First Fortnight Mental Health Arts & Culture Festival to run for three more days

The 15th edition of First Fortnight, Ireland’s annual mental health, arts and culture festival, is set to run until this Saturday, January 17 with a wide array of exciting events.

Events today (January 15) will include a number of workshops such as a mark-making workshop, the Art for All Senses workshop, which explores how sensory techniques and immersive methods can support meaningful engagement and enhance communication, as well as creative writing workshops and more.

Elsewhere, enjoy an evening of song, music, poetry and storytelling at St Patrick's University Hospital with Cistin, hosted by Kalle Ryan, or the final edition of the 2026 Therapy Session in Listowel , MCed by poet and First Fortnight co-curator Stephen James Smith.

Tomorrow, check out the final performance of Antidote2, performed by WeAreGriot is commissioned especially for the 2026 festival or an early walking tour of the capital with Dublin at Dawn.

Wrapping up the festival on January 17, First Fortnight will offer a number of events such as a community Céilí with The Lissadell Céilí Band, a screening of The Low Road at the IFI, and a final performance of Liam McCarthy’s He Dies in The End at Smock Alley Theatre, among other events.

First Fortnight was first formed 15 years ago by two friends, David Keegan and JP Swain, who, according to Maria Fleming, festival director and CEO of First Fortnight, “sat around the kitchen table in Tallaght one evening,” she told Hot Press. “They had both been impacted, either directly or indirectly, by mental ill health.

“They were concerned, at the time, that they felt there was a mental health crisis in Ireland, and they wanted to see if there was something they could do about it,” she continued. “They were both involved in the arts and, as many people do, including myself, they believed in the power of the arts in terms of offering healing, but also in spreading a message. At the start, it was just a few artistic events that would address the issue of mental ill health, and try and challenge the stigma attached to mental health.

“It was very grassroots – all on a volunteer level to start with, and it was hugely successful. So they built on that year on year, to get to the point now where we're funded through the HSE and through the Arts Council, and we're running over 45 events across the country in all art forms. And we hope there’s something for everyone”

Aiming for inclusivity, First Fortnight offers almost 40% of its events for free. “We're very grateful to our funders, which are the Arts Council and the HSE, through the National Office of Suicide Prevention and Dublin City Council,” explained Fleming. “We're obviously a not for profit organisation, and making a profit is not the aim of the festival, but we do at the same time ensure that we pay all artists for their work. So any artist performing in the festival is paid the going rate for their work.

“We are trying to remove the barriers,” Fleming concluded. “Particularly because we're a mental health festival, and secondly because we're a festival that happens in January, we're very aware of the financial barriers and that could be to audience members. And we never want finance to be a barrier to people attending.”

Check out the final list of events for this year’s First Fortnight festival here.