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Tag: Halloween

  • Ten things to do in Dublin for Halloween

    Ten things to do in Dublin for Halloween

    In order to get into the spooky spirit, here’s a list of fun and frightening things to do in Dublin this eerily festive season.

    1)  Samhain Tours & Tales at the GAA Museum

    https://crokepark.ie/news-and-events/samhain-tours-tales-at-the-gaa-museum

    This family friendly event consists of a scavenger hunt through the grounds of Croke Park, searching for Séamus the Samhain Scarecrow, who guards the elusive Harvest treasure. Following this, visitors will be entertained by the renowned storyteller, Eddie Lenihan. The whole family will be enthralled as Eddie tells the tales of his own childhood Samhain adventures and recalls hurling with the fairy folk. Tickets for adults cost €16, for children €12 and students or OAPs, €14. A family of four ticket is €50.  Each ticket includes a hot Halloween drink for all adult ticket holders, a small gift for all children and late entry to the GAA Museum. This event runs from the 28th October to the 1st November.

    2) The Macnas Parade

    This is an annual spooky, elaborate, night-time parade, performed by the world-renowned theatre group Macnas. The city is transformed as the group showcase their enormous, creepy floats through the city centre, while actors jump out and walk alongside them in an unnerving manner. The whole event gives off a chilling, demonic vibe, especially as it takes place right after dark, to give it the full effect. This is actually the last event in the Bram Stoker Festival and is a free event, suitable for all ages. It takes place on Monday 30th October at 6pm and the starting point is on Moore Street.

    3) Bram Stoker Festival

    http://www.bramstokerfestival.com/

    As we all know, Bram Stoker was the Irish author most famous for writing the novel Dracula. For the past few years during the month of October there has been a festival in honour of the man himself and the creation of vampires. This year is no different, in fact it’s bigger and better than ever. There are tons of events which the Bram Stoker Festival are holding between the 27th and 30th of October, including a screening party of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a screening and live score performance of Vampyr, the Irish horror expo, Al Porter’s camp Dracula, and many more. The festival includes a wide variety of events all held in Dublin, which are not to be missed.

    4) The Nightmare Realm

    https://www.thenightmarerealm.ie/dublin-book-now

    mb nightmare realm 2017 01_preview

    The Nightmare Realm is an immersive, haunted house like no other. It plays on your deepest fears and twists them into reality. It’s an extreme, horror filled walkthrough event which has been torturing its victims in Cork since 2009. However, this is its second year in the RDS in Dublin, and this year it’s even more petrifying, grotesque and thrilling than ever before, with three different scare attractions. It’s not for the faint-hearted, and strictly suitable for teenagers and adults only. If you book your tickets online they’re slightly cheaper and range between €16-€21 depending on if you’re a student or adult, or if it’s off-peak or peak time.

    5) Movie Nights at the Lighthouse Cinema

    https://lighthousecinema.ie/coming-soon

    The Lighthouse is one of Dublin’s most iconic cinemas with its vibrant presentation and unique programming style. This Halloween season it’s showing a variety of horror flicks, including Carrie and The Shining. The bar in screen makes this cinema experience even more pleasurable, as patrons can enjoy a craft beer, wine or even cocktails while watching a film. If you’ve got an itch for horror, then check out your local cinema to see what seasonal movies they’re showing.

    6) Spooktacular Boo at Dublin Zoo

    This year, Dublin Zoo are hosting a family friendly event for Halloween, including creepy arts and crafts, spine-chilling keeper talks, spooky face painting, monster music on the Great Lawn, as well as many other festive activities. So bring the youngsters down to Dublin Zoo in the Phoenix Park on October 31st to enjoy all of this spooktacular fun!

    7) Halloween mid-term activities at The Ark

    http://ark.ie/events/season/halloween-mid-term-activities-at-the-ark

    The Ark, which is a cultural centre for children based in Temple Bar, has created eight days worth of Halloween-themed workshops and events to keep the kids busy throughout the mid-term break. The first programme kicks off on October the 28th with a ‘Make your own Deadly Dance Track Workshop’, which is a music technology workshop that enables children to become a dance music producer. The Ark’s other workshops and events include ‘The Supernatural Pop-Up Choir Family Workshop’, ‘Dracula’s Disco’ and ‘Spooky Songs and Sounds Workshop’. The programme finishes on November 4th with the beautiful show, ‘Strange Feathers’, which is an engaging, humorous, interactive, non-verbal show specifically designed and created for young children.

