ART & MUSIC // EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF
CULTURE // BEST EATS IN IRELAND
Galway’s trick is to efortlessly squeeze big-city sensibility and
college craic into small-town streets
On Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way, Galway feels at once like
a global cultural crossroads and an intimate ater-party.
It’s a perfect it for EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE
2020 , with a year-long programme designed to sync
with old Celtic calendar dates like Bealtaine (May Day)
and Samhain (Halloween). Events range across city and
county, from a modern version of one of the world’s oldest
stories, Gilgamesh, to a rock and dance festival at Galway
Airport and a Lumiere Galway inale lighting up the city.
Annual art, ilm, theatre and street feast events will feed
into the Galway 2020 spirit, too.
Hear traditional music at Tig Cóilí, and eat at casually
creative Irish foodie hubs like Kai, Dela and Ard Bia at
Nimmos; alternatively try Michelin-starred Aniar or
LOAM, which won the Michelin Guide’s Great Britain &
Ireland Sustainability Award 2020. Explore the bohemian
and eccentric Westend, dip into Charlie Byrne’s
Bookshop, or pull up a pew in pubs where you’ll suddenly
wonder where the past hour went. This is the year to get a
bit of Galway running through your veins. POC
galway2020.ie ireland.com
17 GALWAY
March 2020 83THE COOL LIST