Dublin City Council Bram Stoker Festival Returns with Dark Delights across Four Days and Nights of Deadly Adventures…

From Friday 23 to Monday 26 October, Dublin City Council Bram Stoker Festival returns to transform the city into a playground for deadly adventures. Across four days and nights, audiences can sink their fangs into a Macnas street spectacle, unnerving theatre, live horror podcast, candlelit tours, cult cinema, stories of body snatching, hands-on creative experiences and free family fun, in venues and public spaces throughout Dublin.

PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS: AFTER DARK THRILLS

Macnas: Fiáin: On Monday 26 October, Macnas will return to Dublin’s North East Inner City with Fiáin, a spectacular parade inspired by the wild elements of the West of Ireland, and by the energy that Macnas has brought to streets worldwide for four decades. This stunning procession combines giant visual theatre, music, performance and storytelling to the heart of Stoker’s Dublin.

Petrified Live: Award-winning Irish horror audio drama Petrified comes to the stage at Project Arts Centre for a spine-tingling live episode. The hugely popular podcast has won awards at the New York Festivals Radio Awards and the Irish Podcast Awards. Performing live are Petrified stalwarts Margaret McAuliffe, Michelle McMahon and Donncha O’Dea. Stick around after the scares for a Q&A with creators Peter Dunne (winner of the 2026 Zebbie Award for Best Radio & Audio Drama Script) and Liam Geraghty, alongside the cast.

Stitch: Fresh from an acclaimed, award-winning run at Cork Midsummer Festival, Stitch comes to Dublin for the first time. Written and performed by Irene Kelleher and presented by Mighty Oak Productions at Smock Alley Theatre, this sinister and unsettling theatrical horror takes inspiration from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, asking what happens when the lines between monster and maker begin to blur. Not for the faint of heart.

The Museum of Curiosities presents Senses: Dublin’s newest and strangest museum becomes an immersive journey through the five senses. Across five rooms, audiences will encounter projection-lit collections, Victorian viewing devices, live musical performances, a scent-led perfumery alongside edible creations and historical curiosities.

Presented in association with the Dublin City Council Night-Time Economy Advisor, the Night Bites events invite budding creatives to make, draw, carve, sculpt and conjure. These specially arranged, low-cost creative workshops include Gothic paper-theatre pop-ups with Art in Layers; reclaimed-textile workshops with Change Clothes; Gothic life drawing at Flux; lino printing with Create & Sip; special Bram Stoker editions of Drink & Draw and Sip & Sculpt at This Must Be The Place and Make A Créatúr at Throwing Shapes. Expect late-night craic, new skills and plenty of unusual things to take home.

SCANRA: The Bonfire: A spellbinding evening of music, myth and storytelling exploring the ancient Irish origins of Samhain. SCANRA gathers audiences at historic Bewley’s Café for its most intimate event yet, with a line-up including Branwen Kavanagh, Sarah McKenna Dunne, Foxx and Alannah Thornburgh, led by performance poet Róisín Nic Ghearailt.

PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS: FUN FOR LITTLE MONSTERS 

Stokerland returns to St Patrick’s Park from Saturday 24 to Monday 26 October for another gloriously Gothic weekend of free family fun. Beneath the dramatic backdrop of St Patrick’s Cathedral, children and the eternally young can enjoy performances, storytelling, street arts, games, creative play, face-painting, curious characters and the ever-popular free Victorian-style carousel. A relaxed session takes place from 11am to 1pm on Monday 26 October. Meanwhile at the Round Room at the Mansion House, Dracula’s Disco is a free party where Drac’s own DJ will spin spooky classics and ghoulish surprises for young monsters aged four and over.

PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS: CULTURE VULTURES 

On the Hunt in the National Library: Love solving challenges and learning about Dublin’s past? This part quiz, part guided research challenge invites participants to the National Library of Ireland to race against the clock, navigating its catalogue and surroundings to solve a series of challenges relating to Stoker, the Victorian and the Gothic. In attendance and solving the clues with you will be Jane Casey, Ireland’s favourite history and heritage content creator.

