Weekender: |wiːkˈɛndə|– noun – what to do in Dublin this weekend.
WHAT?… WOW – DAVID LANG’S FESTIVAL OF MUSIC
Friday 6 and Saturday 7 March | National Concert Hall | Various times, €50 festival pass, individual event tickets available
David Lang is a name that rings out in the world of contemporary classical or ‘New Music’. As a founding member of Bang on a Can Ensemble, he helped a shift in mood in contemporary composition to make it more vital, more gutsy and more fun by embracing people and styles from outside the small academic circles in which it dwelt. New Music Ireland have arranged a unique festival curated by Lang that embraces these styles of music from Irish composers (like Linda Buckley and Donnacha Dennehy) and international composers (such as The National’s Bryce Dessner and Michael Gordon) with performances from Bang on a Can All-Stars, So Percussion and Crash Ensemble in a marathon performance at the National Concert Hall amongst other events. One of the highlights is sure to be Saturday evenings performances of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians and Brian Eno’s Music for Airports by Bang on a Can. For more see www.nch.ie/Online/What-Wow-David-Lang
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCkd46hcRag
INTERNATIONAL MOTT’S DAY PARTY
Saturday 7 March | The Sugar Club | 10pm,€10
The ladies behind Dublin clubbing leading lights, Discotekken have teamed up with the well meaning pranksters behind the much-lauded Mary Robinson Tinder movement, GirlCrew, for a very special night in celebration of the fairer sex. To mark International Women’s Day, coincidentally also the year anniversary of Girl Crew’s inception, the motts will be setting up in Leeson Street’s Sugar Club, showcasing a line-up of some of city’s finest female performers. Taking to the stage will be grungers Bitch Falcon and two representatives from the capital’s burgeoning neo-soul scene, Feather and Butter. Keeping festivities running into the wee small hours, there’ll be an array of female DJs including Dandelion Sargent, Kelly-Anne Byrne and Dip’s Cait. Sisters are doin’ it for themselves.
OFFSET
Friday 6 – Sunday 8 March | Bord Gáis Energy Theatre |
from 10am each day, €50(student)/€70 for day tickets, €135(student)/€225 3-day
Each March, OFFSET takes over the Bord Gáis Energy Theatre for three days of talks and demonstrations by a huge line-up of Irish and international professionals from the creative industries, ranging from graphic design to photography to illustration in what is one of the premiere events of its type world-wide. The conference-cum-festival serves as a locus of inspiration, learning, networking and genuine good fun, and Grand Canal Square (and the Ferryman, later in the day) are buzzing throughout. Big hitters this year include Stockholm’s quirky anti-conventionists Snask, Annie Atkins (who worked to fabulous effect of the design of The Grand Hotel Budapest) and Cartoon Saloon, fresh from their own Oscar nomination for their animated film Song of the Sea.
