Dalkey Book Festival

Seamus Heaney, Dalkey Book Festival director Sian Smyth, and Bono in St Patrick's Church of Ireland during the 2012 festival

The Dalkey Book Festival (/ˈdɔːki/ DAW-kee) is an annual literature festival held in Dalkey, County Dublin, Ireland, for four days in June. Since its inception in 2010 by Sian Smyth and David McWilliams,[1][2] the festival has been held at a variety of venues in Dalkey, including Dalkey Castle, the local Town Hall, the Masonic Lodge, both churches, the local primary school, the medieval graveyard (where an Edgar Allan Poe adaptation was performed at midnight) and at various local cafes, bars and hostelries of the town. The compact nature of the town, its historic architecture and its location prompted the BBC's foreign correspondent John Simpson to call Dalkey "the loveliest little seaside town on Earth."[3]

Although the festival started with a literary focus, it celebrates the arts in general, including theatre, film and comedy. It is also a festival of ideas, exploring the worlds of science, technology, current affairs, new politics and global trends.[4]

  1. ^ "Failte Ireland - Tourism development | Case study | Dalkey Book Festival". Failteireland.ie. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  2. ^ "FAQs - Dalkey Book Festival". Dalkey Book Festival. 25 December 2023. Archived from the original on 28 October 2023.
  3. ^ Lorraine Courtney (15 June 2014). "Books: Comedy, commerce and books at the seaside". Independent.ie. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  4. ^ "Literature In The Face Of Recession: A Profile Of The Dalkey Book Festival". Irish Publishing News. 17 June 2010. Archived from the original on 25 February 2015. Retrieved 25 February 2015.