Ballina Fringe Festival announces October music programme

BALLINA Fringe Festival has announced two music events as part of its 2026 programme, running from October 2 to 11 across venues in Ballina town.

Ballina Punx open the festival on Friday, October 2, with three acts at The NCF.

Barcelona street-punk veterans Opció K-95 - thirty years in and still uncompromising - play one of only two Irish dates on their current run. They are joined by Ras Tinny, Ballycastle's Wild Atlantic dub reggae artist, and Forgotten Soldier, a post-punk solo artist from Leitrim returning to Ballina.

Tickets are €10 on the door; BYOB.

On Saturday, October 10, award-winning Dublin five-piece I Draw Slow play St. Michael's Church.

Dave and Louise Holden lead a band that has spent more than a decade building a body of work at the crossroads of Irish roots and American folk - four critically acclaimed albums on Nashville's Compass Records, a number-one Irish chart record, and seventeen US tours behind them. The Sunday Times called them "exquisite"; Hot Press said "spellbinding."

Early bird tickets are €22 for the first week only, rising to €25.

These concerts sit within a wider programme that includes the Ballina Youth Fringe Lab, an emerging artists strand, a smartphone film festival, and an arts residency in partnership with The NCF.

The festival is built around bringing ambitious work across a range of disciplines and audiences to Ballina - new voices alongside established names, local alongside international.

"The music programme this year says a lot about what we try to do with Ballina Fringe - you can open the festival with 30-year-old Barcelona street-punk and close it with some of the finest acoustic music Ireland has produced, and both nights make complete sense for what we are.

“I Draw Slow at St. Michael's Church is going to be a very special evening," said festival committee member Susan Heffernan.

For more, see ballinafringefestival.ie.