← All events
theatre · Sunday 28 June 2026 · Various 
Old Fort Quarter Festival 2026
At Old Fort Quarter, Portlaoise town centre · Portlaoise, Co. Laois
At Old Fort Quarter, Portlaoise town centre · Portlaoise, Co. Laois
The Old Fort Quarter Festival is one of those events that makes you look at a town differently. On Sunday 28 June 2026, Portlaoise’s town centre becomes the stage for a free, family-focused day of heritage, storytelling, and spectacle - built around the ruins of the very fort the town grew from. The 2026 edition runs on a tighter, more focused programme than previous years, which suits it well: fewer stages and more substance, with ghost tours, fire shows, and medieval reenactors taking centre stage.
The theme this year is ‘Then & Now’, tracing Portlaoise’s journey from 1547 - when English Lord Deputy Sir Edward Bellingham established Fort Protector on rising ground above the River Triogue - to the present day. The Old Fort Quarter itself still carries visible traces of that past: a rounded bastion tower survives at the corner of Church Street and Fitzmaurice Place, and sections of the original defensive walls run along Church Avenue and behind Main Street.
The 2026 programme brings back familiar favourites including The Big Dig, the Golden Ravens, and medieval reenactors who inhabit the period convincingly. New for this year are a fire show, guided ghost tours of the area, and pop-up storytelling performances scattered through the Cultural Quarter. Live music has been dropped from the 2026 line-up - the organisers are deliberately building towards something bigger: 2027 marks the 480th anniversary of the fort’s construction, and the committee is already planning a much larger celebration for that milestone. This year’s event is a well-curated warm-up.
Families with children are well catered for, and the mix of activities means you can dip in and out across the day rather than committing to a fixed schedule.
Portlaoise is on the M7 motorway, roughly 90 kilometres from Dublin and about 90 from Limerick - genuinely easy to reach by car from most of Leinster and the midlands. It is also one of the best-served provincial towns on the Irish Rail network, with regular Intercity services from Heuston Station in Dublin (under an hour) and connections to Cork and Limerick. The town centre is a short walk from Portlaoise railway station. Parking is available in the town’s pay-and-display car parks; on a Sunday, charges are generally lower than weekdays, but check local signage on the day.
The town has a relaxed, workable centre with independent cafes and a good market culture. The Dunamaise Arts Centre on Church Street is worth a look if you are into theatre and local arts. There is more to see in Portlaoise and across Co. Laois.
Heading to Old Fort Quarter, Portlaoise town centre in Portlaoise? Laois has plenty more to see. Read the Portlaoise area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.