Quarter Block Party is set to inject colour, energy, and life, into Cork city from Friday February 8 to Sunday, February 10. The eclectic North and South Main Street festival has become increasingly popular in its four years bringing everyone from comedians like Alison Spittle to musicians like David Kitt to Cork.  

This year, more than 130 high-calibre artists will perform in the city’s venues, bars, and outdoor spaces.

For the fifth edition of the festival, organisers are putting the body front and centre and celebrating the theme ‘Body Positivity’ through dance and theatre.

“This year we are all about bodies, bodies, bodies!,” curator Ruairí O’Donovan said. “Join us for a celebration of flesh, welcoming the new, the political, and the sometimes overlooked, in a celebration of everything that makes us bold and beautiful.” Highlights include critically acclaimed ‘TimeOut Performer of the Year’ Scottee, who is expected to bring the house down at The Firkin Crane with his show Fat Blokes.

In his own words Fat Blokes is ‘about flab, double chins and getting your kit off in public’, uncovering why fat men are never portrayed as sexy but always as funny, always the ‘before’ but never the ‘after’ shot.

Allie Hankins returns with Rachael Dichter in When We, set in an austere world characterized by coded language, penetrating focus, and biting humour. Allie and Rachael utilise the moments between events to slowly reveal a world where tension is currency, mischief is sustenance, and surreality is a given.

Are you brave enough to bare all for Naked Boys Reading? Triskel Arts Centre will house a literary salon with Justin Hunt and curated by Cork author Caroline O’Donoghue. People who identify as a boy, or wish to for an evening, are invited to apply to get your kit off and get involved!

Local heroes Lords Of Strut make a welcome return with a brand new show, celebrating a sparkling 10 years of Strut, A Mythical Memoir of Dance & Destiny.

Early booking is advised and the organisers have a number of pass bundles on offer, in addition to individual show tickets. Find out more at quarterblockparty.com.