Fleadh na gCuach

4th – 6th May @ Multiple Locations

Celebrating its 30th year in 2024, Fleadh na gCuach (the Cuckoo Fleadh) is a cherished traditional music and community-based arts festival held in Kinvara, Galway. Known for its vibrant ambiance and exceptional talent, the festival has garnered a stellar reputation as a showcase for traditional music, attracting musicians from across Ireland and beyond. This eagerly anticipated event has become a treasured tradition, bringing together locals and visitors to revel in music, culture, and community.
Kinvara – Buses are available from Galway – Check Fleadh na gCuach on instagram for times and details!

N.I.C.E. (New Italian Cinema Events) Italian Film Festival

3rd – 5th May @ Pálás Cinema

This international festival of Italian cinema has showcased the best recent Italian films of each year since 1991. The 2024 Irish edition will take place in Dublin, Cork, and Galway – where it will be hosted at Pálás Cinema. Starting on the evening of May 3, with a wine reception upstairs at Pálás followed by the screening of Italian director’s Maria Sole Tognazzi DIECI MINUTI (2024), the festival will show four of the best recent Italian films, with English subtitles.

Bealtaine and May Day at Brigit’s Garden

5th May  @ Brigit’s Garden 

You are warmly invited to the Roundhouse on Sunday 5th May from 7 – 9pm for a special celebration of the Celtic fire festival of Bealtaine-May Day and the traditional start of summer. This is a time to re-emerge from the darker half of the year and open ourselves to the growth, warmth, joy and abundance of the summer season.

Galway Theatre Festival 

May 3rd to May 11th at Multiple Locations

Galway Theatre Festival was established in 2008, to platform Galway and West of Ireland based independent and emerging artists. GTF takes place in May each year, showcasing the energy and imagination of artists from Galway and West of Ireland, and playing host to exciting young theatre companies and artists from throughout the country.

Fault & Fold

3rd May – 26 May at the Outset Gallery 

‘’Fault & Fold’’ will feature new works from Designer, Musician & Visual Artist Ed Kelly – a showcase of interdisciplinary works and installations that blur the line between contemporary painting and sculpture.
Kelly’s wall-based relief pieces reflect the artist’s meticulous process, characterised by his signature blend of bold colours, rhythmic patterns and hard edges which draw from his extensive experience as a graphic designer. Kelly’s artworks resonate with abstract minimalism, influenced by themes of psychogeography, geological phenomena, folk history, and the synthesis of superstition and music making.

An Tóstal

11th – 12th May @ Salthill Prom

Curragh Racing in Galway

A Deep Well of Want: Photographs and Archives of McGahern Country

Until 17th May

Paul Butler launches his book of photography that presents a visual and documentary journey through McGahern Country. Accompanied by an exhibition. This exhibition of photographs by Paul Butler documents the landscape and passing rural life of Co. Leitrim and surrounding areas – the hinterland of writer John McGahern. Accompanied by archives and literary manuscripts from the John McGahern Archive, held at University of Galway Library, curated by Dr. Barry Houlihan, this exhibition presents a visual and documentary journey through McGahern Country – to the sites, places, and lives that formed a wellspring for the literary imagination of John McGahern.

Computer and Communications Museum of Ireland

Every Saturday

CCMI have spent much of the last year revamping this national treasure putting in place new thematic displays including a games zone with original Xbox consoles connected on a pre-broadband LAN (Local Area Network) to allow multiple players on one game. One of the new exhibitions is devoted to Apple Computer, highlighting different periods in the company’s history including the late 1970s to the mid 1980s with the themes of innovation, creativity, youth and counterculture.