    8) Enchanted Halloween at Malahide Castle

    This Halloween you can experience Malahide Castle like never before. They are holding a spooktacular storytelling and sound experience for all the family. Visitors can interact with some of the oldest paintings and should listen out for creepy surprises as their storyteller shows them around the haunted rooms. No matter your age, all visitors will have a chance to play with the live sounds throughout the interactive exhibitions. This event is running from Friday the 27th October to Tuesday 31st October. Adult tickets are €8 each and child tickets are €10 each. Bookings can be made through their reservation team’s number only, on 018169538.

    9) Samhain Festival

    The Samhain Festival is a fancy-dress music festival like no other and this year it’s back and better than ever. It will be held in a brand new location, a hangar in Weston Airport, which has never hosted a gig before. The weekend festival is taking place on October 28th and 29th and the lineup this year so far includes Liam Gallagher, to headline Sunday the 29th October, with special guests the Strypes and Touts. The Saturday night welcomes Annie Mac, Eats Everything, Melé and Kelly-Anny Byrne to this spectacular gig. With the location this year being a bit unusual, there will be a dedicated shuttle service available to all concert goers from the city centre. Weekend ticket prices start at €99.50 excluding service charges.

    10) DoDublin Ghostbus Tour

    https://dodublin.ie/city-sightseeing-tours/ghostbus

    Hws

    This is a chilling and truly entertaining bus tour incomparable to any other you’ve seen before. Passengers enter the bus and explore the sinister maze-like corridors and rooms below leading up to a stark Victorian theatre above, where the show truly begins. Passengers will be enthralled by their storyteller’s compelling tales which may leave you shocked, repulsed or horrified! You’ll stop off at one of the city centre’s creepy hidden graveyards and visit a medieval vault beneath Dublin Castle. You will hear of menacing Dublin surgeon Dr. Clossey, learn all about the art of body snatching, hear about the inspiration behind Bram Stoker’s famous character Dracula, and much more. The tour starts at Dublin Bus Headquarters, on Upper O’Connell street, at 8pm Mondays to Thursdays and 7pm and 9:30pm Fridays and Saturdays and costs €28 per person.

    By Alison Egan

     

     

     

     

  • Dublin City Council receive over 200 calls in one week with bonfire complaints

    Dublin City Council receive over 200 calls in one week with bonfire complaints

    Dublin City Council (DCC) has received over 200 calls in one week from people reporting the hoarding of bonfire materials.

    Brian Hanney, head of street cleaning at DCC, said: “The last few weeks have been very busy for our clean up crews, especially this week [when] we have received over 200 calls, which is a huge amount.”

    Mr Hanney says the number of bonfire hoards DCC have cleared this year has fallen from previous years, but they are still a major issue.

    “Every year we spend three quarters of a million euro on the removal of bonfire materials. This is a huge amount and money we would obviously like to spend elsewhere,” he said.

    Bonfires, especially in built up urban areas, pose huge environmental and social risk.

    Dublin City Council removed approximately 1,500 tyres and 750 tonnes of bonfire material last year.

    The area of the city with the most bonfire complaints is the North Central district which includes Coolock, Artane, Drumcondra and Donaghmede.

    Second was the South Central district, which contains the Liberties, Kilmainham and Ballyfermot areas of the city.

    “This week we confiscated 90 tyres which were part of a bonfire hoard from the South Central area of the city. As you can imagine, burning 90 tyres in a built up residential area could have disastrous consequences,” Mr Hanney explained.

    “We have run a number of initiatives and events in communities around the city which will give people a safe, family orientated alternative to unsupervised bonfires.”

    Along with the hugely popular Bram Stoker Festival which runs across the city, DCC have a number of smaller, more localised events.

    Halloween parades and fireworks displays will take place in communities across the city to offer people a fun, safe alternative to bonfires.

  • Are you feeling the pressure to dress up for Halloween?

    Are you feeling the pressure to dress up for Halloween?

    Almost one in three women’s Halloween costumes use explicit descriptive language in their title. Research carried out by The City on the most popular Halloween costume catalog in Dublin and two online websites show that nearly one third of all women’s Halloween costumes use language which clearly sexualises the costume.

    Words like ‘hot’, ‘naughty’, ‘raunchy’, ‘tease’, and ‘saucy’ are just some of the descriptions used in the titles of women’s fancy dress. None of these terms are used to describe male costumes with the majority of those aimed at men using words like ‘whacky’, ‘funny’, or ‘crazy’ … with a very occasional ‘handsome’.

    The research also shows that for costumes that portray a figure of authority, there are no female sizes or equivalents. Examples of this include ‘High Court Judge’, ‘New York Cop’, ‘Army Guy’ or ‘ER Surgeon’, all of which have male models and no women’s sizes.

