Ah, New Year’s Eve. That special occasion that comes but once in a year. Celebrated worldwide with great enthusiasm and energy but so easily put on the long finger when it comes to planning.
With all the commotion of Christmas it’s so easy to neglect to plan for turn of the New Year and this year is a big one as we say goodbye to the Noughties and hello to a whole new decade.
So to ensure that you don’t find yourself all dressed up with nowhere to go at 5pm on 31st December we have put together a list of various events going on throughout the country.
If you’re aware of other events or gatherings please drop a comment or an email to Lottie [at] culch [dot] ie
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Event: The Glimmer Ball
Where: Charleville Castle, Tullamore
Tickets: Start at €50 and the special group rates are available on the website.
The GlimmerBall Masquerade New Years Eve party is held in Charleville Castle, Tullamore. The event kicks off with a mulled wine reception at 7pm . Three restored rooms will host DJs to suit every taste and live music in the Piano Bar, while roasting fires will glow in the background of party central. This event is limited to 300 special guests so ring in the New Year with friends in style. Masquerade is the theme so dress to impress with cocktail dresses, masks or fancy dress costumes and get excited for a night to remember! There’ll be a mulled wine reception on arrival, entertainment from 7pm & a late bar. Coaches are provided to and from the event and there is limited guesthouse accommodation tickets which include a full Irish Breakfast on New Year’s Day.
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Event: Smash Hits!
Where: The Sugar Club, Dublin
Tickets: €20. Tickets available from tickets.ie
Smash Hits! are a unique and entertaining tribute to the golden era of early 90s dance, pop and R‘n’B. This Dublin six-piece is composed of experienced musicians performing the best of classic 90s tracks from acclaimed artists such as Technotronic, Vanilla Ice, C&C Music Factory, MC Hammer, House of Pain and Snap, amongst others. Fully decked out in 90s outfits and possessing an energetic set overflowing with chart hits, Smash Hits! are a throwback to a feelgood time of old skool nightclub DJs, all-night raves and packed out dance floors. Since bursting onto the club scene in May 2009 the band were quickly offered a residency in top Dublin venue Tripod. Over the summer, Smash Hits were the talk of the festival circuit with blistering sets at both Oxegen and Electric Picnic. The band’s popularity continued to grow with sell-out performances at Dublin’s Crawdaddy and The Sugar Club. Autumn ’09 sees Smash Hits taking on the rest of the country with gigs and residencies in Galway, Cork, Limerick, Naas and Sligo.
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Event: One Night in Rio
Where: Krystle Night Club, Dublin.
Tickets: €15 in advance, €20 on door.
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Event: Le Cabaret Cirque
Where: The Royal Hospital Kilmainham
Tickets: €38.50 from Tickets.ie
A TRULY SPECTACLUAR NIGHT CELEBRATING THE ART OF THE CIRCUS AND GOOD OLD-FASHIONED ENTERTAINMENT.
Le Cabaret Cirque hosts a night of top quality international entertainment, set in the spectacular grounds of The Royal Hospital Kilmainham and held in the the Fossett’s Big Top, Ireland’s National Circus. Fossett’s Circus Features include your host for the evening Ace Minsky and his band The Wireless Operators, breath taking Trapeze & Ariel acts, The Bugle Babes, Magic & Illusion by Ross Presto and The DubLindy Dance Troop, Contortion & Balancing Acts of great strength and agility, Diva Kristin Kapelli, DJ KXB, Can-Can Dancers and much more! The evenings entertainment also includes a drinks reception in the Foyer Tent from 8pm with a Free Swing Dance Lesson from the Dublindy Lindy Hoppers ’till 8:30pm, followed by live music from The Kristin Kapelli Trio. MagicCan-Can DancersYou can also look forward to Stunning Visuals throughout the night, a Spectacular Countdown to ring-in the New Year and stunning views of the Firework Displays. A Full Bar will be open ’till late and Traditional Circus Food will be available all in the comfort of a Heated Big Top! …and Parking is Free!
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Event: MysteryDates.ie - Singles New Year’s Eve Party
Where: Kobra Bar, Dublin
Tickets: €35 from tickets.ie
Join us for a great New Year”s Eve Party. On this night you will dance, date and party till midnight. At midnight everyone will welcome in the New Year with a bang. This night will be filled with fun activities and a few surprises:
The night will be as follows: * Lock and Key Party * Speed Dating (Optional) * Ireland’s best DJ * Twitter flirts * Party Games * Snacks * Great Prize Give-aways *
A great party atmosphere How the lock and key works. It’s a very easy and a fun easy way of breaking the ice and getting everyone chatting. The guys will be asked to approach the ladies to attempt to open their locks. If you get a matching lock and key, it will open. Please then return to the lock and key table where you will be given a new lock and key, and a raffle ticket. The raffle tickets will be called out at the end of the night and you will be in line to win some great prizes. (prizes to be confirmed on the night). The more raffle tickets you get the more chance you have of winning.
How the Speed Dating (optional) works Please look out for the Speed Dating Room, put your name down for the slot in which you want to speed date, and go grab yourself a drink. Make sure your back at the time you registered. We will be doing 10 dates at a time, for 30 minutes. The girls remain seated and the guys move on to their next date after 3 minutes with each date.
