Fringe festivals are well-known across the globe as celebrations of art and culture - andnow the fun is on its way to Cork.
With a line-up of 20 different events being held across the city - from your local pub to the Everyman - the festival promises to turn Cork into a 'hotspot of creativity' with theatre, music and comedy from May 9 to 11.
While it might be starting out small, Cork Fringe could one day be as big as Edinburgh's, which last year offered over 50,000 shows and sold a staggering 2.6 million tickets.
We took a look at Cork Fringe's schedule and picked out some of their best and weirdest shows - there truly is something for everyone:
Strands is a 'short play minifest' that is hosted by UCC's Youth Theatre. Three Cork-based Youth Theatres (Activate, Lightbulb & UCC YT) come together to share their work on short plays with each other and a public audience. Plays will run in The Granary Theatre on Friday, May 9, at 8pm, and are free.
'How Do You Feel?' is an interactive stand-up comedy show about friendship, life’s problems, and unsolicited advice. Comedians and best buds Chris McShane and Daniel Lukas - Cork's fastest-rising comedians - tackle the audience’s problems and try to find solutions, drawing from anonymous confessions from around the room. The show starts at 7.30 pm in The Roundy on Sunday, May 11, and tickets are €15.
Macallaí Corcaigh is an immersive journey through Cork’s past, present, and future electronic music scene. Held in the Kino, live performances will be blended with visual art and reactive lighting to transform the space into a living artwork that celebrates Cork’s vibrant creative community. The show starts at 8 pm on Saturday, May 10, and tickets are €12.50.
The Three B's might be the perfect way to start your Friday evening. Held in Forde's Bar at 6.30 pm to the sounds of traditional Irish music, you can grab a pint of Beamish while you're being served a free tasty reminder of Cork's past. Forde's promise that when the night is over, you'll feel like a true Corkonian.
Gael Gore is an Irish whodunnit murder mystery heavily inspired by the slasher horror movie genre that features a masked-face killer on the loose and a scythe-slashed body. Performed in the Triskel, tickets for the 'meta comedy horror drama' are €10 with a nice 2 pm afternoon show on Sunday, May 11.
Literacha is holding a free open mic for queer writers and musicians to share their work and socialise. It is run by two queer writers, Em Egan Reeve and Louis Egan McCutcheon, who are passionate about encouraging creativity and connecting the Queer community. The open mic will be held at Nudes/Dali over on Lavitt's Quay on Sunday, May 11, at 8 pm.
Festival Directors, Daniel Cremin and Ineke Lavers said: "Cork Fringe 2025 is brimming with new ideas and exciting performances waiting to be experienced by Cork audiences.
"Our hope is that everyone will open themselves up to the wide range of arts within the festival and have the opportunity to experience something new...
"Cork is a city brewing with creative potential and arts organisations brimming with ideas. With so much creativity in the city, a Fringe in Cork adds to the number of spaces for emerging artists to exhibit, workshop, and perform their work in front of audiences.
"Whether it’s the premiering of completed work or work in its developmental stages, Fringe includes the rough and polished, allowing Cork creatives to receive feedback from and exposure to Cork audiences and arts professionals."
The full list of events can be found on the Cork Fringe website by clicking here.
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