What's On in Wicklow

Wicklow Town has been holding its regatta since the nineteenth century — 2026 is the 148th edition — and the festival styles itself Ireland’s oldest. Run entirely by volunteers, it fills the town and harbour with a fortnight of events: rowing races on the water, treasure hunts, a dog show, heritage walks, workshops and live music, building to a big final weekend.

The best-loved tradition is the singing pubs, when local bars each stage an hour-long show and regulars take to the stage to show off their talents. The closing days bring the crowd-pleasers: the duck race and the famous raft race on Sunday 2 August, with a fireworks display over the harbour that night to send the festival off.

Most events are free and unashamedly family-oriented, with a handful of ticketed workshops. The full day-by-day programme is on the festival website.

The Bray Air Display brings a full afternoon of flying to the skies above the seafront. The 2026 line-up includes the beautifully restored vintage Iolar, precision flypasts from the Irish Air Corps, the AeroSuperBatics Wingwalkers, the Black Knights Parachute Team and Team Raven’s tight seven-aircraft formations, with the flying displays starting at 3pm.

The ground show starts earlier: from noon there’s a seafront funfair, a “Future of Flight” tech zone with VR experiences and live drone demonstrations, an Irish Defence Forces static display, a model aircraft exhibition and a food and craft village, so it works as a full family day out even for those only mildly interested in aeroplanes.

Admission is free, but the town fills up and traffic restrictions apply — organisers strongly advise public transport, or booking a parking space online well in advance.

A local tradition since 1935, the Tinahely Show draws more than 15,000 people to Fairwood Park every August bank holiday Monday, and it remains a proper country show at heart: livestock and equestrian competitions, show jumping, pony games, sheaf pitching, poultry and quilt displays, a dog show, vintage exhibits and tractor pulling.

Around the competition rings there’s plenty for a casual visitor — the Best of Wicklow exhibition, an IFA food village, craft village, trade stands, a pet show, funfair and a packed entertainment programme. The 2026 line-up features country star Derek Ryan and his band alongside Stuart Moyles and Theresa & The Stars, with live music through the day and a giant dance floor to go with it.

The show runs 8.30am to 6pm, parking is free, and a family ticket (two adults, two children) is €55.

Greystones gives over a weekend in early August to books, with a programme built around conversations with writers, hands-on writing workshops and poetry events across the town.

The 2026 guest list mixes some of the biggest names in Irish writing with local voices: literary fiction author Claire Keegan and crime writer Sam Blake both feature, alongside children’s authors Ellen Ryan and Kristina Dowling and a strand of poetry discussions — so there’s something here whether you read prize-winners, page-turners or picture books.

Events are ticketed individually through the festival website, and the popular sessions do sell out — Sam Blake’s talk was already gone well before the weekend — so book anything you’re set on seeing rather than chancing the door.

Invertopia is a festival unlike anything else in the Irish calendar: a whole weekend devoted to insects, spiders, snails and the rest of Ireland’s spineless wonders, set in the grounds of Russborough House near Blessington. The 200-acre estate’s mix of woodland, wetland and grassland makes it a genuinely good place to go looking for small creatures, and the programme leans into that with guided nature walks, pond exploration, moth identification and habitat-making workshops.

Between activities there are talks from scientists, entomologists and invertebrate enthusiasts — subjects range from museum insect collections to insects as food and bat conservation — pitched so that curious children and adults get something from them. Family quizzes and entertainment round out the weekend.

Camping is available on site for anyone who wants to make a full weekend of it, and tickets are booked through the festival website.

The Treetop Live series pairs well-known Irish performers with one of Wicklow’s most striking settings — the timber Treetop Tower at Beyond the Trees Avondale, deep in the forest park at Rathdrum. On Saturday 29 August it’s the turn of Brian Kennedy, the Belfast-born, multi-platinum singer whose voice has made him one of Ireland’s most enduring performers, playing for one night only amid the towering trees.

The evening is built to be lingered over: a pre-performance reception opens in the Walled Garden from 6pm with drinks and snacks available to buy, gates open at 7pm and the show itself starts at 8pm.

Tickets are €30 for adults and €25 for children aged 4–17, booked through the Beyond the Trees Avondale website. It’s an outdoor evening show in a forest, so come dressed for the weather.

On Friday 18 September, Wicklow joins the all-island Culture Night, the annual national moment when cultural venues of every kind open their doors late and lay on special programming — all of it free of charge by design.

Wicklow’s programme is coordinated by the county’s Arts Office, and in past editions has ranged across the whole county rather than clustering in one town: live music, poetry readings, storytelling, workshops and exhibitions in libraries, arts centres and more unexpected spaces. It’s a good evening to be somewhere like Bray, Wicklow Town or Arklow with no fixed plan, following whatever is open.

The full county listing is published on the Culture Night website closer to the night, so check it before you set out — the 2026 Wicklow programme was still being assembled over the summer.

EcoTrail Wicklow brings the international EcoTrail series’ blend of trail running and low-impact ethos to the Garden County, with a full day of racing based in Bray on Saturday 26 September. Five distances cater for everything from a first trail race to a serious mountain ultra: 10K, 19K, 30K, 46K and the flagship 80K, which packs in over 2,600 metres of climbing through the Wicklow uplands.

The event wears its eco-responsibility on its sleeve — the series is built around reducing litter, minimising environmental impact and encouraging public transport, a natural fit for a race run through some of Ireland’s best-loved mountain scenery.

Registration for 2026 is open on the official website at the time of writing. If you’re travelling to run, Bray is compact and busy on race weekend, so sort accommodation early; supporters will find the town an easy base for the day.

Wicklow On Ice sets up its rink at Beyond the Trees Avondale, the treetop-walk attraction in Avondale Forest Park near Rathdrum, and runs from 14 November 2026 to 10 January 2027 — a rare chance to skate on real ice with a forest rather than a shopping centre around you.

The rink is sheltered from the weather and welcomes skaters of all ages and abilities from age three up, with skate hire included in the ticket price. Sessions last 45 minutes, which is about right for cold hands and first-timers alike.

It opens on selected dates — mainly weekends in November, with a fuller schedule through December and into the new year — so check the calendar on the website before travelling. Booking online is also slightly cheaper: adults pay €21 online against €23 at the rink, children €19 against €21.