TULCA Festival returns to Galway celebrating punk and its relevance today
The 2026 TULCA Festival of Visual Arts will run in Galway from November 6-22, with the theme of Veruca Salt celebrating the emergence of the punk movement 50 years ago.
Curated by Sinéad Keogh, Veruca Salt approaches punk as something current: a way of working outside conventional structures, questioning received values and making space via DIY culture, collective action and self-determination. The festival asks what punk’s insistence on agency, solidarity and reinvention can offer us today.
The TULCA Gallery will present work by Vivienne Dick, Dolorosa de la Cruz, Johnny McMahon, Garry O’Neill and Sara R Phillips, alongside material from the RTÉ Archive. The An Post Gallery will host Seiko Hayase, Kate McSharry, Evgeniya Martirosyan, Enoch Miekutima Matondo, Paula Fitzsimons and Russell Hart, and a project by Domestic Violence Response Galway.
The Galway Arts Centre show will include Peter Bradley, Diana Chambers, Rachel Garfield, Saidhbhín Gibson, Guggi, Shota Kotake, Breda Lynch, Katie Moore, Ciara Rodgers and Del LaGrace Volcano. Domestic Violence Response Galway will also present a project at 126 Gallery, while Galway City Museum will present commissions involving Madhuri Singh and Nora Mongan of Galway Traveller Movement.
Other events include a Women-Led Punk Night; a screening of Pratibha Parmar’s A Place of Rage at the EYE Cinema, and Pauline Cummins’ Looking for Frances Cox – A Performance Lecture.
Talks will include Sinéad Keogh with Aoife Natsumi Frehan, Vivienne Dick, Rachel Garfield and Breda Lynch. The programme also includes Ruth Griffin’s Feminist Rebellion Through Dress at the Museum, workshops and events with Domestic Violence Response and AkiDwA, alongside readings, tours and workshops.
TULCA 2026 will officially open at An Post Gallery, 18 William Street, on Friday, November 6, from 7–9pm, alongside the launch of the festival’s new publication, and will be followed by the official TULCA Launch Party at Electric Galway from 9pm, with DJ sets by Phil RetroSpector and Core Minimal.
All five TULCA exhibition galleries will open to the public on Saturday, November 7 and remain open throughout the festival.
More information at tulca.ie.