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We’re heading into the Guinness Jazz Festival this weekend, so deciding what makes the cut has been harder than usual.
We've made a little extra room to fit in more events, focusing on the standouts that aren't already sold out. There's also a huge amount of free music happening around the city, far more than we could possibly fit in here.
If you’re not a jazz fan, we’ve included some other events worth checking out too.
• Follow Cork Circle on Instagram for updates during the week.
Pop-Ups & Openings
🏃 Decathlon Cork (Now Open At Douglas Village Shopping Centre)
French sports retailer opens its first Cork store, with 2,300 sqm of gear for running, hiking, cycling, swimming, football and more.
What’s On This Week
Across The Week
🎷 Guinness Cork Jazz Festival 2026 | Throughout The City | Thurs 22–Mon 26 Oct |
Five-day festival with 500+ musicians across 100+ events, venues and street performances.
Wednesday October 21
🎪 Fin Taylor: The Pre-emptive Comeback Special | The Everyman | 🎟 €29 |
Stand-up comedian known for the podcast Fin vs History performs live.
😂 Babylon West | Cork Arts Theatre | 🎟 €18 |
Black comedy about a US tech company's data centre arrival upending a small Irish town's political power structure.
Thursday October 22
🎬 The Lady From Shanghai - Screening with live score by Fixity | UCC Boole Library | 6:30pm | 🎟 €13.50 |
Fixity performs an improvised live score accompanying the 1946 Orson Welles noir film.
🎷 Yussef Dayes : Guinness Cork Jazz Festival 2026 | Cork Opera House | 7pm | 🎟 €49.50 |
World-renowned drummer and producer performs material from debut album 'Black Classical Music' with collaborations including Masego and Chronixx.
🎸 Maya Libbey | Ezra Williams | Mirrors | Tyra-Lee Spry | Live at St Luke's | 7:30pm | 🎟 €19.74 |
Four-act showcase mixing Celtic rock, indie pop, and singer-songwriter sets.
🎷 The Music of John Coltrane and Miles Davis" with Keyon Harrold and Marcus Strickland | The Everyman | 7:30pm | 🎟 €45 |
Keyon Harrold (trumpet) and Marcus Strickland (saxophone) explore the Davis-Coltrane partnership through a contemporary jazz lens.
Friday October 23
🎬 COUP 53 screening + Q&A with Iranian director Taghi Amirani | Boole 1, Boole Lecture Theatres, University College Cork | 5pm | 🎟 Free |
Documentary on the 1953 Iran coup, followed by Q&A with director Taghi Amirani.
🎷 Jazz Festival Club at the Metropole Hotel, Cork | The Metropole Hotel Cork | Fri Oct 23 - Sun Oct 25, 6:30pm | 🎟 €37 |
Late-night Cork Jazz Festival club sessions at the Metropole, with live music across one of the festival’s best-known venues.
🎭 Riversphere feat. Iain Ballamy & Rob Luft | Triskel Arts Centre | 6:30pm | 🎟€30 |
Saxophone and piano improvisation exploring connections between river systems and musical composition.
🍽️ Ballymaloe Grainstore Food Sessions - Chapter Three: Scott Leigh | Ballymaloe Grainstore | 7pm | 🎟 €79.43 |
Scott Leigh leads a multi-course feast with seasonal welcome drinks and an evening of rural charm.
🎪 Jaz Karis | Live at St Luke's | 8pm | 🎟 €32.50 |
Jaz Karis is a UK electronic and hip-hop artist working across production and vocals.
🎷 Jason Moran | Triskel Arts Centre | 8:30pm | 🎟 €39.50 |
Moran performs as pianist and composer, known for work across jazz, classical, and experimental music.
🎪 MTRPLS x DISTORT x CATACOMBS: Sunil Sharpe :: Rebecca Delle Piane | savoy | 10:30pm | 🎟 From €17.60 |
Sunil Sharpe closes the main floor with fast-paced vinyl mixing; Rebecca Delle Piane makes her Irish debut across two rooms.
🎷 Annie Mac : Guinness Cork Jazz Festival 2026 | Cork Opera House | 11:30pm | 🎟 €32.50 |
DJ and broadcaster Annie Mac brings seventeen years of BBC Radio 1 experience to the Cork Jazz Festival
Saturday October 24
🎷 Cork City Organ Group plays CHARLES MINGUS | savoy | 1:30pm | 🎟 €17.04 |
Cork City Organ Group and guests perform Mingus compositions arranged for organ and jazz ensemble.
