Cork City Council Reveals July First Fridays Line-Up, with Butter Disco and Late Cathedral Opening Tonight

Cork City Council has announced this month's First Fridays events, taking place today, Friday 3 July, with a butter disco at the Butter Museum in Shandon, a late opening at St Fin Barre's Cathedral, and a storytelling evening at Nano Nagle Place among the highlights.

The Butter Museum at Shandon will host the Butter Disco, a butter making and tasting event hosted by Dr Regina Sexton. The event will include a discussion on butter making traditions and changing tastes. The guest panel will feature Valerie Kingston of Glenilen Dairy, Darina Allen of Ballymaloe Cookery School, and Joe Carey of Bakestone and The White Horse in Ballincollig.

Nano Nagle Place will host The Gab, a Cork based storytelling community celebrating stories in all their forms, traditional and contemporary, personal and playful, humorous and serious, or sometimes all of the above. The Gab's mission is to practise and preserve the oral tradition of storytelling and to develop storytelling as a contemporary art form. It promises a supportive and relaxed environment where participants are invited to tell, listen, learn and experiment, and to discover the power of storytelling.

St Fin Barre's Cathedral is extending its opening hours until 9pm to enable more visitors to enjoy its extraordinary architecture and grounds.

Blackrock Castle Observatory will host a special lino printing event from 5pm to 8pm, focusing on the theme of solar eclipses.

First Fridays is a Cork City Council initiative, delivered through its City Centre Directorate and supported by the Night Time Economy Programme, as part of the council's renewed focus on the city centre. The initiative is also supported by Fáilte Ireland. It was launched in April to help animate the city centre with markets and events on the first Friday of each month throughout the summer. Inspired by the success of Culture Night, the initiative invites residents and visitors alike to discover and engage with the city's rich cultural offerings after dark, on the first Friday of each month from April to September.

Fiona Collins, the Night Time Economy Advisor with Cork City Council, said:

"This is a wonderful opportunity to give people a chance to explore Cork city and everything it has to offer after 6pm. Our city is vibrant and full of life, and we want everyone to experience that."

As part of the initiative, the Night Time Economy Advisor has issued limited edition cards featuring a QR code to help collect opinions on night time in Cork. The first card issued in June featured the Blackrock Castle Observatory, while the new card for July features all things golden in the city. You will find them at participating venues across the city.