Ireland’s biggest and most famous racing festival is held in Galway during the last week of July every year and involves seven days of unrivalled action. The 2023 festival will run from Monday 31 July to Sunday 6th August. Each year sees attendances of over 100,000 at the Galway Races over the week long festival, and the town has a real buzz at night, with hangovers aplenty the following day. It is a joyous, fun-filled seven days where people might leave with a few less euros than they had when they arrived but they also leave with great new experiences, new friends and a time that will never be forgotten.

The Galway International Arts Festival is one of the main highlights of the year and involves events throughout Galway City.

The 46th Galway International Arts Festival will take place for 2 weeks in July and will feature a wealth of theatre, music, comedy, visual art, dance, and literary events from artists from Africa, America, Asia, Australia, Europe, and of course Ireland and Galway.

Expect an electric atmosphere when events return to the specially commissioned Festival Big Top in the spectacular setting by the banks of Galway’s River Corrib for the 2023 festival. The Heineken® Big Top will return with a fantastic lineup including Bell X1, Tones And I, Kaiser Chiefs and Fat Freddy’s Drop and more to come.

2023 will include the largest and most ambitious programme to date. New opera and theatre, including four world premieres; Live at the Heineken Big Top; a First Thought programme that discusses Power; extraordinary visual art and street spectacle are among the highlights.

Excerpt from GalwayTourism.ie

This is one of the main events on the Irish Comedy festival round, attracting some major international and Irish comedians. There are heaps of pop up events around town throughout the week as well as ticketed events in lots of different venues. You can check out the different acts on the Vodafone Comedy Carnival page. It hasn't been updated yet for 2017 yet though. This is a non-competitive event. The acts from the day normally meet up for a comedy bonanza in the Radisson blu hotel each evening.

Féile na Ceardlainne a free Festival of Art, Craft, Music and Dance celebrating the very best of Irish craft and design on Saturday and Sunday of the May Bank Holiday weekend. The two-day festival of events will take place at Ceardlann, home to nine unique Arts, Craft and Design studios in Spiddal village whose members have planned free open day workshops for people of all ages to try their hand at craft. 
more info: www.ceardlann.com

A celebration of Killary Mussels harvested from “One of the Forty Places to See Before you Die” takes place on the glorious Renvyle Peninsula in North Connemara. This is the nineth year of the festival and promises that more mussels will be eaten here this weekend than in any other part of the country. Last year, over a ton of mussels were eaten and organisers are set to harvest three tonnes of Killary Mussels for this year's celebrations, which include music, fun, mussel cooking competitions, children's treasure hunts and set dancing, to name a few. 
more info: www.connemaramusselfestival.com

The Galway Theatre Festival, now in it's eighth year, will take place throughout the city with the inclusion of more venues than before including An Taibhdhearc, Druid Lane Theatre, the Town Hall Theatre, and of course, the Nuns Island Theatre. Galway theatre companies feature heavily in the programme with Blue Teapot, Mephisto, Fregoli, Moonfish, and Vagabond all involved. 
more info: www.galwaytheatrefestival.com