Music, Food & Street Performances

Creative activities from street performances to live music and children’s entertainment will make ‘European Maritime Days to Play’ on Cork’s quayside the place to be.

Evelyn Kelly Cork Pops Orchestra and circus acts will be on hand to get the crowd going with musical and theatrical entertainment. There will also be food markets.

Cork Pops Orchestra:

Evelyn Grant and the Cork Pops Orchestra played their inaugural concert to 50,000 people in an open air ‘Proms’ on the final night of the Tall Ships visit to Cork in July 1991, and has been part of many important civic celebrations since. The orchestra presents concerts for schools annually in City Hall Cork, which are attend by thousands of pupils from Munster and further afield.

Highlights of the orchestra’s career include the Lord Mayor’s Concerts; Cork 2005 European Cultural Capital performances with Sir James Galway, concerts for schools and many more. The annual Lord Mayor’s Tea Dances are a much-loved part of their activity, alongside regular performances at Strauss Balls for various fund-raising events. The orchestra was seen by 62 million viewers in the US in a PBS special featuring Tommy Flemming and recorded in Knock Bascillica.

Evelyn Grant and the orchestra will be joined by soprano Linda Kenny to perform a programme of light classics that all the family will enjoy on the docks in Cork as part of European Maritime Days.

Playing at 2pm on Saturday 24 May.

BoolaBoom:

BoolaBoom are a super-sized brass and samba percussion big-band playing house and techno. A budding collaboration between a multicultural blend of international jazz musicians and samba drummers, the group launched in 2023 to make ‘unplugged house music’ heavily sprinkled with soul, jazz and South American flare. 

BoolaBoom features a 12-piece horn section backed by 10 samba drummers producing a unique high-impact sound that hits you simultaneously in the chest and the soul.

Playing at 3.30pm on Saturday May 24.