Rory's Birthday Party #3

What Actually Is This?

Rory's Birthday Party #3 Sherkin Island, West Cork August 14–16, 2026

The biggest small party Sherkin side of Cape Clear.

What actually is this?

Rory's Birthday Party started as exactly that — a birthday party. What it became is harder to explain in a sentence, which is probably why this page exists.

This August, for the third time, a private orchard on Sherkin Island becomes something genuinely difficult to categorise. Not a festival. Not a lineup announcement with a countdown clock. A gathering of people who care about music, gathered somewhere worth the journey, for three nights that run until the Atlantic light comes back in the morning.

The music is the point. Deep, considered, rooted in the traditions that built the dancefloors worth dancing on — dub, funk, soul, Afrobeat, house, and the stuff that connects across decades because it was made to last. The BIG RED analog sound system is there to play it properly, at the volume and warmth it deserves.

Days drift between sea swims, slow conversations and wandering island roads. As evening arrives, the gathering moves toward the sound. Records are selected with intention. The floor fills gradually. One track becomes the next. The Atlantic dark settles in around the orchard and stays there until morning.

There are no sponsors, no tiers, no phones-out moments engineered for content. Just a community that keeps finding its way back to the same orchard because something about it — the place, the music, the particular combination of people — is worth the effort.

Good music. Good people. No nonsense.

Who's playing

Andrea Passenger · A.O.D. · Colm K · Danilo Milk · Eoin Reidy · Frau Braun Selector · Frawl · Funksmack · Glenn Davis · Hewan · Pablo Fatty Fatty · Ricky Chong · Rory's Residents · Shane Breen & Abbie Lee Live · Sonny Emerald · West Cork Dub Collective

The facts

Sherkin Island, West Cork. Three nights camping in a private orchard, ten minutes by ferry from Baltimore and considerably further, in every meaningful sense, from the rest of it.

Food and drink on site. Running water. Phone charging points. The BIG RED analog sound system.

Sherkin is a small island community — beautiful, remote, and wonderfully free of the kind of shops and infrastructure that follow festivals around. Come self-sufficient. Bring your tent, warm layers, cash, and everything you need to look after yourself and the people around you.

The orchard is a ten-minute walk from the ferry. Anyone who needs special assistance getting there or on the island — get in touch directly and we'll sort it.

Ferry times posted separately.

Leave the island the way you found it, or better. Sherkin is somebody's home and they'll be here long after we've gone. Look after each other, look after the land, and pace yourselves — the best sets are always the ones you're still standing for.

We can't give Rory a bad name, ya know.

Come prepared — what to bring

Sherkin is remote and that's the whole point. There's no shop to save you.

• Tent, pegged in properly — coastal wind is not messing

• Sleeping bag warmer than you think you need, and a mat

• Waterproof jacket and windproof layers for nights

• More warm clothes than seems reasonable — it gets cold fast around 2–5am

• Extra socks (always more socks)

• Comfortable shoes or boots you don't mind getting wet

• Power bank, fully charged before you get on the ferry

• Headlamp or torch — the island gets dark in a way cities have forgotten about

• Reusable water bottle, snacks, electrolytes

• Cash — card signal on remote islands is more of an aspiration than a guarantee

• Earplugs, bin bags, a portable chair if you want one

• Sunscreen, the basics, any medication you take regularly

• Rain cover for your bag and tent

Getting there

From Dublin — Train + Ferry Irish Rail from Dublin Heuston to Cork Kent. Bus or taxi toward Baltimore — about 1.5–2 hours from Cork through West Cork, which is worth the journey on its own. Ferry from Baltimore harbour to Sherkin.

From Dublin — Drive 4.5–5.5 hours depending on traffic. Park near the Baltimore ferry point and take the passenger ferry over.

From Dublin — Bus Bus Éireann to Cork, then onward connections toward West Cork. Worth planning in advance.

The walk from Sherkin ferry landing to the orchard is ten minutes. You will be carrying everything. Pack like you know that.

Ferry times posted separately — save them before you lose signal.

Presented with Á and Backwards.