Dublin’s Victorian Pubs: A Walking Tour with Donal Fallon: Join historian, author and Three Castles Burning host Donal Fallon for a specially commissioned walking tour through Dublin’s Victorian pub heritage. This intimate tour explores the stories, social history and enduring character of some of the city’s most atmospheric public houses.

From The Sack ’Em Ups to the Anatomy Act: Body Snatching in Dublin Graveyards
Dublin’s dark history is brought to life at Green Street Courthouse in a special event from Three Castles Burning, which uncovers the strange, grisly and often surprising world of nineteenth-century body snatching, grave robbing and the legal changes that reshaped the study of anatomy.

Stoker on Stoker: Unearthing the Secrets of Dracula: Dacre Stoker, great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker and one of the world’s leading authorities on the author’s life and legacy, draws on rare photographs, manuscripts, maps, family history and Bram Stoker’s own research notes to reveal the real places, people, folklore, science and obsessions that helped create Dracula.

PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS: FILM, FASHION & FOOD

Dracula (1958) 4K Restoration: A rare opportunity to see the Hammer Horror classic 1958 Dracula in a newly restored director’s cut, with long-lost footage returned to the film for the first time in decades. Starring Christopher Lee as the Count and Peter Cushing as Van Helsing, this landmark of British horror is presented at Light House Cinema.

Stoker on the Runway: The Gothic in Contemporary Fashion: Historian and fashion expert Laura Fitzachary explores the surprising links between Bram Stoker, Irish fashion, Victorian mourning dress and contemporary designers. From J. W. Anderson to Simone Rocha, discover how the worlds of Dracula, Gothic fiction and the darker side of history continue to inspire some of fashion’s most striking looks.

Blood, Guts & Black Pudding: Blood has been part of Ireland’s food history for centuries: sustaining warriors, staving off hunger and appearing in everything from black pudding to bloody porridges. At Medley on Monday 26 October, author Kate Ryan joins chef Andrew Rudd to explore Ireland’s traditional blood-food culture, inspired by Ryan’s book Blood, Guts & Black Pudding. The conversation will be followed by a tasting of black puddings from producers still keeping the tradition alive.

Co-Directors Maria Schweppe and Tom Lawlor said: “The scale of Dublin City Council Bram Stoker Festival is made possible by hundreds of people: artists, performers, technicians, producers, designers, crew, venue teams and partners across the city. Dublin City Council’s continued investment in the festival allows us to commission new work, support independent artists, create employment across the cultural sector and deliver significant footfall and economic return to the city. This year’s programme is packed with imagination, talent and a healthy dose of terror, so we look forward to welcoming Dubliners and visitors into the shadows”.

Councillor Deirdre Heney, who attended the official festival photocall said, “Dublin City Council Bram Stoker Festival celebrates the city that inspired one of the world’s most famous writers. This year’s programme brings together artists, performers, historians, writers, creative entrepreneurs and national cultural institutions for experiences in some of Dublin’s most atmospheric venues. I encourage Dubliners and visitors to enjoy everything this festival adds to the city over the October Bank Holiday Weekend.”

For full programme details and booking information, visit www.bramstokerfestival.com.

Dublin City Council Bram Stoker Festival is a Dublin City Council festival, produced and presented by Schweppe Curtis Nunn Ltd.

About Dublin City Council Bram Stoker Festival

Founded by Dublin City Council in 2012, Dublin City Council Bram Stoker Festival is now one of the city’s largest arts festivals, welcoming more than 60,000 people annually across the October Bank Holiday Weekend. Inspired by Bram Stoker’s life, work and the Dublin that shaped him, the festival playfully celebrates the Gothic, the mysterious, the supernatural and the Victorian through a city-wide programme of spectacle, theatre, music, film, talks, tours and family events. From large-scale free public experiences to intimate after-dark encounters, the festival invites Dubliners and visitors to see the city differently: where the ordinary fades into the shadows and the extraordinary comes to life.