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Kavanagh Weekend in Inniskeen has unveiled its full 2026 programme, with Irish and international poets, musicians, actors, performers and cultural figures Monaghan bound, from Friday 25 September to Sunday 27 September.
Curated by Unreal Cities, the multidisciplinary arts project founded by actor and director Adrian Dunbar and saxophonist and composer Nick Roth, this year's festival explores Patrick Kavanagh's connection with the Beat Generation during the centenary year of American poet Allen Ginsberg's birth.
The three day programme places Kavanagh's work in dialogue with jazz, spoken word, folk traditions, spirituality and counterculture. It features American poet Anne Waldman, comedian and broadcaster Tommy Tiernan, actor Jean-Marc Barr, musician and performer Jinx Lennon, novelist and playwright Liz Nugent, The Armagh Rhymers and The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar. The festival will unfold at the Patrick Kavanagh Centre, the Round Tower Church, Brehon Brewhouse, and the landscape surrounding Inniskeen, combining major performances and live conversations with workshops, readings, traditional music, guided tours and long standing community events.
Speaking about the programme, Darren McCreesh, Festival Director of Kavanagh Weekend 2026, said the aim is to create a shared experience for artists, audiences and locals alike. "We want Kavanagh Weekend to be a place where artists, audiences and the local community experience the festival together, moving between poetry, music, conversation and the landscape that shaped Patrick Kavanagh's imagination. This year connects Inniskeen with an extraordinary range of international voices and artistic traditions. It honours Kavanagh's legacy while creating space for experimentation, new interpretations and unexpected encounters."
He added that the festival should offer something different for everyone who attends. "Whether people come to see a particular artist, take part in a workshop, explore Kavanagh Country or simply spend the day moving between events, we want everyone to have their own experience of the festival and of Inniskeen."
Natasha Duffy of SoFFt Productions said the scale of talent involved makes this year's event stand out. "There is no other festival I would rather be at this year. Inniskeen is going to be awash with artists, musicians, poets and pilgrims from all over the world and considering its small size no doubt some magical interactions will happen. From Tommy Tiernan to the Masters of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar, the programme is incredibly strong, and we can't wait to see it all unfold over the weekend."
Adrian Dunbar and Nick Roth of Unreal Cities explained the thinking behind this year's theme. "Patrick Kavanagh recognised in the Beat poets an original and authentic voice that existed outside the literary establishment. That connection is the starting point for this year's programme, but the conversation extends far beyond poetry. The Beat movement was shaped by jazz, performance, folk traditions, spiritual enquiry and a search for new ways of living and creating. Throughout the weekend, we bring those influences into dialogue with Kavanagh's work, the landscape of Inniskeen and the community that continues to sustain his legacy."
The festival opens on Friday 25 September with the annual Kavanagh Poetry Award and Festival Keynote at the Round Tower Church. This year's keynote will be delivered by Anne Waldman and Adrian Dunbar, followed by a live conversation between the two artists. Waldman, a central figure in contemporary American poetry, is a poet, professor, performer, librettist and cultural activist who was one of the founders of The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church in New York and co-founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University with Allen Ginsberg. Her recent publications include Mesopotopia and Archivist Scissors, while Outrider, a documentary about her life and work directed by Alystyre Julian and executive produced by Martin Scorsese, premiered in New York in 2025.
During the opening event, acclaimed poet Victoria Kennefick will announce the winner of the 54th Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award. Established in 1971, the award has become an important milestone for emerging Irish poets and has helped introduce new literary voices to a wider audience. The 2026 edition of The Monsters Back, a pamphlet featuring selected work entered for this year's award, will also be launched during the festival. Following the keynote and award announcement, audiences will be invited to join the annual Procession of Light, led by The Armagh Rhymers, from the Round Tower Church through the village to the Patrick Kavanagh Centre. Friday will conclude with Unreal Cities presents: Kavanagh and the Beats, a late night performance featuring Adrian Dunbar, Jean-Marc Barr and special guests, alongside a quintet led by Nick Roth, with Alex Bonney, Greg Felton, Dan Bodwell and Simon Roth.
A major focus of Saturday's programme will be Brehon Lore, a five hour multidisciplinary performance at Brehon Brewhouse exploring spoken language, ritual, music, memory and collective experience. Anne Waldman's lifelong engagement with chant and performative poetry will meet the Sufi trance rhythms of The Master Musicians of Jajouka led by Bachir Attar, whose musical tradition has been passed between generations in the village of Jaujouka in Morocco's Rif Mountains, and whose music has drawn writers, artists and musicians there for generations, including William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Ornette Coleman and Brian Jones. They will be joined by Jean-Marc Barr, who portrayed Jack Kerouac in the 2013 film Big Sur, The Armagh Rhymers, a duo set from Emer Mayock on Uilleann Pipes and Flute and Donal Siggins on Bouzouki and Electronics, Jinx Lennon, Tate Swindell, editor of the complete works of Beat poet Bob Kaufman, and six actors from The Lir Academy including James Michael Agnew, Kailey Greenberg, Eoghan Kenna, Penny Morris, Tierra Porter and Dominic Raymond. Adrian Dunbar will direct the performance, supported by an eight piece ensemble led by Nick Roth.
The Round Tower Church will host readings connected with the Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award, while the Patrick Kavanagh Centre will screen the 1968 documentary Rocky Road to Dublin by Irish born journalist Peter Lennon and French cinematographer Raoul Coutard. On Saturday evening, Tommy Tiernan will join Anne Waldman, Adrian Dunbar and Nick Roth for a live conversation exploring poetry, performance, humour, artistic freedom and counterculture, before Saturday concludes with a free late night traditional music session presented by Dublin's Cobblestone pub at McNello's in Inniskeen.
Sunday's programme will explore the landscape, spirituality and literary legacy that shaped Patrick Kavanagh's work, featuring contemporary poetry, visual art, books and conversation. Karl Parkinson will lead a Beat Poetry Workshop titled Howl, Jazz, Buddha, blues, A beat poetry workshop with Karl Parkinson, focused on an introduction to the Beat writers and a short history of the movement, while poet, translator and non-fiction writer Nell Regan will lead an outdoor poetry workshop, love's doorway to life, taking place in Shancoduff. Participants will gather images and observations on the triangular hill, described as Kavanagh's outdoor library, while considering the modernist writers he was reading during the early 1930s, before returning to the Patrick Kavanagh Centre to develop the experience through their own writing.
The annual Kavanagh Country Bus Tours will take audiences into the places immortalised in Kavanagh's prose and poetry, connecting his writing with the rural landscape from which it emerged. The Round Tower Church will host the festival Book Fair, with publishers, booksellers, artists, poets and readers in attendance, alongside an exhibition and live conversation with artist Dara Vallely of the Armagh Rhymers, and readings by Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award nominees and previous winners. Unreal Cities presents: KYRIE for Kavanagh will explore the spiritual dimensions of Kavanagh's writing through poetry, recital and song, inspired by Tom Stack's No Earthly Estate: The Religious Poetry of Patrick Kavanagh, considering themes of reconciliation, redemption and Kavanagh's belief in poetry as a mystical experience.
The festival's long standing Graveside Commemoration will see artists, audiences and the local community gather in remembrance of the poet, before Victoria Kennefick joins bestselling novelist and playwright Liz Nugent for a live conversation on writing, creativity and literary life. The festival will conclude on Sunday evening with a special closing concert.
The full Kavanagh Weekend programme and tickets are available at patrickkavanaghcentre.com.
