Galway Cartoon Festival 2026 Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary
Galway Cartoon Festival Turns Ten
The festival marks its 10th anniversary with six days of cartoons, satire, exhibitions and live events across Galway and Inis Oírr.
The Galway Cartoon Festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary this October with six days of exhibitions, live performances, workshops and cartoon-related events in Galway city and on Inis Oírr.
Running from October 1 to 6, 2026, the festival returns under the theme “Having a Laugh.” Its full programme will be unveiled on September 8 at Kombu on Druid Lane in Galway city centre.
The anniversary programme brings Irish and international cartoonists together while also looking back at the festival’s first decade.
Cartoonists return to Galway
Among the guests is Martin Rowson, the longtime Guardian cartoonist, who returns to Galway with one of his live stand-up performances.
Glenn Marshall of Private Eye will recreate the Wooden Horse of Troy, while French-Belgian cartoonist Nicolas Vadot will talk about a career that has moved between editorial cartooning, television and animation. Vadot also contributed to the poster for the first Galway Cartoon Festival.
in Galway
Looking back at the festival’s first decade
A special exhibition at Galway City Museum will revisit highlights from the first ten years of the festival.
Galway Cartoon Festival began with a single exhibition and has since expanded into a programme of international cartoon shows, visiting artists, live performances, workshops and public events.
The main international exhibition will again present new cartoons selected from submissions received from artists around the world.
A festival that moves beyond the gallery
A new Bookshop Trail will bring work by invited artists into bookshops around the city. Among the featured names is Mick O’Hara, known for his association with Zig and Zag.
The wider programme includes cartooning coffee mornings, drawing workshops for adults and children, films, games, Irish-language workshops and a dedicated exhibition of cartoons as Gaeilge.
The festival will also make its annual trip to Inis Oírr, where selected Irish-language cartoons will again be shown.
Remembering The Phoenix
One of the anniversary programme’s most notable events will look back at The Phoenix, the Irish satirical magazine that closed earlier in 2026.
Galway Cartoon Festival will host a special panel discussion examining the magazine’s place in Irish satire. The publication had been part of Irish political and satirical publishing for 43 years.
Fergus Boylan joins the anniversary programme
Irish cartoonist Fergus Boylan, creator of the Catholics and Protestants card game, is the featured Irish artist for this year’s festival.
Alongside Boylan, Rowson, Marshall, Vadot and the European Cartoon Centre, the programme combines established cartoonists with events aimed at both artists and general audiences.
feridundemir.org
Earlier this year, feridundemir.org reported on the international call for submissions for the festival’s 10th edition. Cartoonists from around the world were invited to submit work, with entries closing on August 31.
With the submission period now over, attention turns to the programme itself and to a festival that has grown substantially since its first exhibition ten years ago.
Galway Cartoon Festival
Cartoons & Festival Images
The full programme for the 10th Galway Cartoon Festival will be unveiled on September 8, 2026. The festival takes place from October 1 to 6 in Galway city and on Inis Oírr.
