Concerts & Events This Weekend in Dublin

Things to do in Dublin this weekend

A standard Dublin weekend has more music per square mile than almost any other European capital, and the city splits cleanly across four corridors from Friday evening. Down by the Liffey at the Point Village, the 3Arena on North Wall Quay runs its headline arena date most Friday and Saturday nights through the heavy touring months, with the Luas Red Line dropping crowds straight at the door and the surrounding Docklands food strip — the Marker, Charlotte Quay, the East Side Tavern — booked solid from six.

In the city centre, Vicar Street on Thomas Street commonly sells out the Friday and Saturday slots months in advance, and the Liberties pub rotation along Meath Street and Francis Street pulls the pre- and post-gig crowd. The Camden Street and Wexford Street strip — Whelan's, Devitts, the Bleeding Horse, the Bernard Shaw lineage rooms, the Camden — is the densest live-music corridor in Dublin and rotates indie, folk, singer-songwriter and DJ bills back-to-back across half a dozen rooms inside a five-minute walk.

Across the river in Temple Bar, the Olympia Theatre runs musicals, headline comedy and touring drama, the Workman's Club books indie nights, and the Button Factory carries late-night electronic. Add an Ireland rugby fixture at the Aviva on Lansdowne Road or a Croke Park concert in the summer and the south or north city centre absorbs an extra 50,000 people on a Saturday afternoon.

Sundays trend toward Marsh's Library, the National Gallery, NCH matinees and a long trad session in Smithfield or the Liberties.

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