Festival Hub
Festival Hub
Welcome to the Festival Hub, located at O’Reilly Hall and the Lake. Come and experience an array of inspirational talks with award-winning authors Roddy Doyle, Emilie Pine, Elaine Feeney, and Nicole Flattery to name but a few.
Drop by the UCD Alumni Lounge in the UCD University Club, it’s a great spot for UCD graduates to share stories, and pick up some freebies.
Make sure to register for this Zone using the button below (registration is free).
Register
Under the hood of Mississippi Delta Blues
A pre-Festival event on Friday, 9 June brings us blues musicians Anthony ‘Big-A’ Sherrod and Jacqueline "Jaxx" Nassar, who invite you to discover the inner workings, wonders and history of the gritty and heartfelt Mississippi Delta Blues style of music.
UCD Alumni Lounge
Visit the Alumni Lounge for exclusive access and freebies, and enjoy activities like guided tours and sensory rooms at UCD Festival.
Life-Size Chess
Enjoy the UCD Chess Garden with a life-size chess set by the lake.
Gamelan By the Lake
Join this special Gamelan Workshop with director Dr Peter Moran who will teach members of the public how to play a short simple piece on the gamelan for themselves.
Sensory Friendly Spaces
The aim of sensory friendly spaces will be to provide a safe, low-level stimulation space for neurodivergent festival goers, created by using adjustable lighting, textures, and sounds.
Write Your Own Superhero with Fighting Words
Join the Fighting Words team for a special workshop where participants will be guided to create unique superheroes of their own invention! This workshop is aimed at children aged 6-10.
UCD Architecture Tour
This tour, beginning in the shadow of UCD Belfield’s Water Tower, will follow the path of the original brave-new-world vision for a national university campus for Ireland.
Write Your Own Story with Fighting Words
Join the Fighting Words team for a brilliant story-writing workshop where participants will be guided in writing original stories of their own invention! This workshop is aimed at children aged 8-12.
1923 – 2023 : 100 Years of learning from the Year of the Hitler Putsch.
Sandra Scanlon and Mark Jones in conversation: Are the same forces that destroyed German democracy in the 1920s fueling the anger behind the surge in populism in our world today? In 1923 Hitler was defeated; can the lessons of that defeat aide us as we mobilise to protect the future of liberal democracy?