Kavanagh Weekend 2026 announces Unreal Cities as curators for Beat Generation-inspired festival in Inniskeen
Monday 18th May 2026, 14:30pm
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Irish actor Adrian Dunbar and composer Nick Roth will shape the 2026 programme, exploring Patrick Kavanagh’s links to the Beat literary movement
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Irish actor, comedian and broadcaster Tommy Tiernan, American poet Anne Waldman and the 54th Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award are among the first festival highlights announced
18 May 2026:The Patrick Kavanagh Centre, in collaboration with SoFFt Productions and in association with the Patrick Kavanagh Society, has announced the first details of Kavanagh Weekend 2026, which will take place in Inniskeen, Co. Monaghan from 25–27 September 2026.
This year’s festival marks a significant new chapter for Kavanagh Weekend, with the curatorial team Unreal Cities, founded by actor and director Adrian Dunbar and saxophonist and composer Nick Roth, formally invited to shape the 2026 programme.
The festival will explore Patrick Kavanagh’s connection to the Beat Generation, coinciding with global celebrations marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of poet Allen Ginsberg. Through poetry, performance, music, conversation and community participation, the 2026 programme will place Kavanagh’s work in dialogue with one of the most influential literary and cultural movements of the 20th century.
Speaking about the 2026 festival,Darren McCreesh, Festival Director, Kavanagh Weekend 2026, said:
“We’re delighted to welcome Unreal Cities as co-programmers of this year’s Kavanagh Weekend festival. In 1956, Patrick Kavanagh met Allen Ginsberg and fellow Beat writers in New York, recognising in them a raw vitality and a bold voice from the margins of literary America.
Kavanaghs later work was inspired in part by the Beat literary style and this year's programme celebrates that connection through a series of events curated by Unreal Cities over the course of the Kavanagh Weekend.
We want audiences to come to Inniskeen, spend time in the village, move between venues, join the conversations, follow the Procession of Light and experience Kavanagh’s home place in a new way. This is a festival rooted in place, but open to the world.”
Unreal Cities, Adrian Dunbar and Nick Roth, said:
“Just before Christmas 1956, poet Patrick Kavanagh arrived in New York City. At the height of his powers, and ably assisted by friends and his brother Peter, he soon attested to the temperature of writing in America, declaring that ‘all American literature is trash, with the notable exception of the Beat poets.’
Working outside the establishment, in Kavanagh’s view, was the key to the Beats’ original and authentic voice. The dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima had proven a watershed moment for the American youth, whose subsequent rejection of the military-industrial complex caused ripples across the United States, with their direction of travel fuelled by bebop and bourbon. Unreal Cities explores this collision of the Beats and the late poetry of one of Ireland’s most important writers in their curation for the Kavanagh Weekend 2026”.
Natasha Duffy, Creative Director of SoFFt Productions, said:
“As a proud Monaghan woman, I am incredibly excited to see a festival of this ambition curatorially embed itself in our rolling hills. SoFFt have been working with Darren on this festival for the past three years and seeing it grow from strength to strength is a real joy.
It really is a gathering that influences conversation and sparks inspiration, from the in-depth conversations at the Kavanagh Centre to the raucous late-night sessions at McNello’s. People can expect an incredibly unique experience.”
First programme highlights include the festival’s annual opening night event, where the festival keynote will be delivered by legendary American poet, performer, professor, librettist and cultural activistAnne Waldman, alongside Adrian Dunbar. The evening will also see the announcement of the winner of the54th annual Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award, one of Ireland’s most important awards for emerging poets.
Following the opening night event at The Round Tower Church, Inniskeen, audiences will be invited to join aProcession of Light, led by The Armagh Rhymers, through the village to the Patrick Kavanagh Centre. The evening will continue with a late-night concert,Unreal Cities presents “Kavanagh and The Beats”.
On Saturday, 26 September, Irish actor, comedian and broadcaster Tommy Tiernan will join Anne Waldman, Adrian Dunbar and Nick Roth for a special live conversation exploring poetry, performance, counterculture, artistic freedom and the enduring influence of the Beat movement.
The full Kavanagh Weekend 2026 programme will be announcedin July.
The announcement also marks theopening of entriesfor the 54th annual Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Award. Since its inception in 1971, the award has been a crucial milestone for emerging Irish poets on their journey towards recognition and publication. This year’s award will be adjudicated by acclaimed poet Victoria Kennefick, who will announce the 2026 winner as part of the festival’s opening night event.
For Poetry Award entry details and further information on the festival, visit:https://patrickkavanaghcentre.com/events/
