FAQs

Located along the Wild Atlantic Way, Bantry is approximately 90 km west of Cork City. We’ve detailed directions to help you get here by any mode of travel – see our Travelling to Bantry pages.

If you are unsure of travel directions please get in touch with our local Tourist Information Office – they are more than happy to help you to get to this beautiful part of Ireland.

There is a wide choice of accommodation in the region – Manor House Hotels and Hotels, Lodges and Guesthouses, Bed & Breakfasts and Farmhouses.  To explore your options, browse our Fáilte Ireland-approved listings or see the Co Cork listings at Discover Ireland.

If you’re having trouble finding accommodation our local Tourist Information Office will be delighted to help you.

You can also find out more about our local area and things to do on our own Tourist Information pages.

There are different options for each of our festivals. You need to get in touch with our West Cork Music Box Office for these requests as they aren’t currently available on our website.

For the Chamber Music Festival we have several reduced rates, in all categories of seating:

• Festival Pass – all Concerts, excluding Morning Talks and Town Concerts
• Main Evening Pass – all main evening events and Late Great Shows
• Day Ticket Savers – all concerts for one day, excluding Morning Talks and Town Concerts

For the Literary Festival we have a couple of options for reduced rates:

• Book 5 separate events in one transaction and get 10% discount (excludes Workshops, Editor in Residence and Free events)
• Reduced ticket rate of €12 for workshop participants for events falling on the same days as the workshops. Discount only available on door 15 mins prior to event (excludes Editor-in-Residence sessions and other workshops.) Subject to availability.

For Masters of Tradition we have several reduced rates, in all categories of seating:

• Festival Pass – all Events
• Evening Pass – all Ceolchoirm and Níos Déanaí concerts
• Day Ticket Savers – all events for one day

Yes! We can sometimes offer discounts:

• Packages for School Groups
• Other group booking discounts, when available, are dependent on the event(s) and size of group

Please get in touch with our West Cork Music Box Office for these requests as they vary and aren’t currently available on our website.

We also cater to registered Tour Groups for all our festivals. Please contact Lia Choice if you’d like to know more.

Most if not all of our Children & YA events during the Literary Festival are free. We offer a 50% concession for most paid events to those aged 16 and under. Student tickets are available for most events for full time 3rd level education students. No other concessions are available. Discounts are only granted through the Box Office and require proof of student ID.

You can order a Brochure in advance of publication – or any time after. Just just give us a call or email us with your request.

Remember to let us know your full name and address, and which festival you’re interested in.

Find all our booking information at the following links:

Chamber Music Festival

Literary Festival

Masters of Tradition

General booking opens at different times for each festival. We have priority booking available for Friends of the festival and following that tickets will go on general sale.

If you have any problems, just give us a call and we’ll talk you through it – or we can make the booking for you.

Our programmes go online in advance of general booking so that Friends of the festival have access to it during the priority booking period.

You can give us your booking sooner by filling out our booking form and posting or emailing it to us. Then when your grade of booking (Friend tier or general) opens the Box Office can process your order promptly.

Our booking forms are available in our brochures and are downloadable from each festivals booking page, or in the back of the printed brochures.

We do have waiting lists for sold out concerts. If you get in touch with the office we can add you to the list and we’ll phone you if a ticket becomes available.

To avoid disappointment, do keep in mind firstly that we might not get any returns. Secondly, returns can often be at late notice and, in that instance, we will move on to the next person on the waiting list if we don’t get a reply from you.

In addition, if you like living dangerously and are already attending the Festival, you will occasionally get a return ticket for a sold out concert at the very last minute before the concert.

Great to hear! There are a variety of ways you can support our Festivals, Educational programmes and Concert Series. Find out more on our Supporter pages.

And do keep coming back to our events – we couldn’t produce them without you!

We have several maps of the venues available to you:

• Online here:
  • Chamber Music Festival Venues
  • Literary Festival Venues
  • Masters of Tradition Venues
  • Concert Series Venues
• Paper copies are available in our main office
• Poster copies are displayed in our office and venues
• You’ll also find tourist maps of Bantry and the surrounding area at our offices and at the local Tourist Information Office on Bantry Square.

All our local venues are within easy walking distance of each other. Note that Bantry House, the furthest, is a 15 minute walk from the Tourist Information Centre on the market square, and the West Lodge Hotel is a 20-25 minute walk but there are footpaths the whole way.

Bantry House and the West Lodge Hotel have parking available for visitors just off the main road.

In the town itself, street parking is limited to 2 hours, Mon-Sat 9am – 6pm. But there are several free car parks around the town:

• By the Bay
  • Directly off the main square at the Supervalu turn
  • Take the SuperValu turn from the main square and there is indoor and outdoor parking by the supermarket itself (this is limited on to 2 hours on Fridays due to the market)
• In town
  • By Biggs Catering Supplies, just down from the Library, off Bridge St
  • Off William St, on the left after An Post

There is significantly less parking available on Fridays from 8.00 until 16.00 because of the Friday Market in the square.

Bantry House has convenient parking by the house. Please let us know in advance and we can book you a space for any events you are attending.

St Brendan’s Church has disabled parking spaces directly outside. Again, it’s worth booking in with us to be sure you get a space.

There are also disabled parking spaces throughout the town centre, and in the carparks mentioned in the previous FAQ.

The ferry to Whiddy Island leaves from Bantry Harbour. You’ll find it on our venue maps.
The short trip from Bantry pier takes approximately 10-15 minutes.

Times for the ferry will be detailed on any event using it as a venue. If you want to know all the ferry times, you’ll find them on the Whiddy Island website.

Some event tickets may include your ferry fare, but others will not. Please arrive in good time to pay for your ferry ticket if required.