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music · Thursday 10 September 2026 · Various 
Westport Festival of Chamber Music
At Multiple venues across Westport · Westport, Co. Mayo
At Multiple venues across Westport · Westport, Co. Mayo
Each September, around fifteen chamber musicians arrive in Westport and do something unusual - they stay. For a full week before the concerts begin, they eat together, rehearse in each other’s company, practise in private homes around the town, and build the kind of musical understanding that comes only from living alongside the work. The result, when audiences finally take their seats, is music that sounds genuinely different: intimate, assured, and fully realised. Founded in 2013 and now one of the more quietly distinguished classical events in Ireland, the Westport Festival of Chamber Music runs from Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 September 2026 and draws musicians from Ireland and abroad to perform in some of the town’s finest spaces. It suits classical music fans, anyone curious about how chamber repertoire actually comes together, and anyone who wants to hear world-class performance in a setting where you can almost feel the musicians breathing.
The 2026 festival uses three venues across Westport: Westport House, the Westport Town Hall Theatre, and Holy Trinity Church. Each space suits a different kind of programme - the grandeur of Westport House, the intimacy of the Town Hall’s balcony stage, the natural acoustics of the church. The 2026 programme includes Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, a world premiere of Donnacha Dennehy’s Woven for cello and marimba, and a concert in the Town Hall Theatre balcony featuring Vienna-based guitarists Diknu Schneeberger and Julian Wohlmuth. There are also open rehearsal sessions where audiences can watch the musicians at work before a note is performed in public - a rare chance to hear a piece finding its shape.
Westport sits on Clew Bay in the west of Co. Mayo, roughly two and a half hours from Dublin by road via the N5, or around 40 minutes from Castlebar. Irish Rail runs a daily service to Westport from Dublin Heuston, with the journey taking just under four hours. Bus Eireann also serves the town from Dublin and Galway. The town centre is compact and walkable, and all three festival venues are close together. Street parking is available in the town, with larger car parks off the Castlebar Road.
Westport is one of the few planned towns in Ireland, its tree-lined Mall and Octagon at the centre still holding their original shape. The Great Western Greenway, a 42-kilometre off-road cycling and walking trail out to Achill, starts here, and Croagh Patrick - the country’s most-climbed mountain - is a short drive south. There is more to see in Westport and across Co. Mayo.
Heading to Multiple venues across Westport in Westport? Mayo has plenty more to see. Read the Westport area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.