Cork has great potential for outdoor music venues

The new year brings new possibilities so this week I’m going to talk about the potential for our outside spaces. Even in winter, there is a lot of potential for spaces that we traditionally don’t use enough.

Cork city attracted a lot of praise for our embrace of outdoor dining during the pandemic, at a time when the Marina Market also made its mark here, and there’s no reason why the reshaping of our attitude to outdoor spaces should not continue to embrace more innovative thinking.

It would be amazing to see even more music and art in the following spaces.

The Marina Market

This is a success story for Cork and apart from the wide variety of food offerings there are now regular events down there too. Big huge commercial events go hand in hand with smaller more grassroots ones. I run Everybody Dance there regularly, a free party for those with additional needs, and it is the perfect place for it really. They also run vintage fairs, graf jams and this Sunday they host a breakdance cypher. It’s important to marry big commercial concerns with such grassroots organic events and all of these gatherings involve music and other artforms.

Elizabeth Fort

The City Council are running this stunning 17th century Fort which overlooks the city. The new stage area is amazing and has great potential. Hopefully it will be used more regularly soon. It’s a fantastic addition to music and arts infrastructure.

Test Site

Test Site is situated in what was almost an abandoned bit of wasteland in front of the Bridewell Garda station. Co-created by Ailbhe Cunningham and Aoife Desmond, it has provided us with multi disciplinary arts and music events, all of which are very engaged with the local community and ecological environment. Test Site is a great example of how we can progress by imaginatively looking forward.

Myo Cafe

I use Myo as an example of how we can embrace our river and port heritage better. This tiny cafe on Pope’s Quay is culturally and artistically engaged on numerous levels, and it’s one of the few places in Cork where you can actually have a cup of tea or coffee on the actual river. They host all sorts of small gigs practically on the river and it’s a wonderful hub of activity.

Fitzgerald Park

This has already been an amazing place to host events. I’ve run events here on and off for over ten years and it’s got a ready-made bandstand that makes for an interesting visual backbone to events in this beautifully historic park. Over the summer we regularly get Africa Day, Joy in the Park, Cork Carnival of Science and other events, but I think we can use it even more. Some of the pandemic era day and night events run by the Good Room here were amazing. They also took over Glen River Park, Ballinlough Park and the Regional Park in Ballincollig and I personally feel our parks should host events far more regularly!

Douglas Street/North Main Street/Shandon Street

These are just some of the many streets that have loads of history worth celebrating, and wonderfully diverse small business owners operating in the present day. Douglas Street have run events such as AutumnFest while on North Main Street there was a carnival day last August. It’s really cool what we can achieve when the communities come together. Similarly, just out of the city, there’s the annual Upstart Festival in Glounthaune, which is a really cool showcase of great music.

Grand Parade/MacCurtain Street/Patrick’s Street/Emmet Place

There are loads of great centrally located places and plazas in Cork. I always use the example of the big party we had on Patrick’s Street for Cork 2005 as an example of the potential. The Jazz Festival has brought a carnival atmosphere to Emmet Place, while Cork Pride has turned both the docklands and the Grand Parade into a huge street party. The whole VQ area around MacCurtain Street has a business community driving it on too, so the potential for great things is everywhere. There’s also plenty of new plaza places over by The Dean and train station which could potentially be used for smaller events.

Central Hall

Another newly developed City Council project with great potential. There’s been a few events down in this new plaza area adjacent to Páirc Uí Chaoimh, and it’s already a place where skaters/walkers/yogi and others gather. It’s potentially a wonderful arts and music hub.