The Outing is a Pride festival that happens in the middle of winter, over Valentine's weekend, in Ennis in County Clare. The organisers describe the weekend as music, comedy, céilí bands, queer arts and drag, Irish and international, with matchmaking running through it, and they call it the only LGBTQ+ matchmaking, music and arts Pride festival in the world.
The matchmaking is what makes it unlike anything else on the Irish calendar, and it is a large part of why people come on their own rather than in a group. The rest of the weekend is programmed like a small arts festival with a dance floor attached.
It has been running for more than fourteen years and it now spreads across the middle of Ennis rather than sitting on one site. Tickets are sold with accommodation as a package, which is worth taking up: this is a market town in February and the festival fills it.
