At Multiple venues across Kilkenny City · Kilkenny City, Co. Kilkenny
Only the published dates are confirmed for this programme.
Kilkenomics returns to Kilkenny from Friday 6 to Sunday 8 November 2026, billing itself as the world’s first economics and comedy festival. Now well into its second decade, it pairs economists, financial analysts and journalists with stand-up comedians and musicians across roughly fifty events over the three days, all staged in venues around the medieval city rather than one conference hall. It suits anyone who likes current affairs and economics discussed with a sense of humour rather than a lecture theatre.
The festival runs about seventy contributors through panels, one-to-one interviews, debates and comedy sets, mixing serious economic and political discussion with genuinely funny stand-up and live music. Past editions have paired household-name economists with well-known Irish and international comedians, on the theory that comedians are often sharper than pundits at cutting through economic nonsense. Sessions run in small and mid-sized venues across the city rather than a single festival site, so the format has an intimate, pub-talk feel even when the topics are global. A Golden Ticket weekend pass gives access to the full programme; individual event tickets are also usually available for anyone who wants to dip in rather than commit to the whole weekend.
Kilkenny sits on the M9 corridor roughly 90 minutes from Dublin and about 45 minutes from Waterford via the N10. Bus Éireann runs regular coach services from Dublin Busáras, and Kilkenny’s MacDonagh railway station has direct trains from Dublin Heuston taking around 80 minutes. Because venues are spread through the city centre, most of the festival is walkable once you are in Kilkenny; car parks and metered street parking are available around the centre for anyone driving.
November is a quiet, atmospheric time to see Kilkenny outside the summer festival crush, with the castle grounds and the Medieval Mile easy to fit in between sessions. There is more to see in Kilkenny and across Co. Kilkenny.
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