Dublin’s ‘Deadliest’ Festival Will Be Returning This October…

Hands down the 'deadliest' festival in Dublin, the Bram Stoker Festival will be coming back to the city this October Bank Holiday weekend with a spooky line-up of supernaturally slick events.

The festival promises to "summon the supernatural as it playfully celebrates the gothic, the mysterious, the after-dark and the thrill of late October as Ireland approaches Halloween and Samhain" and is Inspired by the legacy of Dublin-born Gothic writer Bram Stoker and his illustrious novel Dracula.

Here's some highlights to look forward to...

Those looking for a chilling theatrical experience will get their thrills at Whitby in the hauntingly evocative Smock Alley’s Boys School from October 27^th to 30^th, the world premiere and much anticipated new show from internationally renowned dance artist Colin Dunne and theatre-maker Joan Sheehy.

This multi-layered performance piece reimagines the power of Stoker’s gothic masterpiece by focusing on a relatively unknown section of the novel where the ship, the Demeter, brings Dracula from Romania to the port of Whitby.

Fans of classic horror and the culturally curious have the chance to catch a rare screening of 1932 French-German horror movie, Vampyr, in the spectacularly gothic surrounds of St Patrick’s Cathedral on October 27^th.

Thrill-seekers looking for some devilish fun should come along to Turning Vampire in Vicar Street on October 29^th for a serious night of music, giggles and ghouls that celebrates the best music from horror movies.

Playing alongside The Flux Capacitators, the Turning Pirate house band, will be Lisa Hannigan, Adam Matthews and Niamh Farrell of Hamsandwich fame, with many more to be added to the line-up.

By day, the Bram Stoker Festival programme presents gothic intrigue at family-friendly events, talks and interactive experiences, whilst at night, the city will embrace the darkness as a host of venues deliver deadly adventures for festival goers in search of macabre thrills and late-night parties.

The festival programme will include theatre, spectacle, visual arts and music in haunting locations across the city celebrating Dublin’s gothic and supernatural traditions, the city itself and gothic architecture, and the full programme will be unveiled in September.

Nice one.

Header image: Allen Kiely Photography