Liverpool Irish Festival Programme | 40 Events over 10 Days

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Hosted by Liverpool Irish Festival | Thursday 19 – Sunday 29 October 2023 | Various Locations

Liverpool Irish Festival, the UK’s largest Irish arts and culture led festival, has announced their 2023 programme. The annual festival features 40 events, for adults and children, across 10 remarkable days.

Founded in 2003, the festival brings Liverpool and Ireland closer together, using arts and culture. As the most diverse celebration of Irish culture in the UK, they have become a ten-day festival of music and song; visual arts; performance arts; culture, history and identity sharing, talks and tours and film.

The festival is a highlight of the UK cultural calendar, celebrates its 21^st Festival this year. In honour of this, the theme for this year’s Festival is ‘anniversary’.

The festival kicks off with the Launch Party on 19 October, to learn more and to book your place, please click here. Following the official opening of #LIF2023, the launch will be followed by a ticketed event of live music from The London Lasses, one of the UK’s best traditional Irish bands on the scene today.

For a one-page summary of the full festival line up, please click here.

For more details on individual events including specific dates, times and venues, please click here.

Programme Headlines

The line-up includes an array of Irish artists and contributors from across the worlds of music, theatre, film, spoken word, visual arts and academia. Lisa Lambe, internationally acclaimed Irish folk singer and actor, shares her new project, NightVisiting at The Tung Auditorium.

Fun activities for families can be enjoyed at Museum of Liverpool and the Liverpool Irish Centre on the Family Day and the Samhain Céilí.

Deep dives into anniversaries are made across the Festival.

• The London Lasses, one of the best traditional Irish bands on the scene today, kick off the Festival, following the official Festival launch (6pm, Thurs 19 Oct), themselves celebrating 25 years as a band and the release of their sixth album – LL25 – marking their milestone.
• The Good Friday Agreement’s 25-year anniversary is marked in an event, hosted in partnership with the University of Liverpool’s Institute of Irish Studies, followed by Green & Blue, Kabosh Theatre’s (Belfast) community developed two-hander about The Troubles (both Thurs 26 Oct).
• 100 years since his birth, Brendan Behan is celebrated in Fat Dan Productions’ Brendan: Son of Dublin (Sat 28 Oct). 90-years since the United States District Council ruled Ulysses to be publishable, we celebrate experimental writing with a half-day session with Pascal O’Loughlin, and National Poetry Librarian, Chis McCabe.
• Referencing the release of The Yellow Wallpaper, written 130 years ago, Dublin vocalist and composer Sue Rynhart returns to the Festival with her folk and jazz influences in what promises to be a dazzling performance at Sefton Park Palm House.
• The programme offers connection to poignant anniversaries, such as its commemoration of An Gorta Mór (The Great Hunger) with a memorial gathering (Sun 29 Oct). The Liverpool Irish Famine Trail (self-guided tour) reflects on Irish migration, settlement  and legacy.