Fridayfest Climate Café

Fridayfest Climate Café is a monthly morning session at Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray, growing out of the venue’s long-running Fridayfest drop-in drawing sessions. The October 2026 edition runs on Friday, 23 October from 11am to 12.30pm with guest speaker Alex Konieczka, an ecologist and educator with over ten years’ experience in community biodiversity, water and climate action work. Each sitting mixes a short talk with hands-on drawing and costs €10, including tea, coffee and a treat.

What to expect

Climate Café evolved out of FridayFest, a weekly drop-in drawing session started by artist Elida Maiques, and turned it into a monthly gathering built around a guest speaker and a related activity. Each session takes place in the first-floor workshop room at Mermaid Arts Centre, reached by stairs or lift. October’s speaker, Alex Konieczka, works with Understory, a group focused on regenerative food production, habitat creation and community environmental action, and the session will draw on that work as its starting point for discussion and drawing prompts. Sessions have previously linked to the centre’s Mermaid Garden Project, which grows medicinal, edible and native plant species around the building, so the format keeps circling back to plants, land and small practical ways of responding to environmental change even as the guest speaker changes month to month. The format stays informal: tea and coffee are included, participants can draw or simply listen, and no artistic experience is expected. Children under 18 must be accompanied by an adult, and there is no free parking at the centre itself.

Getting there

Mermaid Arts Centre is on Main Street in Bray town centre, just off Bray’s Civic Centre next to Bank of Ireland, a few minutes’ walk from Bray Daly DART station. There is no free parking at the centre; nearby town car parks and on-street parking are the options.

While you’re in Bray

A late morning at Climate Café pairs easily with lunch in town or a walk on the seafront afterwards, both a short stroll from Main Street, and the Mermaid’s own café stays open through the day. There is more to see in Bray and across Co. Wicklow.

Good to know

• Date and time: Friday, 23 October 2026, 11am to 12.30pm (next edition; runs monthly)
• Guest speaker: Alex Konieczka (Understory), on regenerative food production and community climate action
• Venue: Mermaid Arts Centre, Main Street, Bray, first-floor workshop room
• Price: €10, includes tea, coffee and a treat
• Recurrence: monthly, most Fridays
• Accessibility: workshop room reached by stairs or lift