The Dublin City Council Bram Stoker Festival is now in its tenth year offering “four days & nights of deadly adventures” next weekend, October 27th to 30th, that celebrates the legacy of the iconic Dublin writer at Halloween time.
At Samhain, the The Bram Stoker Festival celebrates the Gothic, the supernatural, the after-dark and the Victorian. As always, there is some exciting music-related programming to get your teeth into, along with family spectacles like the Macnas Parade, talks like Three Castles Burning Live, spooky theatre like Dracula at the Abbey, live music cabaret, installations and much more.
Here’s what we recommend for music events at this year’s Dublin City Council Bram Stoker Festival.
Slaughterhouse Present: Faust (1926) Re-Scored by Shampain
Saturday October 28th at 6.30pm, Pepper Canister Church
The 1926 horror film classic Faust will be rescored live by Galway DJ and producer Shampain at the Slaughterhouse film, art and music club night at the perfect seated surrounds of the Pepper Canister Church.
From previous experiences at Slaughterhouse events, Shampain will bring some dark electronic sonics to F.W. Murnau’s classic ‘good vs evil’ epic film.
Slaughterhouse have hosted sold-out screenings in warehouse spaces, tattoo parlours, wine bars, plant shops and galleries across the city but this festival exclusive is their first time taking over a (reputedly) haunted church.
I Am NOT Legend with Live Score by Matthew Nolan
Sunday October 29th at 6.30pm, Pepper Canister Church
Irish Composer Matthew Nolan has developed a fine reputation and a body of work providing original film scores to classic horrors and this year’s festival is no different.
Nolan will perform an original live score for I Am NOT Legend, a reworking of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead by American-Italian director and artist Andrea Mastrovito, happening in The Pepper Canister Church on Sunday.
The screening and music event will feature Noaln performing live with cellist Kevin Murphy and vocalist Ceara Conway.
I am NOT Legend completely reimagines Night of the Living Dead, creating a screenplay composed entirely of quotes from famous films, books and other sources alongside a frame-by-frame reworking of the film’s visuals.
CYGNUS
Friday October 27th to Sunday October 29th, Grand Canal Dock, Evenings
CYGNUS is a live installation on the water at Grand Canal Dock receiving an Irish premiere at Dublin City Council Bram Stoker Festival.
Cygnus was created by Denis Bivour and Florian Giefer (LOOMALAND) from Berlin, Germany. Accompanying the installation will be a specially commissioned soundscape by Irish composer and artist Alma Kelliher. The soundscape will be an ethereal journey of voice, synth and sound recordings, featuring inspiration from Irish mythology, our native Mute Swans, traditional Irish music and Bram Stoker himself. The music will tell its own story, as the soundwaves carry across the water in Grand Canal dock; haunting and beautiful, both uniquely Irish and otherworldly.
Viewing Times
Cygnus plays on a loop, with no defined start or end, so people are invited to view it at their leisure during listed times.
Friday 27th October & Saturday 28th October: 6.30pm – 10pm
Sunday 29th October: 5.30pm – 10pm.
Monsieur Pompier’s Travelling Freakshow Presents: Nightmaresville
Friday October 27th, The Sugar Club
Experience the twisted world of Monsieur Pompier’s Travelling Freakshow, the freakiest cabaret act around. This mind-bending cabaret lifts the veil onto a surreal world packed with bizarre ballads and maniacal music about inside-out cats, hedgehog swallowers and devious doctors.
Oddballs and outcasts, misfits and ne’er do wells will delight in Monsieur Pompier’s delicious darkness, joined by a full band performing chaotic and increasingly frenzied numbers which will leave you wondering if you’re in the Sugar Club or in the middle of a fever dream.
As Monsieur Pompier mesmerises you with his manic melodies, his band of fantastic freaks bring the songs to life in an raucous smash of the strange and hilariously unsettling.
Having captivated audiences this summer at Body & Soul and Electric Picnic, Monsieur Pompier presents “Nightmaresville” exclusively at Bram Stoker Festival. A brand new suite of songs and characters will join beloved freaky favourites at this warped night of macabre make-believe.
Full programme details at bramstokerfestival.com
