Carlow Arts Festival Family Day

Carlow Arts Festival has been bringing the town centre alive every summer since 1979, and the Family Day is the most open-handed day in the whole programme. It costs nothing to attend, it spills across the streets and squares of Carlow Town, and it is genuinely aimed at anyone who turns up - toddlers, grandparents, school-age kids who want to make things, and adults who just want to watch. If you have been meaning to visit Carlow and want a good reason to fix a date, this is a solid one.

What to expect

The festival draws on a wide mix of artforms - dance, street arts, circus, literature, music and theatre - and the Family Day concentrates the most accessible parts of that into a single afternoon. Expect street performers working the town’s public spaces, children’s art and craft workshops where kids can actually join in rather than just watch, outdoor music, and the kind of loose, drop-in atmosphere where you do not need to have pre-booked anything to have a good time.

VISUAL Carlow, the contemporary arts centre on the Old Dublin Road, is one of the festival’s anchor venues. It runs free interactive installations and family workshops year-round, and during festival week its galleries and forecourt feed into the broader programme. The George Bernard Shaw Theatre, which shares the same building, adds indoor performance capacity when the weather demands it.

Carlow Arts Festival is one of only six strategically funded multi-disciplinary festivals in the country, which means the calibre of performers - including national and international acts - is reliably high even for free outdoor events. Past editions have included circus acts, parade workshops, drumming sessions, textile and crafts workshops, and immersive physical theatre for older children and teenagers.

Getting there

Carlow Town is on the M9 motorway corridor, roughly 85 km south of Dublin and well signposted from the N80 for those coming from Wexford or Laois. By public transport, Bus Eireann and Expressway routes serve the town, and Carlow Train Station on the Dublin Heuston to Waterford line puts you about a ten-minute walk from the town centre. Parking is available in a number of surface car parks close to the main streets; Potato Market and the Fairgreen car parks are both central and well used during busy events.

While you’re in Carlow

Carlow Town has more to it than a day’s festival. The Brownshill Dolmen, one of the largest portal tombs in Europe, is just a short drive east of town, and the River Barrow towpath offers easy flat walking if you want to stretch after the crowds. There is more to see in Carlow and across Co. Carlow.

Good to know

• Date: Sunday 5 July 2026, from 12:00pm
• Price: Free
• Venue: Carlow Town Centre (events spread across streets and public spaces; VISUAL Carlow is a key hub)
• Programme and booking: Check carlowartsfestival.com for the full schedule - some workshops require advance booking even when free
• Getting the most of it: Arrive early afternoon to catch street performers before they wrap; workshops for children typically run on a drop-in basis but spaces can fill