Clonmel’s Inaugural Plein Air

With the Suir Blueway running through it and built against the stunning backdrop of the Comeragh mountains, Clonmel awaits your discovery during our Plein Air on 4th and 5th July. Also within easy reach of the rich scenery and outstanding OPW sites in Carrick, Cahir and Cashel, we invite you to join us for Clonmel’s inaugural Plein Air. Come to Clonmel to paint and draw and enjoy the hospitality and cultural programme that the 2026 Clonmel Junction Arts Festival offers. Click here to find out more…

2025 Highlights

2026 Festival

Exchanges

Exploring Cultural Exchanges & Blended Cultures

Our festival theme for 2026 is ‘Exchanges’, exciting conversations about ourselves and our communities, exploring Cultural exchanges and blended cultures. Our brochure and full programme has now launched with tickets for events on sale.
Pick up our brochure at a wide selection of the cafés, shops or businesses in Clonmel and its environs as well as STAC, Clonmel Library, the Main Guard and the Museum of Hidden History. Tickets are on sale online now via the Tickets button in the top right hand corner of our website or at our Box Office in the Showgrounds Shopping Centre from 11am to 4pm Monday to Saturday.
Don’t forget to follow us on social media for information on our many events, artist videos, updates on our community development projects and other ways to be involved in the lead up to the festival (3rd to 12th July).
I would also just like to take a moment to express our sincere thanks to all our funders, sponsors and partners – the festival couldn’t happen without you. Many thanks also to our wonderful festival team, Board of Directors and volunteers – people make a festival and you certainly make the Clonmel Junction Arts Festival the special and vibrant festival that it is.
We look forward to celebrating our 2026 festival together and hope to see you at many more events during the festival from 3rd to 12th July.

