Gig of the Week: May days out in Drogheda, Belfast, Galway and Cork

Drogheda Arts Festival

April 28th-May 2nd, Drogheda, Co Louth, droghedaartsfestival.ie

There’s a packed May bank holiday weekend in store for locals and visitors to Drogheda, as the Drogheda Arts Festival gets back up and running, with world premieres, site-specific performances, visual arts, spoken work, street spectacle and lots of music on the menu.

Highlights include Quintessence Theatre’s Behind Locked Doors, a hard-hitting drama exploring the “shadow pandemics” of domestic violence and alienation (Droichead Arts Centre, April 28, 8pm/April 29, 12pm and 8pm, €18/€16/€12); Tá Go Maith, new solo works by Rónán Ó Snodaigh and Myles O’Reilly (Gerrard’s Church, Mary St, April 29th, 8pm, €20); Drill Music Workshop featuring Drogheda drill collective A92 (Boomerang, Fair St, April 30th, 12pm, €8) and the Big Day Out, a day of free music, events and activities for all the family (St Dominick’s Park, May 2, 1-5pm, admission is free).

Laurie Anderson

April 26th, National Concert Hall, Dublin, 8pm €29.50/€39.50, nch.ie

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More than 40 years after blowing pop kids’ minds with O Superman, Laurie Anderson’s’ powers as a leading avant garde composer, musician and artist are still undiminished, and she makes a welcome return to the National Concert Hall on Tuesday with her latest solo work, The Art of Falling. The show uses songs, stories, electronics and visuals to explore the myriad ways the ground beneath our feet can suddenly shift, whether it’s falling in love, falling asleep or falling down an internet rabbit-hole. It’s part of the NHS’s Perspectives series, and Anderson will be joined by a special guest, genre-bending cellist Rubin Kodheli.

Stand Up for Ukraine

April 28th, Leisureland, Galway, 8pm, €30 (€50 VIP), roisindubh.net

Appalled by the brutal images of violence, trauma and displacement coming onto our screens every day, a bunch of Irish comedians have decided to come together and raise funds to help the people of Ukraine suffering the devastating consequences of the war. Jason Byrne, Andrew Maxwell, Enya Martin, Danny O’Brien, Sinead Quinlan and Karl Spain have decided to waive their normally astronomical fees to perform this show, but they assure us they will be just as funny as when they’re getting paid. Galway City Council has given the hall for free, and the entire production and backstage crew will be also be working gratis, so all proceeds will go straight to the Irish Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal.

Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival

April 28th-May 8th, Belfast, cqaf.com

Belfast will be coming alive for the next 10 days as the 22nd Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival gets into full swing, with a packed programme of music, theatre, art and activity. There’s too much going on to list here, but we can give you a flavour of what to expect, including Eva O’Connor’s acclaimed one-woman play Mustard (Thursday, 8pm, £10), Scottish singer-songwriter Rachel Sermanni (Friday, McHughs, 8pm, £10), Echo & the Bunnymen – 40 Years of Magical Songs (Saturday April 30th, Festival Marquee, Custom House Square, 8pm, £25), Declan O’Rourke (Sunday May 1st, Festival Marquee, Custom House Square, 8pm, £18) and Kae Tempest (Tuesday May 3, Festival Marquee, Custom House Square, 8pm, £20).

Galway Theatre Festival

April 29th-May 7th, Co Galway,galwaytheatrefestival.com

Set the controls for the City of Tribes this year, because the west is waking up to a non-stop festival party to make up for all the Covid shutdowns and cancellation. The fun starts with the Galway Theatre Festival, which will see audiences returning to the city’s theatres, performance spaces and some unusual venues for a packed programme of drama, circus performance, storytelling and spectacle, including Eimear Finan’s Tart, a semi-autobiographical tale of redemption (Mick Lally Theatre, April 29th-May 2nd, 8pm, €15/€12); Paddy goes to Petra, in which rural Ireland meets the exotic east (An Taibhdhearc, May 6&7, 8pm, €15/€12), Snatch & Grab, a deadly and dangerous two-woman punk circus (O’Donoghue Theatre, May 6th, 4pm and 7pm/May 7th, 12pm and 4pm, €15/€12) and The Untethering, a campy retelling of a Greek myth (Bank of Ireland Theatre, May 5th, 6pm, €8).

Ballydehob Jazz Festival

April 29th-May 2nd, Ballydehob, Co Cork, €50, ballydehobjazzfestival.org

The streets of Ballydehob will be buzzing with a huge variety of jazzy sounds over the May bank holiday weekend, with a live music trail featuring performances from the likes of Fixity, Goodnight Circus, Paul Dunlea, Cormac McCarthy, Runaway Retros, The Jabin Ward Trio, Eve Clague & the Valentines and Donal Dineen, headline concerts from Karen Underwood and Tatiana Eva-Marie & The Avalon Jazz Band, a New Orleans-style Jazz Parade and the town’s first-ever Jazz Poetry Slam. Don’t worry if you get a bit hungry – there’ll be lots of jazz food and crafts market stalls to keep you going throughout the weekend.

Bill Bailey

April 29th, 3Arena, Dublin, 8pm, from €54; April 30th, SSE Arena, Belfast, ticketmaster.ie

Like most comedians, Bill Bailey was not amused at having to take a break from touring while the pandemic raged, but now that he’s finally able to step back on stage in front of a live audience, he’s ready to see the funny side of his forced inactivity. His new show, En Route to Normal, details his own travails as he muddled his way through various lockdowns, and trawls through history in search of parallels with these strange times. There’ll also be some offbeat musical moments, including the “sounds of lockdown” and how to turn ringtones into banging dance mixes.

Bealtaine Festival

May 1st-31st, bealtaine.ie

Ageing well is the best revenge against cruel time, and the Bealtaine festival is out to help us be at our best and most creative as we get older. As usual, the festival features a packed programme of performances, discussions, films, literature, music and whatever you’re having yourself, all taking place over the month of May both online and in various locations around the country. What better way to kick off than with a rescreening of the Mad, Bad and Dangerous series, a celebration of “difficult” women including Leila Doolin, Margaretta D’Arcy and Bernadette McAliskey.