    In comparison, women interested in those kinds of costumes will have to settle for ‘Officer Pat-Me-Down’, ‘Corporal Cutie’, or ‘Naughty Nurse’. With names like that, it is no surprise that female Halloween costumes tend to be physically very revealing. So are women and girls under increasing pressure to take the ‘sexy’ option out of fear of seeming ‘lame’?

    We spoke to Chairperson of DIT’s gender equality society, Constance Keane, and members of the public to get their views on this issue.

    By Rosemary Haughey and Niamh Geoghegan

  • What is your favourite Halloween film?

    What is your favourite Halloween film?

    Halloween is a time for the ghosts, ghouls and all things scary. It is also a famous time for movies. The City’s Aaron Doyle went out to find out what Halloween movies people are most excited about.

    By Aaron Doyle and Ronan Smyth

  • Alternative Halloween events

    Alternative Halloween events

    Halloween isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. While some people love the idea of fancy dress, for others, it’s just a night where you can’t move in your local pub for grown men and woman wearing outrageously wide costumes, and a nest of cobwebs to fight through to get to the bar.

    In order to get through this Halloween as painlessly as possible, and dare I say, maybe even enjoy yourself, we here at The City have put together a couple of alternative ways to spend your night.

    It’s Always Sunny in Phibsboro

    This year, The Back Page in Phibsboro, will be transformed into ‘Paddy’s Pub’ from the hit TV show, It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. You can expect to see some of your favourite episodes on the big screen while enjoying red wine out of a diet coke can. What’s not to love?

    Check out The Back Page on Facebook to find out more about the event.

    Tayto Park’s House of Horrors

    Running from the 24th of October to the 1st of November is Tayto Park’s House of Horrors. While we know it’s a bit outside of Dublin, we reckon we can make an exception just this once.

    For just €18 per person, you can enjoy entry to the theme park, a night ride on the Cú Chulainn Coaster, a 5D movie and much, much more. It’s suitable for ages 14 and up, and there’s no need to pre-book tickets. However please note that there is no alcohol allowed on the premises.

    Night time tours at the National Leprechaun Museum

    Delve into the darker side of Irish folklore with the adults only nighttime tour at the National Leprechaun Museum on Jervis Street. They claim that their stories are so dark and twisted, that there’s no way they could possibly talk about them during the day.

    Tickets are just €15 which you can book here. However be warned, there’s no refunds for scaredy cats!

    Hidden Dublin Walks’ Halloween Haunted Spooktacular Event

    This year, Hidden Dublin Walks are running a terrifying bus tour of Grove Gardens in Kells, Co.Meath. Departing from St Audeon’s Church at the Cook Street entrance, the tour will take approximately three hours.

    For €30, you can expect to be truly terrified, with various attractions such as a mirror maze, ‘The Asylum’, ‘School House Massacre’, and many, many more.

    If you feel that you’re brave enough, check out their website to find out more.

    The Rocky Horror Picture Show in The Sugar Club

    It wouldn’t be Halloween without The Rocky Horror Picture Show, would it? This Halloween night, head down to The Sugar Club, where The Rocky Horror Picture Show Ireland, are celebrating their 10th anniversary.

    You can definitely expect one of the most outrageous, bizarre nights of your life, all while having that damn catchy ‘Time Warp’ song stuck in your head. Let’s Do The Time Warp Againnn…

     

     

     

  • Halloween arrives early in The New Theatre

    Halloween arrives early in The New Theatre

    Last week celebrated the opening of Pygmankenstein’s latest show ‘Olympia’ in The New Theatre.

    The show focuses on Nathaniel, a bright medical student who is heavily burdened from tales told to him as a child of a monstrous creature who comes at nightfall to steal the eyes of children who would not sleep.

    The jittery Nathaniel lives with a peculiar ocular obsession, and visits every optometrist within radius of his home. He is best friends with his roommate and fellow student Lothaire, and fiancé to Lothaire’s sister Clara.

    Apprenticed by his idol Doctor Coppola, it is she who introduces him to her beautiful, blind daughter Olympia.

    The performance, described as ‘gothic-horror’, lasts for 70 minutes and is sure to leave your spine tingling.

    The cast includes Michael David McKernan, Shane Robinson, Aenne Barr, Erin Gilgen, and Claudia Kinahan, all of whom executed their roles with precision and emotion.

    The production, based on 19th Century horror literature, runs from the 12th to the 24th of October. Ending just before Halloween, there is a special fancy dress after party for those attending on October 25th.

