Live Music in Wexford

The Wexford live music scene

Wexford is a weekend county, and most of that weekend happens in one corner of Wexford town. The Crown Bar, on Cinema Lane off the Main Street, keeps a simple pattern: free live music at 10pm on Friday and Saturday nights and a free traditional session on Sunday afternoons at 3pm. On top of the standing slots it books the occasional named night, tribute acts and party bands mostly, in the ticketed Crown Live room on Monck Street attached to the bar.

A few doors along, Bugler Doyle's on South Main Street has one fixture and keeps to it: a free traditional session every Saturday at 9.30pm. Between the two pubs, Wexford town has free trad on both weekend days, Saturday night at Bugler Doyle's and Sunday afternoon at the Crown, which is a tidy arrangement for a visitor.

The town's concert calendar is seasonal. The Wexford Spiegeltent Festival sets up on The Quay each autumn, in the weeks around the Opera Festival in October, and brings a run of ticketed headliners of the Paul Brady and Foy Vance kind at 7.30pm. Once the tent comes down, Wexford Arts Centre on Cornmarket takes over with Friday and Saturday concerts through the winter, folk and singer-songwriters mostly, Clare Sands and Mary Coughlan are typical bookings, plus the occasional Sunday-afternoon recital. The arts centre sells through its own box office.

Outside the town, the county's music runs through its hotels. The Riverside Park Hotel on The Promenade in Enniscorthy books Irish names and tribute shows, with a cluster around the new year. In Gorey, the Ashdown Park Hotel and the Amber Springs Hotel share the north-county tribute and country circuit, Mike Denver and the Fleetwood Mac and Eagles tributes among them, generally €25 to €35. The Brandon House Hotel in New Ross takes the same touring tribute shows. Enniscorthy and Gorey both have more pub music than their published calendars suggest, so ask locally.

The timing works neatly for a Wexford town weekend in autumn: a Spiegeltent headliner at 7.30pm on the quay, then the Crown Bar's free band at 10pm a few minutes' walk up the hill. In winter, Wexford Arts Centre's 7.30pm and 8pm concerts slot in ahead of the same late pub set.

More than half of the county's music is free, nearly all of it at the Crown Bar and Bugler Doyle's. Ticketed hotel and tent shows mostly sit between €25 and €35, and Fridays and Saturdays carry the large majority of gigs. The Crown's 10pm weekend slot makes Wexford one of the few counties where a late start is normal. The year peaks in October around the Opera Festival and the Spiegeltent, with a second lift in summer when the seaside towns from Courtown to Rosslare fill up.

Wexford venues worth knowing

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

Traditional sessions in Wexford

Wexford town has two free weekend sessions: a traditional session at Bugler Doyle's on South Main Street every Saturday at 9.30pm, and a traditional session at the Crown Bar on Sunday afternoons at 3pm. The Crown also puts on free live music at 10pm on Friday and Saturday nights. Enniscorthy, Gorey and New Ross do not have a published regular session; the hotels there carry the ticketed shows, and the pubs run sessions in summer without advertising them.

Live music in Wexford: common questions