Galway Comedy Festival is bursting at the seams with comedy brilliance, all part of a 70-strong line-up of international stars, homegrown comedy greats, and emerging talent, playing 69 shows across 16 venues over 7 days and nights. You’d best start planning your week of ‘carefully curated craic’.

Porky the Poet
Alter ego of the phenomenal Phil Jupitus. In the early 80’s Jupitus could be found performing his own brand of political, funny, ranting poetry, in pubs, on street corners and supporting gigs.

In his own words “I thought it looked easy, I was very cheap. If you got another band to support you… me—I just turned up and read poems.”

Always a thought provoking performer, not to be missed.

Aoife Dunne
Fresh off her sell-out success at Edinburgh Fringe, Aoife Dunne is rightly regarded as Ireland’s most exciting new comedy voice. This Galwegian is a comedian, poet, storyteller, and by her own admission, an “absolute dose”. Aoife’s smash hit debut solo show Good Grief has alerted audiences at home and abroad to her razorsharp stand-up, and her painfully relatable storytelling has received the raviest of rave reviews.

David Hynes
Poet, entertainer and lover of all things wordy, David Hyes is a co-founder of The Poetry Kiln, The Rising Tide and A-musing. Dave has appeared at literary and music festivals up and down the country for over a decade now. He has also performed and curated events at Electric Picnic , Body and Soul and RTÉ’s Celebrating The Rising amongst many others. David Hynes doesn’t like people who talk about themselves in the third person.

Jan Brierton
Dubliner Jan is a poet who riffs on menopause, midlife, the mental load, friendships, relationships, loss, and self-acceptance, as seen in her two collections, What Day Is It? Who Gives a F*ck (2021) and Everybody Is a Poem: Midlife in Rhymes (2024). Plain-speaking and completely relatable, Jan’s verses are served with humour, wit, and poignancy. This is poetry for everybody. She has appeared on RTE Nationwide, Ireland AM, and The Brendan O’Connor Show, and she is a regular guest poet on The Ray Darcy Show on RTE Radio 1.

DOORS: 19:30 | SHOW: 20:00 | Hosted by Porky the Poet