All you need is love: Dublin to host first ever Beatles weekend

Dublin is about to step into a time machine back to the swinging sixties as the city gears up for its first ever Beatles Weekend.

From August 22 to 24, venues across the capital will echo to the sound of John, Paul, George and Ringo, marking a brand-new festival that celebrates Dublin’s long-standing bond with Liverpool.

The inaugural event is inspired by the friendship between the two port cities, officially twinned since the 1990s, but connected through generations of migration, music and family ties.

And with Liverpool’s world-famous Cavern Club lending its support, organisers promise Dublin will be buzzing with Beatlemania.

Lord Mayor of Dublin, Cllr Ray McAdam, said the festival is the product of renewed links with Liverpool earlier this year.

“This really is going to be a fab weekend and comes to us with every good wish from our twin sister city of Liverpool and their world-renowned Cavern Club, who also celebrate their international Beatles week at the same time,” he said.

“We share deep and affectionate ties with Liverpool across generations, and now, with a little help from our friends, we are delighted to be presenting a varied and rich artistic programme for our Beatles weekend.”

It is a homecoming of sorts.

The Beatles themselves played in Dublin in 1963 at the Adelphi Cinema on Abbey Street — a gig that left the city shaken and stirred by the frenzy of Beatlemania.

Sixty years on, Middle Abbey Street will again echo with Beatles tunes as Wigwam hosts live music and dance events, while Temple Bar’s Meeting House Square and Parliament Street will feature family-friendly celebrations.

The Cavern Club’s Director of Operations and Music, Jon Keats, said the link between the two cities and the band’s legacy is unbreakable.

“The Beatles, Liverpool and the Cavern Club will be forever connected, as indeed will Liverpool’s relationship with Dublin,” he said.

“The inaugural Dublin Beatles weekend very much continues that ethos, a foot in the past and a hand in the future.”

With three days of music, dancing and nostalgia ahead, Dubliners are being urged to dust off their Sgt. Pepper jackets, let their hair down and join the celebration.

For full details on events, visit Dublin.ie/beatles