MusicTown

MusicTown returns to the essence of collaboration for this year’s programme where we make home in the hallowed rooms of the National Concert Hall for three days. The programme, we feel, is a radio dial of everything that is interesting about Irish music in this moment, as some of the most vital artists of this diverse and multi-cultural landscape fulfill new dreams within collaborative conversations.

MusicTown is a shapeshifting programme of live music created to reflect this ever-changing world of music. Within this programme we have pop bands, experimental vocalists, contemporary classical virtuosos, avant-garde songwriters, new folk traditionalists, electronic meddlers, joyous Middle Eastern party music, and a full symphony orchestra.

MusicTown originated in 2015, an initiative from Dublin City Council Arts Office to create a platform where all the different styles, tribes and genres of music performed in Dublin could exist side by side on one programme. Over the past eight years the programme has travelled all over the city from studios to parks to churches to concert halls. It has spawned essential collaborations not just amongst musicians but work that has crossbred across theatre, dance, literature and visual art, and even defied COVID for two years presenting exciting programmes of live-streamed performances and original music films exclusively online.