Dublin Secrets: 7 Tips to Plan Your Culture Night

Ever since we moved to Dublin, visiting Culture Night has been one of our annual traditions. In 2017 we visited Christ Church Cathedral, the Book of Kells in Trinity and Mater’s Teaching Hospital and in 2018 we learned about Freemasons, earthquakes and the National Library of Ireland. The most difficult aspect of planning your Culture Night is how to make the most of it since venues are open for very little hours. As experienced Culture Nighters here are some tips to plan your Culture Night 2019.

1. Timing: Get started as early as possible with a meal. Especially since temperatures start dropping at the end of September, you don’t want to have your evening cut short by a growling stomach.
2. Location: Pick places you want to see which are close together, e.g. many venues are located around Merrion Square
3. No. 1 Mistake: Don’t pick places you’re “too” interested in. For example, every year we see a gigantic queue outside Dublinia. Having to queue for so long probably means this is the only venue you get to see. However, Dublinia is a museum you can go to every weekend. Yes, it’s not free like on Culture Night but having been there on a regular Saturday, we can say with certainty we’re glad we spent the money and waited. In a large museum like that there’s too much to see under time pressure and it’s a pity if you didn’t get the full context because the place was too crowded to listen to all explanations or read the signs which would have interested you.
4. Pick more: Have back-up venues you’d like to see close-by ready. That way you can avoid to queue for a long time while wating for the website to load to see where else you could go.
5. Make a mental note: Scrolling through the Culture Night website is a great way to discover new museums of culture venues you haven’t heard of. The perfect Saturday or Sunday activity for the wintery days ahead of us. Alternatively, of course, you can always try to go next year.
6. Have Fun: Especially, if you’re in a group and everyone wants to see their pick, it can get a bit stressful at times. But don’t forget to have fun exploring and learning new things.
7. Most importantly, pick bravely: The most interesting places we’ve seen were the ones where we didn’t have a clear idea what it was. We just knew it was something historical or science-related, which are areas we’re interested in. So far the surprises have never been anything but positive and we got to see a lot of interesting places we otherwise would have never discovered or had access to.