12 acts worth seeking out across the weekend at Curraghmore.
All Together Now returns to Curraghmore Estate, Co. Waterford for its seventh chapter from Thursday July 30th to Sunday August 2nd 2026.
The lineup is stacked – you can see that. Beyond the headline draws of Kneecap, Pulp, Underworld, Christy Moore and The Mary Wallopers and the regularly recommended acts like For Those I Love, Dry Cleaning, Rory Sweeney, Mogwai, Róis, Self Esteem (and obviously you can’t miss the The Last City All Ireland Cypher with Lil Skag, Ahmed with Love, Sugaboo, Beddyminaj, Gomie and guests), close to 50% of this year’s lineup is Irish, and the undercard is where the weekend’s best new discoveries live. Here are 11 acts, homegrown and international, worth building your weekend around.
See also:
- All we have on All Together Now
- Essential info, site map, stage times & more
- All Together Now: Global Roots, AVA, Hidden Sounds and Flourish stage lineups
1.
Rua Rí
Cobh folk singer-songwriter Seán Damery aka Rua Rí released his debut album Tell Your Mother I Saved Your Life in May on Soft Boy Records, produced by Kean Kavanagh (who also plays the festival). Rooted in specific places – Cobh, Cork, nearby fields and familiar streets – and in the emotions those places hold, the singles ‘Johnny Workman’ and ‘Makeover’ confirmed him as one of the most distinctive voices in Irish folk right now. A quietly essential debut, and a set that should suit the Hidden Sounds stage perfectly.
Plays: Sunday 2nd August, Hidden Sounds
2.
Anna von Hausswolff
The Swedish composer, vocalist and avant garde explorer arrives on the back of Iconoclasts, her sixth album and one of last year’s most ambitious records – doomy neoclassical and ambient textures contrasted with experimental pop and drone, with guest turns from Iggy Pop and Ethel Cain. Known for her gothic, pipe organ-driven live shows, this is one of the boldest international bookings on the bill and a genuine event in a festival field.
Plays: Sunday 2nd August, Road To Nowhere
3.
Sophia Stel
Canadian singer, songwriter and producer Sophia Stel makes to-the-point alternative pop that blurs trip-hop, hyperpop and synth-pop, drawing comparisons to Ethel Cain and 070 Shake. The EPs Object Permanence and How to Win at Solitaire have led to her signing to A24’s music label and she opened for Lorde on the Ultrasound tour earlier this year. One of the buzziest new names on the lineup.
Plays: Saturday August 1st, Flourish with District Music
4.
Sell Everything
Dublin psychedelic indie band Sell Everything have been quietly becoming a fixture of the capital’s grassroots circuit over the past couple of years, from Croilár in Athlone to the venues of Dublin city.
Melodic indie songwriting with a psych streak, and exactly the kind of act All Together Now’s smaller stages exist to platform. Catch them now before the rooms get bigger.
Plays: Sunday August 2nd, Flourish with District Music
5.
The New Eves
Brighton four-piece The New Eves swap instruments – violin, cello, flute, bass, drums – across a sound that pulls folk, punk and ritualistic art-rock into something entirely their own.
Debut album The New Eve Is Rising on Transgressive was one of the most striking British debuts of last year, and their live show has a communal, ceremonial intensity that should thrive in a festival setting.
Plays: Friday July 31st, Flourish with District Music
6.
Mount Pyrus
The Dublin retro-pop and indie-jazz band founded by Finn Smyth and Mabel Thew blend soft vocals, warbly keys and retro synth lines with a driving rhythm section. They’ve had a big year on the Irish circuit already, with appearances at Forbidden Fruit and Whelan’s Summer Watch, and Curraghmore is the natural next step.
Plays: Friday July 31st – The Temporary Bandstand
7.
W.I.T.C.H
The legends of Zamrock. W.I.T.C.H (We Intend To Cause Havoc) were Zambia’s biggest band of the 1970s, fusing psych rock, funk and traditional Zambian rhythms in the country’s post-independence boom, before economic collapse and curfews saw the scene fade.
Revived after reissues found a global audience, original frontman Emmanuel ‘Jagari’ Chanda leads the current lineup, with 2023’s Zango (their first album in nearly 40 years) followed by last year’s Sogolo on Desert Daze Sound. Fuzzed-out, joyful and groove-heavy – an essential festival set.
Plays: Saturday August 1st – Road To Nowhere
8.
Joshua Idehen
The London spoken word artist, a past collaborator with Sons of Kemet and The Comet Is Coming, released his debut full-length on Heavenly this year with producer Ludvig Parment. Following the viral success of ‘Mum Does The Washing’, it’s 17 tracks built around house-inflected beats, jazz elements, choral arrangements and his own ruminative, warm, deeply humanist spoken word style – I hear strains of The Streets, Real Lies and Joy Anonymous in it. His Button Factory show in April was a joy, and this will be one of the most life-affirming sets of the weekend.
Plays: Sunday August 2nd, Road To Nowhere
9.
Anish Kumar
The London-based DJ and producer has been on the Nialler9 radar since ‘Sadhana’, a Bollywood-inspired track brimming with percussive sparkle and synth energy that Four Tet was hammering in his live sets. A Barry Can’t Swim collaborator, Kumar is has just released AK Cuts, a four-part compendium of club tracks, and his ‘Passionfruit’ was a recent highlight before its release. Joyful, sample-rich dance music built for exactly this kind of field.
Plays: Friday July 31st – IMMERSE: AVA x Smirnoff
10.
Cardinals
A new generation of young Irish indie bands is emerging from Cork City, and Cardinals are at the forefront. Formed in Kinsale shortly after the pandemic, the five-piece quickly built a reputation as one of Ireland’s most exciting young bands, a favourite of UK magazines like So Young with Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten an early supporter. Debut album Masquerade, released in February, delivered on all of it, and their hometown show at the reopened Savoy in Cork earlier this year was a statement. Expect a big Curraghmore crowd.
Plays: Friday July 31st – Road To Nowhere
11.
Trá Pháidín
The Conamara and Cork collective’s largely instrumental blend of Irish trad, post-rock, krautrock and free jazz has drawn comparisons here to The Jimmy Cake and Black Country, New Road. Their new album Cloch ‘s Claí (Stone & Wall), out Friday September 25th via World of Echo, takes its structure from the dry-stone wall – a satirical look at Ireland’s relationship with the Gaeltacht inspired by Myles na gCopaleen’s An Béal Bocht. One of the most singular live propositions in Irish music, and an ATN highlight in waiting.
Plays: Saturday August 1st – Global Roots: Main Stage, Sunday August 2nd – Hidden Sounds Trad Session.
12.
Avenue 68
We featured Avenue 68 in the Irish tracks roundup when their debut single turned my head – a Dublin act blending soul, funk and alternative R&B in a way that sounds genuinely original. They opened the Main Stage at Forbidden Fruit in May, and their live shows have been getting big notices in our ears all year. One of the Irish acts to watch in 2026.
Plays: Sunday August 2nd – The Temporary Bandstand
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