Rebecca Lenehan
Artistic Director

Clonmel Junction Arts Festival, Clonmel, County Tipperary

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🎉 Clonmel Junction Arts Festival 2026 Saturday 4th July! 🎉 Day 2 is packed with things to do, whether you're down to catch a brilliant new theatre show, watch artists paint the town, or bring the kids out for some weekend family fun. Here is a look at what's on: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM – Look out for artists around the town or along the Suir! Our first Plein Air event kicks off early across the streets and riverbanks of Clonmel - as well as in Carrick-on-Suir, Chair and Cashel. 10:30 AM – Got a ticket for our Plein Air workshops? Head to our registered spots to link up with Kieran Guckian and Jacqueline Gartlan. 11:00 AM – Grab a pad and pencils and join Niamh McGiff and Oliver Baros for a Sketching Tour of the town, or head over to check out The Drop Bubble Show for some family entertainment (with a second show at 2:00 PM) 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM – A celebration of music awaits at Abbey Street and The Main Guard, and Áine Gallagher is back roaming Parnell Street with her Guerilla Gaeilge comedy! 12:00 PM - 3:30 PM – Show some love for Tipperary’s talented young musicians at the Music Generation Tipperary Rock & Trad Camp Showcase. 3:00 PM / 5:00 PM / 7:00 PM – Take a performative journey to the Irish bog in Luke Casserly’s highly anticipated, immersive theatre experience Distillation, which has three separate runs today. Don't miss it! 4:00 PM – Wind your way through the streets of Clonmel following our Youth Council Performance Trail as they take over the town with music, dance and spoken word. 8:00 PM - Join Civil rights activist and DJ Tonie Walsh in this immersive, mixed-media performance created specially for the festival and in recognition of one of Ireland’s significant celebrities and cultural figures, Vincent Hanley. 9:00 PM onwards – Settle in for another brilliant night of Music In The Pubs. Looking for a brush of inspiration? a sing-along? or getting immersed in a show? Day 2 has you covered! What’s your can't miss event? 👇 Book your tickets at www.junctionfestival.com #ClonmelJunction #CJAF2026 #ClonmelArts
STAG Kids were having fun with Tom Campbell’s “The Mask Project Workshop at @showgroundssc 😁👺 Don’t forget there are drop in workshops every Saturday afternoon! #clonmelarts #clonmeljunctionfestival #cjaf26 #themaskproject #clonmel
🎉 Clonmel Junction Arts Festival 2026 Friday July 3rd! 🎉 Clonmel Junction Arts Festival kicks off on the 3rd of July with a fantastic line-up of events. Whether you're up for some street comedy, incredible visual arts, or a late-night music trail, there’s a spot saved for you. Here’s a quick look at what’s on today: 11:00 AM – Catch the official Festival Opening & launch of the Clonmel Exchanges Podcast Project at Fetch Coffee. 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM – Keep your eyes peeled on Parnell Street for Áine Gallagher's hilarious Guerilla Gaeilge street comedy, and check out the No CTRL interactive pop-up installation at the former Gamestop on Mitchell Street. 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM – Exhibition launch hour! We're celebrating the Young Curators (5pm) at The Main Guard and Séamus Nolan’s The Blackened Circle (6pm) over at STAC. 7:00 PM - Dive into some live literary readings from the CTRL collection at at the former Gamestop on Mitchell Street. 8:00 PM - Evening entertainment time! Take your pick between a stunning performance by Dagogo Hart & Andy Spearpoint at the STAC Chapel, or head to Mulcahy’s for the laugh-out-loud comedy show Me, Myself and Ireland. 9:00 PM onwards – Music In The Pubs kicks off across town to wrap up a massive Day 1. 10:00 PM – Don't miss The Seven Rivers of the Sun, a magical, late-night procession of light moving through the streets! ✨ Drop by, soak up the atmosphere, and let’s make the most of the opening day. What are you heading to first? 👇 Book tickets at www.junctionfestival.com #ClonmelJunction #CJAF2026 #ClonmelArts
Exchanges: A Performance by Dagogo Hart and Andy Spearpoint This performance of work devised by artist Dagogo Hart in collaboration with Tipperary-based artist Andy Spearpoint follows a one-week residency in STAC Chapel earlier in the year. Poet, playwright and performer Dagogo and musician Andy will explore identity, ageing, parenthood and the business of finding oneself in a culture not one’s own. A partnership project with STAC. 📅 - Friday, July 3 🕰️ -8pm 📍 -STAC Chapel 🎟️ - General: €12 🎟️ - Concession: €10 Age 14 + Tickets on sale via the website Link in bio✨