    Tickets range from €12 to €15 and are available at tickets.ie

  • Keeping pets safe at Halloween

    CC image courtesy of Crystal Agozzino on Flickr.
    CC image courtesy of Crystal Agozzino on Flickr.

    Halloween season is exciting for us humans but for pets, it can be a very distressing time of year.

    Household pets, mainly dogs, can get very agitated around Halloween time, due to the noise of fireworks and also by the flashes at night time.

    According to vet Peter Wedderburn, who is better known as ‘Pete the Vet’, the best thing for dogs at this time of year is to make sure that they have somewhere that they can go that is cosy and reasonably well protected by noise.

    “Basically you want somewhere where they can go and feel comfortable and chilled out, and if there is background noise and fireworks, they’re not bothered about them”, he says.

    Pete suggests that a typical ‘safe’ place for dogs would be a cupboard under the stairs, or a boiler room, where you can put plenty of bedding, a hot water bottle and some of their favourite toys.

    He also stresses the importance of dog pheromone, which can be bought in plug form.

    “When a bitch produces milk, she produces a scent that puppies find reassuring”, says Pete, “scientists have extracted that scent and have made an artificial form of it and put it into a vaporizer”.

    Pete, who is also Ireland AM’s resident vet, says that if dogs have this pheromone in the air around them, then they feel more comfortable and reassured.

    There is also an increased issue of cruelty towards animals around the Halloween period.

    “When there are young people out and messing around, where there is fire and fireworks then animals are vulnerable, so people should be aware of that”, says Pete.

    Even cats, who usually roam around, are at risk at this time of year. Like dogs, they can be also frightened by fireworks, but a more serious matter is reports of them being thrown into bonfires.

    Both cats and dogs are also at risk of blackcat fireworks been thrown at them by youths.

    “Keep cats in around Halloween because they can get into trouble, and make sure that your dog has an ID tag on it because it can get out and run away”, says Pete.

    Every year there are reports of people deliberately harming animals during the Halloween season

    Pete advises people that if they hear of, or see any cruelty to animals going on, to get some evidence and  report it.

  • Dracula Untold Movie Review

     

    IT’S that time of the year again when a whack of horror movies appear in cinemas nationwide, delivering graphic images of blood-thirsty creatures, possessed individuals, and dark magic.

    Image: Alvaro Tapia http://bit.ly/1tX9P1v
    Image: Alvaro Tapia http://bit.ly/1tX9P1v

    Dracula Untold is a ‘spook-tacular’ film that sets the ‘stakes’ high in the lead up to Halloween with its ability to both haunt and entertain the anxious viewer.

    The dark fantasy re-introduces the history and origins of Dracula and Vlad the Impaler. Its modern take alongside the use of state-of-the-art costumes and props, crafts this movie into the success that it is.

    However, at some points, the supposedly spine-chilling vampires end up looking like disturbed zombies.

    Dracula Untold tells the tale of a strong prince named Vlad the Impaler who rules over a small Transylvania kingdom with his wife and son and who allows no harm to come to his district and its inhabitants.

    However, the peace is short-lived when a warlord called Mehmed, the Sultan of Turkey, demands 1000 Transylvanian boys including the prince’s son. Mehmed sees it as an obligation and has strict plans for the boys.

    Vlad quickly realises that the only way to protect his people is by defeating Mehmed and his army of men. The clock is ticking and Vlad does not have the powers and resources he needs. That is, until he comes face to face with the monster every man fears.

    The casting of Dracula Untold seems to have been done with precision as Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon, and Dominic Cooper are superb for their roles and play their characters to perfection.

    Lasting a total of 92 minutes, Dracula Untold is not the lengthiest film to be released this year but, in this case, any longer and the movie would have been dragged out.

    Rated 15a and directed by Irishman and Dubliner Gary Shore, this is the perfect movie for those seeking a bit of horror without the usual jumpy and frightfully sinister insertions.

  • Halloween MakeUp Madness

     

     

    Terminator Halloween look by Rachel Taglient MUA
    Terminator Halloween look by Rachel Taglienti MUA

    We all know that girls love doing their make up on a daily basis, but the Halloween season allows us to get a bit more creative with the makeup brushes to create the perfect look.

    Makeup artists around the country have been preparing themselves for weeks for what is their busiest time of year.

    According to Inglot makeup artist, Rachel Taglienti, she needs to prepared to do these looks weeks in advance.

    “I get busier during Halloween but I make sure to be well prepared, she said, “some Halloween makeovers can take over two hours, so being prepared and knowing what parts of the look you want to do first really cuts down on time”.

