ARTS + FUN

Galway Arts Festival

TheGalway Arts Festival is the largest international arts festival that happens in Ireland. Founded in 1978 it has grown into an event with a significant reputation where, in 2012, there were 163,548 attendances at 160 performances, talks and exhibitions in 27 venues over 14 days. The Festival showcases a wide variety of international artists alongside the best of Irish talent and includes music (popular, contemporary, jazz, world, classical and traditional), theatre (indoor and outdoor), visual arts, dance, talks, discussions, family events and comedy in its program.

The Festival has contributed hugely to placing Galway firmly on the map as both a key cultural centre for the arts and cultural tourism destination.

Highlights from the program in recent years included, Primal Scream, David Byrne, Blondie, Bon Iver, David Hockney, Joni Mitchell, Henri Matisse amongst others.

The Festival also presents traditional music concerts in large-scale and intimate settings, and large scale street spectacles from Royal de Luxe to the annual Macnas Festival Parade.

High Street Art Gallery

High Street Art Gallery is located in the heart of old Galway, now known as the Latin Quarter. It is a Fine Art gallery and working studio by well known Irish artist Gordon Harris.
Gordon is a self taught artist whose first love is figurative painting using oil paint.

The gallery has a lovely atmosphere inside and has all the original sash windows and high ceilings when the building was built over a century ago. You will feel like you are taking in a bit of Galway’s history as well as enjoying the monthly exhibits that Gordon holds with other artists.