Sketching Tour: Urban Architecture and Landscape ✍🏼🏢 Grab a pad and pencils and join Niamh McGiff and Oliver Baros, BSc in Digital Animation students at TUS, in a leisurely stroll around Clonmel. Explore and sketch some of the architecture and natural surroundings and build on your confidence and drawing skills in this fun group activity, ideal for those studying art. Meeting point is at STAC Chapel and finishing point will be at Raheen House Hotel. Bring your own sketching materials (hardback sketch pad, refill and drawing materials of your choice) – and an umbrella just in case! Under 16s must be accompanied by a parent/guardian. This is a FREE event but Booking via www.junctionfestival.com or at our Box Office is required for attendance at this event. 📅 -Saturday, July 4 ⏰ - 11am 📍STAC Chapel Suitability- 12+ #sketching #architecture #CJAF26 #ClonmelJunctionArtsFestival
“Me, Myself and Ireland” 🇮🇪 Ailish McCarthy is an absolute LICK for the rules. When the grapevine told Ailish that Ireland doesn’t fund comedy, Ailish wanted to find out more. Follow her on her journey on what it takes to make an artform in Ireland. A feel-good show about what it takes to “stand up” for artists in Ireland. 📅 - Friday July 3rd ⏰ - 8pm 📍Mulcahys, Gladstone st. Ages 18+ TICKETING INFO: General: €12 Concession: €10 #CJAF26 #ClonmelJunctionArtsFestival #irishcomedy #irishstandup #clonmelarts
“The Memory Keep”✨ Unplug and engage with “The Memory Keep,” a sensory-driven art installation by Hub Makers and the community that transforms personal fabric scraps into a universal framework for memory preservation. Rooted in the theme of Exchanges, this visceral, intergenerational project, originally created for the Bealtaine Festival, fosters a deep cultural conversation through the deliberate pace of slow stitching. By holding our most cherished chapters in cloth before memories fade, it offers a tactile blueprint for anyone, anywhere, to anchor their own history and share in the intimate exchange of personal storytelling. DATE: Friday, July 3 UNTIL: Saturday, July 11 TIME: 10am - 6pm VENUE: Tudor Artisan Hub, 42 Main Street, Carrick-on-Suir SUITABILITY: Suitable for all ages TICKETING INFO: FREE The Memory Keep will be displayed on the 3rd, 4th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th July at Tudor Artisan Hub, Carrick-on-Suir, E32 FW66. Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday 10am-1pm and 2pm-6pm. #CJAF26 #ClonmelJunctionArtsFestival #Carrick #tudorartisanhub
Some of the amazing Window Art going into various shop windows around Clonmel as part of the Painting Trail- by the super talented Natalia👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 #Arttrail #cjaf26 #clonmeljunctionartsfestival #clonmel
Have you picked up your Junction Arts Festival 2026 brochure yet? 📖 You’ll find them dotted around Clonmel, and at the Junction Platform in the Showgrounds Shopping Centre,where you can also book tickets for any event in person. Prefer to browse from the sofa? Book online at junctionfestival.com ✨ Link in bio above🙌🏼 #CJAF26 #clonmeljunctionfestival #clonmelarts #visittipperary #thearts
🎨 Common Ground opens this Friday 12th June at Cahir Arts — and it’s a beauty! 20 contemporary Irish artists connected to Limerick, spanning six decades of creative practice. Part of the Suir Blueway Cluster Trail, it’s the perfect excuse to get out on the route and stop off in Cahir. 🚴‍♀️🛶 🥂 Launch Friday from 6pm 🗓️ Running to 18th July 📍 26 Castle St, Cahir 🌐 cahirarts.com | @cahirarts #cahirarts #blueway #tipperary #artists #cahir
Our marketing and media assistant Pei Shin Khor met with multidisciplinary performance maker and Longford native Luke Casserly ahead of “Distillation” which takes place in STAC Chapel over the festival.. About “Distillation”… A performative journey which takes you to the Irish bog through scent, created in response to the cessation of Ireland’s peat harvesting industry. Luke Casserly collaborated with renowned perfume maker Joan Woods to create a unique distillation of the Midlands bog as the starting point for an olfactory encounter which looks at our human relationship to place. Dedicated to the future of our broken landscapes – in the hope that by listening to them, we might be able to better understand them. Distillation premiered as part of Dublin Theatre Festival in 2023, and has since toured extensively both in Ireland and internationally. In partnership with Abbey Theatre, Solas Nua, South Tipperary Arts Centre and The Arts Council. ##distillation 📅4th and 5th July 📍STAC Chapel Head to our website for more info and tickets 🎫 Link in bio CJAF26 #CJAF26 #clonmelarts ClonmelJunctionArtsFestival
Tom Campbell’s Mask Project Workshops got underway at the weekend, with pupils from the Sisters of Charity 🎭👺 Key dates: • Workshops: 5th June – 27th June at The Platform, Unit 12A, Showgrounds Shopping Centre • Public drop-in Saturdays: 6th – 27th June • Performance workshops: 7th – 10th July • Street performance: Saturday 11th July • Festival runs: 3rd – 12th July How to apply / get involved: 📧 Schools & community groups: email info@junctionfestival.com to book workshops 📱 Public drop-ins: follow social media for full details 🌐 junctionfestival.com @tomcampbellart @showgroundssc @creativeireland #creativeireland #cjaf26 #clonmeljunctionfestival #workshops #tomcampbell
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