Culture Night

There's nothing like a bit of culture, especially when it's free, and there'll be culture to beat the band next Friday, 24 Sept. The city has been conveniently divided up into different Quarters (very European), with late night openings (many til 11pm), special events and loads of fun. There's even free buses to take you there and back. Watch this space for the best bits: visit the Guinness Storehouse or the Jameson Distillery for a complimentary pint or whiskey; take part in the annual Culture Night Treasurehunt around the Francis Street galleries or lose yourself in Gospel Music at Wood Quay. Dublin Civic Trust are displaying The Irish House, a Victorian pub salvaged from Wood Quay, and you can catch Dara O'Brien playing the sitar at the Chester Beatty Library. There's musical/literary/arty fun at the Gutter Bookshop, Oxfam Books and Project, live performance and interactive installations at the Contemporary Music Centre, and sean nos singing and dancing at Gaelchultur. Filmbase is showing Irish short movies, there's a rake of pipers at Na Piobairi Uilleann, leading sculptor Michael Warren is at Hillsboro Fine Art and there's a barbeque outside the Hugh Lane. Burundi Drumming and an outdoor movie at Meeting House Square, dance classes at Dance House, poetry, prose and performance at the Pearse Centre, Scrabble in Spanish at Instituto Cervantes and Poetry Ireland's Open Mike session at the Unitarian Church. Mapping Urban Ireland is at the Royal Irish Academy, Nuala Hayes tells stories from the Tain at the National Museum, and well-known poet Tahar Bekri reads his work to music at the Alliance Francaise. www.culturenight.ie