Over 50 events are planned to celebrate Culture Night in venues around Co Galway.
Around 200 artists are getting ready to swing into action with a varied programme of visual arts, music, video and storytelling.
In Athenry, the award-winning theatre company Macnas is working around the clock in preparation for a "spectacular" parade beginning at 9pm.
The "Giant in Residence" is the majestic Crom who will prowl the medieval town's castle and thoroughfares with drummers, stilt walkers and street performers.
Speaking ahead of the event, CEO of Macnas Johnny O'Reilly said: "Crom is going to parade through the streets of Athenry, all 5m of him.
"He will be accompanied by the Macnas youth theatre group and students from the local school who will be Crom's guardians.
"It's going to be a great night and families will have so much fun with this big, gentle giant."
Mr O'Reilly added: "We work here in a warehouse in Athenry and we're still putting the finishing touches to Crom. He was in the Ballina 300 parade in July and he needed a makeover after all the moving and shaking. Now he's dropping by tonight to say hello to his neighbours in Athenry."
Ballinasloe is hosting the exhibition "Derelict" by the artist collective Group 8.
It will feature writing, paintings, textiles, photography, ceramics, mixed media, and sculpture.
Derelict is the result of collaborative work undertaken by the visual artists and two writers and took its inspiration from the idea of dereliction, its concrete manifestation in the environment, as well as its symbolism and meaning.
As always each artist or writer was free to interpret the theme in whatever way they chose.
A felting workshop for adults and children over ten years will take place this afternoon.
In Galway city, Middle Street will be transformed into a "futuristic Gaeltopian metropolis".
Rehearsals will continue ahead of a host of performances and spectacles in An Taibhdhearc’s 'Future Gaeltacht’, Gaeltacht na Todhchaí.
Oíche le ceol, drámaíocht, ealaín, teicneolaíocht agus neart eile. Beidh taispeántas ceoil agus ealaíona ar siúl i nGaeltacht Chonamara freisin.
Éalú le Grá will host an interactive exhibition of installation art, design, and lighting, featuring performances by some of Galway’s most renowned DJs and artists.
Galway City Chamber Choir and University of Galway Choral Society will offer a candlelit choral music concert at St Nicholas’ Collegiate Church, titled "Symphony of Flames".
The Galway Theatre Festival’s "Scratch Night"’ will host new writing and experimental performances by delivering a whirlwind menu of 30 plays in just 60 minutes.
Galway City Museum will host the "Poetry Jukebox" with free sound pieces reflecting on historical moments, including the 1916 Rising.
Acclaimed poet Rita Ann Higgins will share her work, and an interactive workshop will transform participants’ ideas into poetic expressions.
Friends of Merlin Woods have organised an outdoor theatre, music, and song performance celebrating the woods and its wildlife inhabitants.
Culture Night in Claremorris, Mayo is all about creating a sense of home away from home.
It will be connecting the African, South American, Ukrainian, Irish and among other communities living in rural Ireland.
It takes place in Market Square and celebrates inclusion, human rights and diversity. Writer, One of the organisers John Farragher said: "We'll be celebrating human resilience through poetry & prose, disco and dance music, with some homemade food and local live acts to give us a taste of our multicultural community in this globally connected world.
"We're on a lifelong learning journey, celebrating our diversity and share our common humanity through the arts, late into the night."
In Castlebar, Culture Night will include a free open studio to make your own ceramics.
Mood Studios will demonstrate slip casting, glazing and firing in the studio.
The workshop will encourage people to get hands-on with clay, decorating wall ceramic hearts and firing and glazing their own creations.
Female icons will be celebrated with Mná Mhaigh Eo at Blacksod Lighthouse including D-Day heroine Maureen Sweeney, nationalist writer Olivia Knight, actress and author Eileen O' Casey, modernist sculptor Gerda Fromel and 20th Century Hollywood star Carmelita Geraghty.
Readings, theatrical interpretations, visual representations and recordings will all feature in this celebration of the rich contribution these women have made to Irish and international culture.
The Linenhall Art Centre in Castlebar is running a multicultural programme with something for all ages including the inaugural evening of a school for young trad musicians and a talk by a group of local African women discussing identity through the medium of hair.
Popular local DJ Mtoolz will keep the dancing going on late with a selection of African hits.
To find Culture Night events near you, visit the official listings here.
