From October 28th – 31st, Dublin City will celebrate 4 Days of Living Stories & 4 Nights of Deadly Adventures.

Whether you’re a resident vampire or visiting from further afield, Bram Stoker Festival 2016 has something for everyone in its gothically inspired programme of events.

Abraham ‘Bram’ Stoker was born on 8th November, 1847 in Clontarf in Dublin, and was educated at Trinity College. His love of theatre led him to become the unpaid drama critic for the Dublin Evening Mail which was co-owned by the gothic writer Sheridan Le Fanu. In 1878 he married Florence Balcombe, former girlfriend of Oscar Wilde, in St. Ann’s Church in Dawson Street. He began writing novels while in London, the most famous of which is Dracula, published in 1897. The global importance of Stoker’s novel is just one of the many reasons Dublin is internationally recognised as a UNESCO City of Literature.

Some of the highlights of this year’s Bram Stoker Festival include:-

Monsters! Season at Light House Cinema
28th – 30th October

A season of films at Light House Cinema celebrating the Universal Monsters of the 30s. Featuring the most iconic monsters of all time, you have the opportunity to catch them all big and scary on the big screen.

Bleedin’ Deadly – Ireland’s freakiest Halloween event!
28th – 31st October

Travel back with us to a time when gentlemen wore top hats, ladies wore corsets and mobile phones were steam powered – a time when the Freak Show dominated in all its odd and shocking glory! Squirm in your seats as an orchestra of oddities thrill and shock in equal measure.

Stokerland
29th & 30th October

Stokerland, a pop-up Victorian fun park for families and the eternally young, will open its Gothic Gates on Saturday 29th & Sunday 30th of October in one of Dublin’s most beautiful city-parks, St. Patrick’s Park.

Free admission. This is a family-friendly event.

Tales from the Shadows : Gothic Tales
2pm & 4pm – 29th October

A beautiful shadow puppet show in one of Bram Stoker’s favourite Dublin haunts, the magnificent Marsh’s Library.

Many things lurk in the shadows and go bump in the night: devious devils, vengeful vampires, gloating goblins and sorrowful spectres to name but a few. If you’re brave enough for some scary stories, come watch the forces of light and darkness do battle and listen to our Tales from the Shadows.

Free entry on a first-come, first-served basis, with prizes for the best costumes. Suitable for all ages, with parental guidance advised for under 6’s. Running time approx 45 mins.

Prohibition: the Beautiful and the Damned
8pm – 29th October

Prohibition: the Beautiful and the Damned at Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) brings you the 1920s with a taste of the Underworld — a night of gothic glamour, strange curiosities, the bewitching and the bizarre. Embrace the darker side of the Twenties at Ireland’s most elegantly decadent Halloween celebration.

Macnas: Sleep No More
5:30pm – 31st October

Macnas, world-renowned pioneers of imagination and invention, return to the streets of Dublin for Bram Stoker Festival with a Samhain parade through the broad and narrow streets of Dublin’s northside.

This is a free, family-friendly event.