Discover Dublin’s Bram Stoker Festival

Plunged back into pitch black evenings, the working weeks leading up to Christmas can feel like the gloomiest of the year.  If this week’s biggest thrill consists of being the last to switch off the lights in a deserted office, it may be time to shake out the gothic glad-rags and escape instead to a supernatural land brimming with screaming banshees, ghastly ghouls and dark princes.

skeleton walking through the streets

Bram Stoker Festival

Now in its second year, more than 20,000 vampires swooped down on Dublin’s Bram Stoker festival (26th – 28th October 2013) to savour a weekend jam-packed with spooky shenanigans. Fangs at the ready, I packed my little black dress and went in search of my own devilish delights.

First up was Dracula’s Fire Garden – a screaming inferno set inside the ancient walls of Dublin Castle. Greeted by a giant swaying skeleton, I leap out my skin as great balls of fire erupt from the castle walls. Beckoned in by the sound of chains clanking at head-pounding velocity, I enter a crimson wonderland of flaming flowers, blistering bushes and scorching trees.  Phantom figures flit between the shadows as spectral dresses flutter eerily in the breeze.  Highly recommended for an evening truly out of the ordinary.

Dracula's Fire Garden

Dracula’s Fire Garden

From castles to cathedrals, Dublin’s rich heritage was showcased again on Sunday with a  special pop-up cinema screening of the Addams Family set inside the spectacular 11th century interior of Christ Church Cathedral.   Settling back among the solid stone pillars with popcorn at the ready, never had Uncle Fester looked so fetching.

Christchurch Cathedral exterior

Christchurch Cathedral

Following the screening, we descend to the medieval crypt for a banquet hosted by the Prince of Darkness himself, (Jonathan Rhys Meyers fans won’t be disappointed). Ducking out of his overly-familiar embrace, I join the rest of the vampires for a chat over a bloody Mary and a devilled kidney canapé or two.  Howling wolves serenade us as we sit down to dine at a long, lace-covered table complete with full gothic accoutrements including candelabra and blood-red roses.  (If you’re searching for a gothic wedding venue, the crypt is available to hire.)

crow motif in Christchurch Cathedral Crypt

Christchurch Cathedral Crypt

Staying on-trend with the Dracula theme, the banquet kicks off with livid purple, Transylvanian Borsch accompanied by yogurt, goats cheese and sweet marjoram.   A zesty orange and pomegranate sorbet with champagne and mint refreshes the palate before we attack the main offerings of tender, crimson venison flesh.  A darkly, decadent chocolate tart accompanied by a zingy raspberry fool rounds off the evening’s gorging in style.

Ravenous hunger now sated, I look back wistfully on a spine-tinglingly sensational weekend with enough bite to shake me out of the winter gloom and put a sprightly spring back in my step.

How do you shake off the winter blues?  Have you attended any other Halloween festivals? Which ones would you recommend?

This trip was provided courtesy of Tourism Ireland.  For more information on the festival’s full events schedule visit: www.bramstokerfestival.com

 

 

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