Forbidden Fruit: Dublin's June festival at Kilmainham

Forbidden Fruit is a two-day festival over the June bank holiday weekend in the grounds of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham in Dublin 8. The organiser calls it the capital's first and longest-running city-centre festival, and 2026 was its 14th year. Its 2026 bill ran from house and drum and bass DJs to soul and reggae singers, with the gates open from the afternoon into the late evening.

Forbidden Fruit 2027

The dates of the next edition have not been announced. The festival's site has a sign-up page for FF27, which is where the dates and the first names will be sent. The 2026 edition was on Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 May 2026, the weekend before the June bank holiday Monday.

The 2026 line-up

As the organiser announced it, 2026 was headlined by Kaytranada, Kettama, Nia Archives and Joy Crookes, with Ben Böhmer (live), Folamour, Horsegiirl, Interplanetary Criminal, MPH, Sally C, Sister Nancy and Shee among the names below them. That is last year's bill; nobody has been announced for 2027.

Tickets

Forbidden Fruit's ticket seller is Ticketmaster, and no tickets are sold on site; the organiser does not honour tickets bought from secondary sources or unofficial outlets. A ticket can be passed to someone else through the Ticketmaster account it was bought on, which matters, because the name on the ticket has to match the ID shown at entry. Tickets are non-refundable, and there is no re-entry: once you leave, the ticket does not let you back in.

Age and ID

The festival is strictly over 18s. The organiser accepts three forms of ID: a driving licence, a passport or an Age Card. Challenge 25 applies: anyone who looks 25 or under can expect to be asked for ID.

Getting to Kilmainham

There is no parking at the venue, and the organiser sends everyone by public transport. Heuston, the Irish Rail station and a stop on the Luas Red Line, is about a five-minute walk away; on foot you come in by the East Gate on Military Road. Dublin Bus routes 145 and C1 to C4 stop at Heuston, and routes 13, 73, G1 and G2 at St James's Hospital; from either stop it is about eight minutes on foot to the Military Road gate.

On the day

In 2026 the gates opened at 2pm, last entry was at 9pm and the last act finished at 10.45pm. The site is cashless. Bags must be A4 size or smaller, and empty plastic water bottles of up to 750ml are allowed in. There is no camping: it is a city festival, and the evening ends with the walk back to Heuston.

The same weekend in 2026, Belfast had AVA Festival on the Titanic Slipways and West Cork had Open Ear on Sherkin Island.