Culture Night 2020 in Dublin was like none that has ever been seen before and it is unlikely anyone will want to see its like again.
On a night like this the city’s streets are normally teeming with life. Buildings which are usually shuttered and empty as darkness falls are bathed in welcoming light with their doors thrown up to an appreciative audience anxious to explore all the art and culture the city has to offer.
It was a different story this year with most of the events moving into the online world and only a handful of venues throughout the city opening with pre-booking essential in virtually all of them.
And as if it wasn’t sufficiently grim that the most celebratory and inclusive of artistic events was taking place in the middle of a global pandemic, it also coincided with the moment that Taoiseach Micheál Martin was addressing the nation and warning people that Dublin was in a “very dangerous place” and risked returning to the worst days of the crisis.
Beatles-themed exhibition
In a small gallery on a Temple Bar laneway leading down to Aston Quay a Beatles-themed exhibition had just opened after two years in the making. Artist Kevin Bohan had been hoping that Culture Night would give it bit of lift.
“We open the door for the very first night on the very day they are threatening to shut the f**king thing down,” he said phlegmatically.
The exhibition had been set to run until the middle of October. “At least that was the plan,” he told The Irish Times. “We’ll probably extend it for a few weeks now. A lot of people have messaged me to say that they won’t be coming in because of the new restrictions but I’m still hoping a few friends will make it in so we can have a socially distanced drink outside.”
As he spoke a young couple wandered in off the street.
“There’s not a whole lot going on is there?” Linda O’Donoghue, originally from Cork but living in Dublin said as she looked at the artwork on the walls.
“I was working at Culture Night last year so was looking forward to this year,” she said. “I am not sure what we will do next. We might go for something to eat soon. It’s the only way we will be able to get a glass of wine.”
Feeling gloomy
Next door Aga Szot was painting in her experimental art installation/gallery, a space where people can watch artists at work.
This year is her 11th Culture Night.
“I think last year we had 800 people come in. It has been building every year. This year I think I will be doing well if 100 people are here over the course of the night.”
She was feeling gloomier still because her beloved space is under threat of closure.
“A new owner has bought the building and there are plans to turn the space into a restaurant,” she said.
Elsewhere in Temple Bar there was little sign that Culture Night was happening at all. There was little sign that anything was happening, in fact. Most of the pubs remain shuttered and the restaurants, many of which, were serving their last supper until October 10th were quiet.
A woman trying to tempt the handful of passersby with menus for the Old Mill restaurant laughed mirthlessly when asked if there were many takers.
“No, none at all,” she said simply.
In year’s past, Merrion Square has been a hub of culture on the night but on this night all the buildings were as dark and as gloomy as they have ever been and the square was as quiet as a Sunday morning.
The only sign of life, in fact, was outside Government Buildings where television camera lights lit up the footpaths as reporters readied themselves to tell viewers what the city could expect to happen next.