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Event: New Years Eve Party - Sharon Shannon,Shane MacGowan,Imelda May,Mundy
Where: INEC - Gleneagle Hotel, Killarney
Tickets: €44.20 from Ticektmaster.ie
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Event: Jerry Fish & The Mudbug Club, New Years Eve Carnival Extravaganza. Supported by Bone Idle Circus, The North Strand Kontra Band, Candice Gordon with special guest Carol Keogh
Where: Live @ Vicar Street
Tickets: €29.50 from Ticketmaster.ie
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Event: The Amazing Few 3D New Year’s Eve Show
Where: The Village, Dublin
Ticekts: €16.50 from Ticketmaster.ie.
New Year’s in 3D! Wizards of Psycho-pop The Amazing Few will transform the Village into a feast of ultra-enhanced visual trickery on New Year’s Eve. Each audience member will be given 3D glasses to experience the awesome power of the “3D Opti-Tron”, a newly developed form of 3D, using multiples screens at different angles.
Be prepared to be taken to a new dimension! The Amazing Few are the creators of feel-good frenzy, dancing, delirium and general mayhem! They are a 10-piece band notorious for high-energy shows, mixing peppy pop with punkish quirks. Throw in some face-painters, pinatas, confetti, balloons (and too many other colourful and noisy props to mention), and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a great night!
They have stunned audiences all summer with their shows - from the 3 appearances at the Electric Picnic, to 3 Shows in the Dublin Fringe festival, and appearances at the Euro-Cultured Festivals (in Manchester and Dublin), the Dub Arts Festival and Knockanstockan in between.
This will be their chance to send 2009 out with a bang, and they’re promising their biggest, most amazing show to date. Joining them on the night will be: FUNZO, the six-piece, genre-hopping, crowd-pleasing, can’t-stop-dancing machine. Gran Casino. This 13-piece band are explosive and experimental, breaking musical ground at every performance. Finally, very special guests Bot Heads will be coming back from the future to mess things up and set the time-line straight!
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Event: Mick Flannery, supported by Kate Walsh
Where: The Cork Opera House, Cork.
Tickets: €31/33 from the website.
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Event: Fight Like Apes
Where: Roisin Dubh, Galway.
Ticekts: €20 (€15 for members) from the Roisin Dobh Website.
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Event: Dingle New Year’s Celebrations
Where: Dingle, Kerry
Tickets: N/A
Starts at 10pm on New Year’s Eve with a spectacular fireworks display at the pier. At 11:45pm the Dingle Fife and Drum Band march from Flaherty’s Bar to The Bridge (An Droichead Beag) where a projected clock and enclosed band playing area is organised. The count down will be held there at 12pm followed by a march around Dingle.
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Event: The Old Year Tradition
Where: Portmagee, Co. Kerry
Tickets: N/A
New Year’s Eve celebrations full of music, tradition and fun in Portmagee, Co. Kerry. For over a century and a half the arrival of each new year is celebrated in Portmagee with a unique custom called ‘The Old Year’. On New Year’s Eve 1727 as the locals were retiring for the night a strange but eerie noise was coming from the vicinity of the local pier.
The locals saw the crew of a French boat holding torches and marching through the village, led by a piper and in the centre of the torchmen a shaggy and staggering figure of an old man on his last legs was swaying as if his time was up. They proceeded through the village making a racket and when they returned to the head of the pier a shot rang out and the old man lay on the road as if dead.
Silence descended again but only for a moment when a newly dressed man with white trousers, swallow-tail coat and top hat emerged from the darkness and he repeated the route of the old man with again the piper leading him and the torches either side. The new man gave a speech to explain to locals about what they had just seen and he went on to inform them that the old man had symbolized the year gone by and at midnight he was no more. The New Man symbolised all that was new and youth of the year that had just begun.
This tradition has been carried out since in the fishing village and over the years, even with modern technology, very little has changed. The sods of turf (peat) were always steeping in paraffin oil for a week in advance of the night. The local children would go through the village at about 8.00pm rattling tin cans and making as much noise as possible to get locals out with money as there would be a collection for the paraffin oil.
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Event: Phantom 105.2 - NYE Party.
Where: The Academy, Dublin.
Tickets: €25 including booking fee available from Ticketmaster outlets and tickets.ie
Rock your way into 2010 this New Year’s Eve at what promises to be the biggest and best NYE party in the city! Join all of us at Phantom 105.2 as we take over The Academy with an electrifying line-up of live acts!
In the main room, we’ll be whipping you into a frenzy with: Delorentos, Noise Control, Funeral Suits And down in the basement we’ll be mixin’ up the medicine with: Tallulah Does The Hula, RSAG Heritage Centre Planet Parade.
Not to mention DJ sets on three levels late into the night from all of your favourite Phantom 105.2 DJs playing the best in indie, alternative, rock and electro.
God, I hate New Years. Always have fun but its such a pain finding somewhere to go - so kudos for this post!
One point though - is Dingle not in Kerry? or maybe there’s more than one Dingle and I look like an eejit now.
@Annie - no that’s just my absent minded copy & paste relocating whole towns to different parts of the country.
I’m not a huge New year’s fan either. I always find it some what of an anti-climax. I much prefer the few days around Christmas.
Thanks for the List Lottie. Tis good to know whats out there
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