merrion street

Arts Minister Jimmy Deenihan officially launched Culture Night 2013 at the Museum Building, Trinity College earlier today.

The 8th annual Culture Night will take place on 20th September and will see 34 regions, towns and cities around Ireland programme a variety of cultural and artistic events.

The free lively late-night national event will include live music, dance, theatre, spoken word, literature, visual art, traditional and Irish contemporary culture, interactive tours, workshops and exhibitions. Culture Night is an initiative co-ordinated by Temple Bar Cultural Trust and supported by the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in partnership with the regional arts offices and local authorities throughout the island of Ireland.

Speaking at the launch Minister Deenihan said:

Culture Night provides a terrific opportunity for families to sample aspects of Irish Culture and Heritage which might be new to them. The National Cultural institutions all remain open late for this night, it is all about participation and celebrating and becoming familiar with our own culture and venues which are on our doorstep but some of which we may never have visited previously.

As a special element of the programme this year, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra will perform an exclusive one-off performance in Meeting House Square, Temple Bar. As well as treating visitors to a crowd-pleasing action packed programme, which will include a lively mix of music and interviews, the orchestra will perform a fanfare which has been exclusively commissioned to celebrate Culture Night by contemporary Irish composer, Stephen Gardner

In 2012, a record 300,000 people took to the streets en masse across the cities and towns of Ireland to enjoy the incredible atmosphere and unique experience with even more participants expected in 2013.

The full programme of events and participating venues for Culture Night 2013 is now available on

Read the full press release

.