Kinsale is a beautiful town best known for its food and gorgeous coastal views. In the last few years it has been making a name for itself on the culture vulture scene with Kinsale Arts Week.

In its 7th year the programme has a healthy mixture of events encompassing architecture, visual art, theatre, comedy, music and street entertainment.
If you’re someone who likes to dabble with their creative side then there’s a fantastic range of workshops on offer too. One of the festival’s best kept secrets is who will open the festival and we’re as much in the dark as you trying to figure out who will follow in the footsteps of the likes of Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Jeremy Irons.

Here’s some of the things that jumped off the programme at me:

Music

Eclectic is probably the only way I could describe the musical offerings of the festival programme with performances from The Dublin Guitar Quartet, The Undertones, Nouvelle Vague, The Rubberbandits and more. See the full listings here.

Visual Art

Certainly one of the strongest strands of the programme but how could it not be in such inspiring surroundings. There are many exhibitions due to open in various locations around Kinsale including ceramics, painting, photography and graphic design. ‘KAW Arts Train – The Inner Trail‘ is a walking tour offering the chance to visit festival artists in their studios on Saturday morning while the ‘West Trail Bus Trip‘ follows a similar idea on Monday morning with a more extensive tour reaching outside of Kinsale.

Workshops

If you’re like me there’s only so much sitting back and soaking up you can do so the workshops organised for the week are hugely appealing. How about a spot of millinery to create something amazing perhaps for the upcoming Galway Races? There’s also life drawing, pottery, movie-making, sculpture, silk painting, beading and more and that’s not including workshops for the kids!

Street Day – a day of free events on Sunday 10th

Sunday promises to be a day packed with things to do especially if you’re heading out with a family. Juggling, aerial acrobatics, story-telling, puppet shows and one of my personal favourites ‘The sugru hospital for broken toys’. For those of you nostalgic for the 90s there’s some line dancing courtesy of Line Dance Ireland and you can exercise your creative juices with a pavement drawing workshop on Short Quay.

Other highlights include a visit from presidential hopeful Michael D.Higgins discussing his latest published collection of poetry ‘New and Selected Poems‘. The “compelling, true and gruesome story” ‘The Ship of Seven Murders‘ will be told on board the Spirit of Kinsale cruise boat while competitive foodies will get a kick out of ‘Have You Got Good Taste?‘, a blind tasting dinner where guess what you are eating to win a prize. If you fancy a spot of theatre then Absolut Fringe hit ‘All This and a Hill of Beans‘ will see you right while Jarlath Regan and Snatch Comedy Improv will take care of anyone looking for a good laugh.

It’s an impressive programme and if you’re thinking of heading to Kinsale to catch some or all of it do check it out in advance as some events require advance booking. You can follow the festival updates as they happen on Facebook and on Twitter.