Cry Before Dawn at Wexford Spiegeltent Festival

What to Expect

Cry Before Dawn play the Fortuna Spiegeltent on Friday 16 October, and it is a hometown date: the band formed in Wexford and remain the county’s best known rock export from the 1980s. Their catalogue includes the singles and albums that got them onto national radio and television in that decade, and their live shows have kept a loyal following in the south east ever since.

The Fortuna Spiegeltent is a wood-panelled mirrored pavilion pitched in Wexford town for the festival, and it holds a few hundred people, so a band of this vintage playing it is closer to a club show than an arena nostalgia set. The festival’s October programme mixes contemporary music, 1980s acts, trad and folk, and comedy, and Cry Before Dawn sit squarely in the second of those strands. The night follows Mick Flannery on 15 October and precedes a busy second half of the month.

Good to Know

• Date: Friday 16 October 2026.
• Venue: the Fortuna Spiegeltent, Wexford town.
• Start time and ticket price are not published on the festival listing. Confirm both when booking.
• Tickets are sold through the Wexford Spiegeltent Festival box office online.
• Other festival dates include The Scratch and Keith Barry on 23 October, Gavin James and Chris Kent on 24 October, Foy Vance on 27 October and Paul Brady on 29 October.
• The festival overlaps with Wexford Festival Opera, 15 to 31 October, so accommodation is tight.

Getting There

The Fortuna Spiegeltent is set up in Wexford town for the duration of the festival, within easy walking distance of the quays and the main street. Drive in on the N11 from Dublin and Gorey or the N25 from New Ross and Rosslare Europort. Wexford O’Hanrahan railway station, on the Dublin Connolly to Rosslare Europort line, is a short walk from the town centre. Friday nights during festival fortnight are the busiest of the run, so park on the quay front or travel by train.