Dublin Has Some Very Spooky Plans for Halloween

Are you ready to celebrate Dublin’s dark side? 

This October, the Bram Stoker Festival will take place in the capital, celebrating Dublin-born Gothic writer Bram Stoker and his illustrious novel Dracula.

From October 23rd to 26th, Dublin will get “gloriously gothic” with Four Days of Living Stories and Four Nights of Deadly Adventures over the Bank Holiday Weekend.

By day, the festival programme presents gothic intrigue at family-friendly events, talks and interactive experiences. 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.

A major festival highlight sees world-renowned Irish street-artist Maser return to the cityscape of Dublin to create an interactive installation in Smithfield, which is inspired both by Stoker’s life and the themes of his most famous work. This must-see event will take place in Smithfield Square where the local community will be encouraged to collaborate in its construction over seven days. The installation will open to the public at twilight on 23^rd October and will remain open to the public for the duration of the festival.

Macnas close the festival at twilight on Monday 26^th October. In what is set to be another breath-taking citywide procession from the Galway based spectacle and street performance company; this is a deadly adventure given life on the streets of Dublin.

Stokerland will open its gates to families and the young at heart on Sunday 25^th Oct. Located in Wolfe Tone Park, Stokerland is a pop-up gothic theme park in the style of the 1900 world fair, featuring the macabre talents of world- class street performers  The Mighty Gareth and Able Mabel who will perform on the hour throughout the day. This family friendly fun-day will also offer children and their adult companions gothic makeovers, tin-plate portraits in period dress, screenprinting with Damn Fine Print and Victorian goodies.

The deadliest adventure of all, New Blood, takes place at Projects Arts Centre on Sunday, 25^th October. New Blood is a “cold, sharp bite of contemporary Irish culture” – a progressive Halloween Party for the Bram Stoker Festival filled with bespoke cocktails, art installations, live electronic acts and DJs. Attendees will lose themselves in a futuristic vampire haven and a feast of new blood. Excessive dress-up is essential.

Bram Stoker Festival will also collaborate with some of Ireland’s leading designers and illustrators through a partnership with Damn Fine Print, who present two projects at the festival. Dancing in The Moonlight: Dublin by Night is an exhibition and sale of the work of 15 specially commissioned artists including Chris Judge, Fuchsia Macree and Steve McCarthy. See the prints from 23rd Oct where Damn Fine Print and Bram Stoker Festival will host a special festival launch party in Generator Hostel, Smithfield.

Vampires Robert McDermott and Camille Ross are pictured on Moore St. in Dublin for the launch of the Bram Stoker Festival 2015.

Damn Fine Print bring the action out of the studio and onto the streets with a series of Penny Dreadzines, created by specially commissioned teams of writers and illustrators including Annie Atkins (part of the team that claimed the Best Production Design Academy Award for Grand Budapest Hotel) Steve McCarthy and Chris Judge. The limited edition zines, sharing some of Dublin’s dark histories, both real and invented will be distributed (and performed!) by Vamps on Bikes across town.

Other key festival highlights include:

• Soundings, Bram Stoker Edition- live interviews hosted by Dylan Haskins and Lisa Hannigan.
• Hushed at Marsh’s Library – an eerie nighttime vocal ensemble composed by Robbie Blake with Tonnta Choir.
• Total Nightmare- talks and stories covering the themes of frustration panic and horror MC’ed by Michael McDermott & Kate Coleman, Publisher & Editor of Le Cool Dublin.
• Vampire Film Screening at Light House Cinema.
• I Got the Seanchai, I Got the Secret -a bilingual story-telling evening hosted by Una Mullally and Vickey Curtis.
• National Gallery of Ireland will host a series of talks over the festival duration based on the life and works of Bram Stoker.

Dubliners and visitors to the city are invited to follow the fun using #BiteMeDublin and watch out as landmarks and buildings across the city light up in blood red.