    Rachel, who has had a career in makeup since 2004, has worked with most of Ireland’s TV personalities and models throughout her career, but says that Halloween is her favourite time of the year for doing makeovers.

    “I trained in special effects and it certainly allows you to be creative. It’s such a contrast to doing a normal make over”, said the makeup artist.

    “Halloween makeovers have no rules – it’s literally anything goes. A lot of the time the messier the better”, she added.

    Some of Rachel’s most popular Halloween looks include the Terminator and a skeleton look, but her most requested last year was the sexy vampire.

    Here is the ‘sexy vampire’, with steps by Rachel on how to get this look.

    Sexy Zombie look by Rachel
    Sexy Vampire look by Rachel

    “I just did a very dark purple cut crease on the eyes and pink and purple contouring on the face. A red and purple lip, I had blood dripping from the side of my mouth and a bite mark on my neck! This whole look was created using eyeshadow and can be done in under 30 minutes”, said Rachel.

    Another makeup artist who loves the Halloween season is Gemma Leigh, who only began her makeup career this year.

    “I really enjoy the more creative, unusual side to makeup so Halloween is the perfect time for me to indulge in that”, she said.

    Gemma, who is currently doing a makeup course with Callanberry Acadamy, has also noticed how busy the Halloween season gets for makeup artists.

    “It’s a crazy time where I’ve literally had to turn people down, there are so many people enquiring”, she said.

    Here is a recent ‘zombie look’ that Gemma did, with steps on how to perfect it.

    Zombie look by gemma
    Zombie look by Gemma
    1. Cover your face in a greyish shade. I mixed a pale foundation with a grey eyeshadow pigment, but you could always use facepaint if you find that easier.
    2. Take liquid latex and paint it on your face around your mouth nose, and down your neck using a cheap brush or sponge as you’ll have to bin it once finished.
    3. Apply a thin layer of cotton wool or one ply toilet roll over the latex then apply more latex over that. Allow the latex to dry and repeat this process until you have built up enough “skin” to play around with. You can use a hair dryer on a cool setting to speed up this step.
    4. Once you’re happy with the build up and it’s dry, paint the latex with the colour you used on your face and powder with a face powder to reduce the shine from the latex
    5. Take some cool toned brown, grey and black shadows and build up some shading around the hollows of your eyes, make it darkest in the inner corner and then crease and blend this out. Also use these brown and grey colours in the hollows of your cheekbones and temples of your forehead for a really “sunken in” look.
    6. Take a cool purple eyeshadow with a small brush, such as an eyeliner brush and draw some squiggly veins wherever you desire.
    7. Pull and rip your latex piece until your happy with how it looks then paint the underneath red. You can use either facepaint or drying blood for this.
    8. Paint the area underneath your latex black. Do this sheer and messy as it shouldn’t be stark or perfect, then take blood gel and paint this on top. Add some liquid blood wherever you wish inside your “wound” and around the edges where the latex meets your skin, even in your mouth if you’re going really gory!
    9. You can stop here if you wish, but I chose to paint my teeth black with tooth enamel and added some contacts, they were the “zombie” eyes available from Halloween Hq stores.

    More looks by Rachel can be found on Instagram @RayTag, or Facebook: Rachel MUA

    More looks by Gemma can be found on Instagram: @gemmale_makeup or on Facebook: MakeUp by Gemma

     

     

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  • The festival of the dead

    The festival of the dead

    Held on the 27th of October in the stunningly beautiful location of Glendalough House, County Wicklow, Samhain festival was the hot ticket of this year’s celestial season.

    Aerial dancers entranced the crowds
    Aerial dancers entranced the crowds

    In association with Life festival, Bodytonic and others, this was the first year the “one night fancy dress musical feast” has been staged, but if the preternaturally positive atmosphere on the night was anything to go by it won’t be the last.

    There was an eclectic mix of innovative costumes
    There was an eclectic mix of innovative costumes

    Featuring over 20 acts across four stages and set against the breath-taking backdrop of the 1,500 acre estate of Glendalough house, this festival, which also happily happened to be BYOB, was definitely a more spiritual experience than a school disco.

    The night featured performances by the likes of Frank B and Marcel Dettman
    The night featured performances by the likes of Frank B and Marcel Dettman

    Efficiently organised and smoothly ran, Samhain was nothing short of a massive success. Acts such as Todd Terje and Nina Kraviz almost managed to upstage the venue. However some of the most interesting sights to behold that night were the revelers themselves. Luckily TheCity was on hand capture images of all three.