Greetings from Safe Harbour
Cork gets its Pride back this week. Cork Community Pride runs 1 and 2 August, rebuilt from scratch by a volunteer collective, and it lands at the end of a week where West Cork is quietly out-programming the city, from 28 July to 2 August.
Peter Broderick plays four different West Cork rooms in four nights. Ye Vagabonds do two nights at Connolly's, the Friday already gone.
Skibbereen Arts Festival takes over the town from Wednesday, Kankawa Nagarra brings Kimberley desert blues to De Barra's in Clon, ALOK is at Cyprus Avenue, and Ger Fitzgibbon's play for voices runs all week at Cork Arts Theatre.
This is our pick of what's on this week. For a full event list check out the link at the bottom of the email.
Let's dive in 👇
EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
Cork Community Pride 2026
Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 August · Family picnic Saturday · Parade assembles 13:00 Sunday, moves 14:00 · Grand Parade
Cork went a year without a Pride and a grassroots volunteer collective built this one back from nothing, which is why it matters more than a slicker festival would. Saturday is the family picnic, Sunday is the march, assembling on Grand Parade at one and moving at two. Expect it to be rougher round the edges and better attended than anyone is predicting. Bring the kids on Saturday and the walking shoes on Sunday.
Peter Broderick & The Winterage Men
Wednesday 29 July, Connolly's of Leap · Thursday 30 July, Briery Gap · Friday 31 July, Levis · Saturday 1 August, Ahakista Church
Broderick is marking ten years living in Ireland with a run named after the Burren Winterage, the old practice of walking cattle up onto the limestone for the winter, which he and his friends have gone to every year. Four nights, four rooms, none of them holding more than a couple of hundred people, finishing in a church in Ahakista on Saturday at 19:30. The Ahakista date is the one to angle for if you can only make one.
Kankawa Nagarra
Thursday 30 July · 20:00, show 20:30 · De Barra's
An eighty year old Walmajarri Elder from the Kimberley who beat Nick Cave to the 2024 Australian Music Prize with Wirlmarni, singing in four Indigenous languages across gospel, country and blues. Darren Hanlon opens with a solo set, does a Q and A with her, then plays electric guitar behind her for the main set. De Barra's holds a very small number of people and this is the sort of booking that justifies the whole folk club model.
Amo Amo
Thursday 30 July · 19:30 · Connolly's of Leap
The Los Angeles psych-soul outfit on a Thursday in Leap, which is the kind of routing that only makes sense once you have seen the room. Sun-warped harmonies in a west Cork bar with the door open. Cheap, early, and over before midnight.
The Garifuna Collective
Thursday 30 July · 20:00 · Skibbereen Arts Festival
The Belize group carrying the Garifuna sound that Andy Palacio put in front of the world before he died, all paranda rhythms and call and response singing. Booking them into Skibbereen rather than a city venue is exactly the kind of decision that makes this festival worth watching.
Ye Vagabonds And Friends
Friday 31 July and Saturday 1 August · Doors 16:00 · Connolly's of Leap
Two nights built around All Tied Together, with an indoor and outdoor setup and a guest list the Brennans have not finished announcing. Friday has already sold out, so Saturday is your shot. Four in the afternoon doors for a folk gig is an unusual call and a good one.
Gerry Tully Sings The Christy Moore Songbook
Saturday 1 August · 20:00 · Sea Church
Ballycotton's old church turned venue, and a songbook that most Irish audiences can sing back at you without prompting. The room does the heavy lifting on a night like this. Sea views on the walk in, Ride On on the walk out.
Afro Room: Afrobeats and Amapiano
Saturday 1 August · 22:30 · The Pavilion
Specialist DJs on amapiano and afrobeats, running late on the Saturday of Pride weekend, which will do it no harm at all for numbers. The Pav's downstairs room and log drum bass is a combination worth showing up for.
Junior Brother
Sunday 2 August · Levis Corner House
Ronan Kealy's voice is a genuinely divisive instrument and Levis is the right room to be converted or repelled in. Kerry sean-nós inflected songwriting with the volume of a punk gig. Sunday night, small room, no hiding place for anyone.
