The Guide: Bram Stoker Festival, Cork Jazz Festival and other events to see, shows to book and ones to catch before they end

It’s the time of the year again when things unexpectedly go bump in the night, so to mark all things spooky, the Bram Stoker Festival – which celebrates the Dublin author of Dracula, tale of the world’s best-known vampire – returns with four days and nights of events across the city. Highlights include “A World Full of Miseries, and Woes, and Troubles”: Life, Disease and Death in Collins Barracks (Friday, October 25th, until Sunday, October 27th, free but ticketed); Eternal Night, in which the artist Maser creates visuals inspired by Stoker’s writing (Friday, October 25th, until Monday, October 28th, Charlemont Square, free but ticketed); Stokerland, a free Victorian fun park next to St Patrick’s Cathedral (Saturday, October 26th, until Monday, October 28th); The Women of Bram Stoker’s Life, a Three Castles Burning live podcast hosted by Donal Fallon (Sunday, October 27th, Trinity College, €14); a showing of the cult vampire movie Nosferatu, with a live score by Rita and Robbie Perry (Light House Cinema, Monday, €21); and Donal Dineen’s Dracula’s Disco for children aged five-plus (Mansion House, Monday, free but ticketed).
Never one to stay in one place for too long, creatively speaking, the English singer Joe Jackson threw another curveball last year with the release of his 21st studio album, What a Racket!, which purports to feature songs by the long-forgotten British music-hall performer Max Champion. In truth, Champion is a fictional character whose early-1900s sheet music was “rediscovered” by Jackson. Not to worry if the casual fan isn’t in on the joke, as the show will be in two parts: selections from What a Racket! and a solo set featuring some of Jackson’s best-known songs.
Another outing for this venerable festival and (despite the withdrawal of the US saxophonist Kamasi Washington, because of a serious back injury) another impressive and broad line-up from top to toe. Headline acts to make a beeline for include Gregory Porter, Buena Vista All Stars, Todd Terje, Les Amazones d’Afrique and Mary Coughlan. A big welcome, also, for the range of non-headline Irish acts across the five-day festival: Bricknasty, Kean Kavanagh, The X Collective, Qbanaa, The Academic, Toshín, Shiv, Curtisy, Cooks But We’re Chefs, and Rachel Mae Hannon.
There is much to tempt the gig-goer at Sligo Live this year. That should come as no surprise, as the long-established festival has a reputation that’s second to none for presenting a rounded music programme. The feather in the cap is the US folk and Americana singer-songwriter John Paul White (Hawk’s Well Theatre, Friday, October 25th), but there are other must-see events, including Dermot Kennedy (Knocknarea Arena, Saturday and Sunday, October 26th and 27th), Susan O’Neill (Hawk’s Well Theatre, Thursday, October 31st), Villagers (Knocknarea Arena, Saturday, November 2nd), and Luka Bloom (Hawk’s Well Theatre, Sunday, November 3rd). For people looking at their bank balances, numerous free gigs are also on offer.
Moving from full-time jobs in teaching and data science to being signed by Warner Music in the US wasn’t on the cards for Oisín McCaffrey, Ross McNerney and Robbie Cunningham, aka the rising folk-trad trio Amble. But these days they’re playing sold-out shows on the east coast of the United States and prepping the release of their debut EP, The Commons. The trio tour nationwide until Saturday, November 2nd, with further sold-out shows at 3Olympia Theatre in Dublin on Saturday, November 23rd, Thursday, November 28th, and Wednesday, December 11th.
Founded almost 50 years ago (as Westport Arts & Music Festival) by a group of local arts enthusiasts, Westival continues the original purpose of “engendering positive societal change” with solid and intuitive programming. Highlights include rock-pop (Pillow Queens), trad (Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh Trio), film (the sci-fi thriller Woken, directed by the London-based local film-maker Alan Friel), theatre (Was I Not a Girl) and poetry (the launch of American Anthem, by Kelly Michels). Many events are free.
Just when you thought Ireland had no room for another comedy festival, along comes this one with a packed line-up of Irish comedians and several choice international names. The former includes Deirdre O’Kane, Des Bishop, Dylan Moran, Enya Martin, David McSavage, Jason Byrne, Kyla Cobbler and Barry Murphy. The latter includes the UK gagsters Russell Howard, Fin Taylor and Miles Jupp, and the US comedians Ruby Wax, Rich Hall and Michelle Wolf. An In Conversation event with Phill Jupitus, hosted by Colin Murphy, is one more reason to go west.
Ireland’s largest genre film festival returns with a blood-curdling blend of horror classics, new additions and sidebar events, such as public interviews and the much-loved horror pub quiz. Highlights include the documentary The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee (Friday, October 25th), the first Irish-language horror film, An Taibhse (Saturday, October 26th), the Surprise Film (Sunday, October 27th) and the festival closer, Demon Hunter: Time 2 Kill (Monday, October 28th).
Tuesday, October 22nd, Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, 8pm, €25, paviliontheatre.ie; Wednesday, October 23rd, Sugar Club, Dublin, 7.30pm, €25, eventbrite.ie; Thursday, October 24th, Regional Culture Centre, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, 8pm, €15, regionalculturalcentre.com
The acclaimed percussionist Marilyn Mazur, a former collaborator with the jazz giant Miles Davis, arrives in Ireland for a short nationwide tour courtesy of Music Network. (Also Saturday, October 26th, Triskel Christchurch, Cork.)