🎷 TOLU MAKAY + ZASKA | Cyprus Avenue | 2pm | 🎟 €22 |
Tolu Makay brings soulful, emotionally charged songwriting, joined by ZASKA’s blend of soul, jazz, funk and R&B.
🎸 The Harbour Sessions Jazz Weekend Boat trip with The Lady Fi Experience | Kinsale Cruises (Spirit of Kinsale Vessel) | 2pm | 🎟 €38.52 |
Live jazz, swing and blues performed by Lady Fi & her band aboard a boat on Kinsale Bay.
🎷 Bill Laurance | Triskel Arts Centre | 2:30pm | 🎟 €30 |
Founding member of Snarky Puppy performing solo; his music blends jazz, classical, and electronica.
🎷 80's Daytime Disco - Jazz Saturday! | The Secret Garden | 4pm | 🎟 €6.34 |
Daytime disco with 80s throwback tunes and retro dancefloor atmosphere.
❤️ Cork Zombie Walk | Rory Gallagher Place | 4:30pm | 🎟 €6 |
Fundraiser benefiting the Dragon of Shandon charity.
🎷 Luke Thomas & The Swing Cats: Kings of Swing Tour | The Everyman | 6pm | 🎟 €33.50 |
Tour celebrates a century of swing and jazz with covers including Sing Sing Sing, and Fly Me to the Moon.
🎪 Jasmine Myra | Triskel Arts Centre | 6:30pm | 🎟 €32.50 |
Composer and bandleader Jasmine Myra performs material from her third album, Where Light Settles.
🎧 Stevie G, Diamond, AbbieLee & Friends | savoy | 7pm | 🎟 €22.43 |
DJ Stevie G, musician Diamond and vocalist AbbieLee perform soul, hip hop and house music.
🎷 Boney M Feat Maizie Williams : Guinness Cork Jazz Festival 2026 | Cork Opera House | 7pm | 🎟 €45 |
Boney M will perform their 1970s disco hits including Rivers of Babylon, Rasputin, Ma Baker, and Daddy Cool.
🎪 Okonski | Triskel Arts Centre | 8:30pm | 🎟 €27.50 |
Piano trio led by Steve Okonski records fully improvised performances directly to tape.
🎧 JIMPSTER (Live), SHANE JOHNSON (Fish Go Deep) and DONAL DINEEN | savoy | 10:30pm | 🎟 €22.43 |
House music DJs Jimpster and Shane Johnson perform on main stage; Dónal Dineen DJs the lounge.
🎻 Shuffle Boil Quartet plays Thelonious Monk | Cork Opera House | 11pm | 🎟 €20 |
Shuffle Boil Quartet explores Monk's compositions from his 1950s–60s recordings for Prestige, Riverside, and Columbia.
Sunday October 25
🎷 SANTA MACHETE - Afternoon Boat Cruise at Guinness Cork Jazz Festival | Port of Cork | 1pm | 🎟 €54.81 |
Santa Machete are a street band combining African and Latin American music with dancing and masked performance.
🎷 A Cosmic Tribute to Sun Ra | savoy | 1:30pm | 🎟 €17.04 |
Musicians from Dublin collective Pizza Jazz! perform Sun Ra's compositions and afrofuturist themes.
🎪 Rory Gallagher : The Legend Lives On" at Cork City Hall | Cork City Hall | 2pm | 🎟 €22.50 |
Moonchild and Tres Hombres perform Rory Gallagher material with guest Barry Barnes.
🎵 Yankari Afrobeat Collective perform the music of FELA KUTI | Cyprus Avenue | 2pm | 🎟 €22 |
Ten-piece orchestra led by Nigerian bandleader Segun Akano, mixing Fela Kuti's catalogue with unreleased tracks from their forthcoming debut album.
🎷 Courtney Pine presents: A Modern Day Jazz Story Live | The Everyman | 6pm | 🎟 €40 |
Saxophonist Courtney Pine performs material spanning four decades, from his 1986 debut through unreleased reimagined work.