Comedy Cavern: Richy Sheehy Work In Progress
Tuesday 28 July · 20:30 · Coughlan's
A work in progress show is a comedian testing which bits survive contact with an audience, and Coughlan's back room is where Cork comics have been doing that for years. Cheaper than a finished hour and often funnier. Expect notes, false starts and at least one thing that lands better than it should.
The Four-Faced Liar
Tuesday 28 July to Saturday 1 August · Cork Arts Theatre
Ger Fitzgibbon's play for voices began life as a live podcast from the Everyman stage during Covid, went out on RTÉ Radio Drama in cut-down form, and only now gets a full staging. Over sixty characters, eighty five minutes, a night walk through the city and the people in it. Named for the Shandon clock, which has never told the same time on all four faces. 16+.
ALOK: Eat Pray Leave!
Wednesday 29 July · 19:00 · Cyprus Avenue
Alok Vaid-Menon is a poet and performance artist who happens to be doing stand-up, and Eat Pray Leave is built around love, heartbreak and the end times. Cork is the second of four Irish dates in one week, after Belfast and before Limerick and Dublin. Allie O'Rourke supports.
Skibbereen Arts Festival
Wednesday 29 July to Sunday 2 August · Venues across Skibbereen
Five days of music, film, literature and visual art in a town of three thousand people, which remains the most improbable thing about it. This year carries a residency from the eco-arts project Dinnseanchas on Tour, with An Scioból at the Courtyard Gallery plus walks and performances out into the landscape and over to Bere Island. There is a run of free events at 49 North Street if you want to test the water first.
Pulp Fiction
Friday 31 July · Briery Gap
Tarantino's second film back on a cinema screen in Macroom, where the diner scene and the adrenaline shot play very differently to a room than they do to a laptop. Thirty years on it has aged into a period piece, which is its own kind of interesting.
Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Saturday 1 August · 19:00 · Triskel Arts Centre
Part of Triskel's Tim Burton season, and the film that got him the career. It is a children's film about a stolen bicycle that is also one of the strangest studio debuts ever greenlit. The Triskel's converted church makes anything look better, this one especially.
The Best of Cork Summer Series
Saturday 1 August · 20:45 · City Limits Comedy Club
The local circuit's strongest acts on one bill, which in Cork means a room that will heckle you if you deserve it. Late enough to eat first, early enough to go somewhere after.
Emma Doran and Mockie Ah Cork Pride Party
Sunday 2 August · 20:30 · The Pav
Doran headlining a Pride party the evening the parade winds down is good scheduling by whoever made the call. Mockie Ah run the room and know how to keep it moving. The natural place to end up on Sunday if you marched.
August Craft Month
From Saturday 1 August · Venues across Cork
A month of open studios, demonstrations and workshops from makers who normally work behind closed doors. The Cork listings are worth a scroll now rather than on 30 August when you have missed everything.
Fizz, Fashion & Designer Finds
Thursday 30 July · 19:00 · The Lemon Leaf
Preloved designer pieces and a glass of fizz in Kinsale's best-known café, which is a more civilised way to shop secondhand than a rail in a draughty hall. Go with a budget and leave the card at home.
Cork Beer Experience
Saturday 1 August · 12:30 · Cork City
A guided walk between local breweries with someone who can explain what you are drinking, starting at half twelve so it stays an afternoon rather than a night. Cork's brewing scene has quietly got very good and most people who live here have not kept up.
Castletownbere Festival of the Sea
From Friday 31 July · Castletownbere
Maritime heritage, water sports and family events in a working fishing port rather than a tourist one, which is the difference. The Beara Peninsula in early August with the sea in front of you is hard to beat, and most of it costs nothing.
Singles Fun Run Day
Sunday 2 August · 08:00 · Marina Market
An eight in the morning run that doubles as a way to meet people, finishing at the Marina Market where the coffee is. Nobody will ask which of those two things brought you.
For a full overview of all events on this week in Cork check out our event listings page
UNTIL NEXT WEEK
Thanks for reading Safe Harbour!
If you enjoy the newsletter or you find it useful here are some ways you can help us:
💌 Forward it to a friend, neighbour, or your local WhatsApp group
📝 If you were sent this and want in on the action, sign up here.
💛 Consider supporting the newsletter with a monthly subscription (coming soon)
See you next week 👋
P.S. Not feeling it anymore? No hard feelings. You can unsubscribe from the email footer below