Live Music in Waterford

The Waterford live music scene

The Theatre Royal on The Mall is the anchor of live music in Waterford city, and it is not close. Its programme is the classic Irish touring-theatre mix: folk names of the Ralph McTell and Phil Coulter kind, tribute productions, a touring musical or two, a Christmas oratorio and a panto that takes over most of December. Shows start at 8pm, and tickets mostly sit between €20 and €35, with the Christmas concerts at the top of that range and the panto at the bottom.

Directly across from the theatre, Bank Lane is the city's grassroots gig room, and its calendar is the one to watch if you want bands rather than shows. It books Friday and Saturday nights at 8pm and has hosted The Undertones, The Blades, Duke Special and the better Irish indie acts on their way round the south-east, with tickets usually from around €12 to €25. Garter Lane Arts Centre on O'Connell Street carries a couple of intimate concerts a season, and Dooley's Hotel on the quay runs occasional free jazz nights in its Dry Dock Bar.

What gives Waterford its character, though, is the free pub music clustered around the quays and the Viking Triangle. Katty Barry's on Mall Lane, beside the theatre, puts on free music most weekends and never charges at the door, with local singer-songwriters, blues duos and the odd accordion player. The Reg on Bailey's New Street runs sessions every weekend, mostly free, with the occasional ticketed band night. The Granville Hotel on John Roberts Square has a free traditional session in its Meagher Bar on Wednesday evenings at 8.30pm, the one standing weekly trad fixture in the city.

A few minutes from the city on the Kilkenny side of the river, The Seantí at Smartscastle has become one of the more interesting bookings in the south-east, a small room that attracts serious folk names, Andy Irvine, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Liam Ó Maonlaí and Seán Keane among them, at 8pm with a surprising number of free nights for a venue booking acts of that size.

Outside the city the county is quieter on paper than on the ground. Dungarvan's Town Hall Theatre on Grattan Square runs a short concert strand of folk and country names, generally €25 to €30, Tramore's Coastguard Cultural Centre on Love Lane books occasional concerts around €20, St Carthage's Cathedral in Lismore hosts a few seated concerts a year, and Dunmore East has a pub gig now and then. Dungarvan has plenty of pubs with music; if you are staying west of the city, treat the listings as a starting point and ask locally.

Planning a night is easy because everything in the city sits within a few hundred metres. The Theatre Royal, Bank Lane and Garter Lane are all between The Mall and O'Connell Street, Katty Barry's is on the lane beside the theatre, and The Reg and The Granville are a short walk towards the quay, so an 8pm theatre show followed by a 9.30pm pub set involves no transport at all.

Waterford is an early-evening city: theatre shows start at 8pm, pub music at 9pm, and almost nothing begins after 10pm. Fridays and Saturdays carry well over half the gigs. The year is busiest from June to October, when the Spraoi festival weekend and the summer pub season fill the quays, and the Theatre Royal's panto keeps December lively; January and February are quiet apart from the Dungarvan concerts.

Waterford venues worth knowing

A short, opinionated list of where to go in Waterford and why. Open any venue for its full upcoming calendar.

Traditional sessions in Waterford

Waterford city's regular trad session is at The Granville Hotel on John Roberts Square, in the Meagher Bar on Wednesday evenings at 8.30pm, free in. The Reg on Bailey's New Street has sessions every weekend, most of them free, and Katty Barry's on Mall Lane puts on free music most Friday and Saturday nights. For concert-style traditional music, The Seantí at Smartscastle books folk names through the winter, and Dungarvan's Town Hall Theatre has the occasional trad concert.

Live music in Waterford: common questions