🎷 Trygve Seim & Tord Gustavsen: Inner Chorals | Triskel Arts Centre | 6:30pm | 🎟 €30 |
Norwegian jazz musicians Seim and Gustavsen perform Bach chorals on saxophone and piano.
🎷 Hypnotic Brass Ensemble : Guinness Cork Jazz Festival 2026 | Cork Opera House | 7pm | 🎟 €33.50 |
Seven-brother brass ensemble from Chicago performing improvised jazz with spiritual and transcendental roots.
🎵 "Mack Fleetwood"| City Hall | 8pm | 🎟 €37.78 |
Tribute band performing Fleetwood Mac material with full production staging.
🎷 Joe-Armon Jones + The Vernon Spring | Live at St Luke's | 8pm | 🎟 €36.46 |
Ezra Collective's Joe-Armon Jones performs a live session during the jazz festival.
🎻 Maciej Obara Quartet feat. Mathias Eick | Triskel Arts Centre | 8:30pm | 🎟 €35 |
Polish alto saxophonist Maciej Obara leads a Polish-Norwegian quartet performing material from albums Komeda, Live at Manggha, and Live.
🎸 The Carlos Ligero & John Moriarty Quartet | Cork Opera House | 9pm | 🎟 €20 |
Carlos Ligero's alto saxophone and John Moriarty's archtop guitar lead a quartet mixing original compositions with reimagined jazz standards.
🎧 Sunday Times presents SHY ONE plus Jus'Me & Jar Jar Jr. | savoy | 10:30pm | 🎟 €17.04 |
London-based DJ and producer Shy One headlines with support from Jus'Me & Jar Jar Jr in the lounge.
🎷 Kokoroko | The Everyman | 10:30pm | 🎟 €38 |
Seven-piece London band blending afrobeat, highlife, jazz, afro-house, amapiano and West African disco.
🎧 SKIN ON SKIN | Cyprus Avenue | 11pm | 🎟 €33 |
DJ and producer blends techno, house and alternative hip-hop across a three-and-a-half-hour set.
🎪 Paul Dunlea Quintet | Cork Opera House | 11pm | 🎟 €20 |
Trombonist Paul Dunlea performs new material recorded at Rudy Van Gelder Studios with musicians from Ireland and the UK.
Monday October 26
🎪 Halloween Screen print | Potteria | 4pm | 🎟 €36 |
Learn hand-drawn screen printing and print your design on multiple fabric items you bring.
🎸 Margaret Glaspy | Cyprus Avenue | 7pm | 🎟 €19.26 |
New York singer-songwriter Margaret Glaspy performs sharp, guitar-led indie rock from her latest album I Am Both.
Tuesday October 27
😂 Rhys Darby : Unhinged | Cyprus Avenue | 7pm | 🎟 €35.20 |
Comedian tackles middle age and artificial intelligence with physical comedy and characters.
🎪 The Improv Halloween Murder Mystery | Cork Arts Theatre | 🎟 €18 | Audience members secretly decide the victim and killer before the show, then improvisers create the entire mystery plot on stage.
Kids Events
🎃 Spike Spookfest Halloween Trail | Spike Island | Sat 24–Sat 31 Oct, times vary | 🎟 €21, family €84–€99.95 |
Family Halloween adventure with a ferry trip, spooky island trail, treats and hourly fire-juggling performances.
🎤 KATSEYE – The Ultimate Tribute | Cork City Hall | Mon 26 Oct, 6pm | 🎟 €27.21–€42 |
High-energy KATSEYE tribute show with live vocals, choreography, audience interaction and the group’s biggest hits.
Planning Ahead
🎸 Ralph McTell | The Everyman | Sun 1 Nov, 8pm | 🎟 €37.50 |
Folk icon Ralph McTell brings his final national tour to Cork, celebrating five decades of songwriting including Streets of London.
🎻 Andy Irvine & Quilty | Live at St Luke’s | Fri 13 Nov, 8pm | 🎟 €33.22 |
Irish folk musician Andy Irvine joins Swedish band Quilty for a cross-cultural set of Irish and Swedish traditional music.
Old Cork
MacCurtain Street in the late 1960s, looking past the old shopfronts towards Cork Baptist Church.
Image attribution: Anthony Barry Photographic Archive
