Ticket sales go live for first of many exciting shows as part of Carlow Arts Festival 2025

The fantastic Carlow Arts Festival will return this year from 4-8 June for what many would say is the best weekend of the year in the county for local talent and community spirit. 

On Wednesday, ticket sales officially went live for the first round of events announced for this year's festival and already there is a fantastic line-up. Among the first four events announced, there is theatre, music and live aerial and dance shows. 

Firstly, the critically acclaimed play The Long Shadow of Alois Brunner will take place at the George Bernard Shaw Theatre on Wednesday, 4 June at 7.30pm. This powerful story weaves together Syrian and German history as it explores the true story of a notorious Nazi criminal who fled to Damascus and played a major role in building Syria's intelligence services.

The Syrian playwright Mudar Alhaggi discovers Brunner's story when he arrives in Germany as a refugee and then obsessively researches his life before he mysteriously disappears. In this play, two actors piece together the fragments of Alhaggi's research as "personal experience and world history as truth and fiction collide."

Tickets for this unmissable play cost €22, while concession tickets cost €17. It is worth noting that it will be performed in Arabic with English subtitles. 

Then H.O.M.E by Fidget Feet and Tobi Omoteso will raise audiences out of their seats at the George Bernard Shaw on Friday, 6 June at 7.30pm. This phenomenal cast of nine people created the first aerial Hip H'Opera in Ireland and will deliver an outstanding aerial and dance performance. 

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Full price tickets for this show cost €20, with concession tickets costing €15. 

Carlow natives Ye Vagabonds will return to the Carlow Arts Festival this year to perform their homecoming show. Brían and Diarmuid Mac Gloinn have made strides in the Irish folk scene and the band have now become a five piece, with Alain McFadden, Caimin Gilmore and Kate Ellis joining the ranks. 

This great night of music will take place at the George Bernard Shaw Theatre on Saturday, 7 June at 8pm. Full price tickets cost €32 and concession tickets cost €27.

A play for all the family, An Ant Called Amy, will entertain the little ones at the George Bernard Shaw on Sunday, 8 June at 3pm. Amy the ant and her brother Andy the brown spider go on all sorts of adventures in this happy tale for children aged between 5 and 8. 

A family ticket for the show, which includes four people, costs €30. Full price tickets cost €12 and concession €7.50. 

More exciting shows and events will be announced in the coming weeks for this year's festival so make sure to keep an eye out for updates.