What's On in Cork

Ireland’s oldest and largest film festival reaches its 71st edition in 2026, filling Cork with eleven days of cinema in the run-up to winter. The programme is rooted in the city but deliberately international, opening and closing with gala screenings of major films and packing the days between with features, documentaries and shorts.

Screenings centre on three venues within easy reach of each other: the Arc Cinema, the Everyman theatre and Triskel Arts Centre. New Irish cinema gets its own strand, and the documentary programme comes with industry events attached, so there’s a working-festival buzz about the place as well as an audience one.

If you’re planning more than a screening or two, the discounted five- and ten-film passes are the way in — they and student rates are sold through the festival’s own booking system alongside individual tickets.

The Cork Opera House panto is a fixture of the city’s Christmas, and for 2026/27 it’s Beauty and the Beast — staged by the creative team behind last season’s hit Aladdin, with Neville Jewellers again sponsoring. Expect the house style: big colour, spellbinding costumes, and exhilarating live music and dance.

The run stretches from late November right through the holidays to mid-January, with matinees and evening shows at various times across the season. Relaxed performances are scheduled for neurodivergent audiences, and the production carries the usual warnings about strobe lighting and haze.

Tickets are on sale now at €30–€45 depending on date and time, with family passes from €165 — and several matinees are already marked as selling fast, so the school-holiday dates in particular are worth booking well ahead.