances fill the streets. This year’s trail will feature performances, exhibitions, workshops, live music, storytelling and creative experiences. 
   

• Longford – St. John’s Sessions: Cronin return to Longford town for an unforgettable evening of live music in the unique and atmospheric surrounds of St. John’s Church. The Midlands band will be joined for one night only by Irish music legend Steve Wickham (The Waterboys). 

Culture Night returns on Friday, 18 September 2026, with hundreds of free events across every county. Following a landmark 2025 edition, which saw more than 1,800 free events take place across Ireland, the 2026 programme will once again celebrate the artists, venues, organisers and communities that bring Ireland’s cultural life to audiences nationwide. 

Culture Night is stewarded by the Arts Council in partnership with local authorities across Ireland, with support from the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport. 

Full programme details, participating venues, booking information, accessibility details and updates are available at culturenight.ie. 

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