SEAMUS RYAN: Things what are on in Limerick

THIS weekend in Limerick offers a slate of comedy, indie music and circus. You can also paint your pet in public or try your hand at churn racing. It's the wonderfully wacky world of Limerick in August!

Thursday (August 8)

If you feel like doing the most middle-class thing possible (no, not managing to buy a house), the Hunt Museum has you covered this Thursday. Pet Plein Air is an art evening where you will be handed an easel, a canvas and paint, all so that you can paint your pet in the Hunt garden. It's open to all - from professional to optimistically incompetent - and runs from 5pm to 8pm. It will cost you €15 as an adult or €5 as a child.

Singer-songwriter Tiz McNamara plays the Stormy Teacup this Thursday, zooming into Limerick after performances at Indiependence last weekend and in Whelan's on Tuesday. Forced to abandon his nascent drumming career after dropping a piano on his foot (I am not making this up), these days he plays the guitar. Rather successfully, as it happens - he's racked up millions of plays on Spotify for his R&B-tinged folk music. If you're into sad music for happy people, you can't miss this show. 8pm, tickets are a tenner.

Friday (August 9)

Contact Studios are back with another quick Gallery Interlude exhibition this weekend, as usual at Lucky Lane on Catherine Street. Through My Eyes is by Louth artist Ciaran O'Sullivan, who combines portrait-painting with experimental expressionism. His work is experimental enough to catch your eye in a good way but still recognisable to everyone as art. Definitely worth catching. You can see it from 7 to 9pm on Friday, 11am to 5pm on Saturday, 2pm to 4pm on Sunday and 11am to 3pm on Monday. Probably best if you don't sit there for the entirety of its run, as that would be weird. Free to see, though if you turn up with a fistful of cash you can take your favourite painting home. No artist has ever refused cold hard cash.

It's standup comedy night at The Commercial's Record Room this Friday, with Mic Drop Comedy dropping seven funny people on to the stage and hoping that some of them will make you burst your guts. Headlining you'll find Seamus Stackpoole, who's performed at the Edinburgh Fringe and made it out alive, and Kevin Larney, who makes a point of saying that he's never won any awards for his comedy but at least nobody's died as a result of it. Doors open at 8:30pm and tickets are just a fiver, meaning that each comedian will cost you just 71 cents. That's a bargain.

Saturday (August 10)

Puppeteer Miriam Lambert is at Friar's Gate in Kilmallock this Saturday afternoon with The Three Little Pigs. It's the tale of three young lads - pigs, as it happens - who are eager to find somewhere to live and have no interest in co-living as they're adults and need their own kitchen. Stuck for a few quid, they try their own hands at construction, with hilarious and near-fatal results when they're preyed upon by a Big Bad Wolf. Ms Lambert is one of the famous puppeteering Lamberts, the closest thing Ireland has to a puppet mafia, and her shows are always worth seeing. 3pm, tickets are €7.

Doubling its population for one weekend a year, the village of Strand is hosting its annual Strand Harvest Festival this weekend. Saturday's events begin at 7pm and include road hurling and churn racing. Both of those are exactly what they sound like - turn-based hurling on the road and competitive running with a milk churn. Sunday is a more traditional affair, with a vintage car and tractor run at 1pm, followed at 3pm by Eamon de Valera's nightly dream - dancing at the crossroads. If one burst of churn racing wasn't enough for you, the Grand Final of the best churn-racers will be on Sunday at 7pm. All free, though they will be collecting for Pieta House and the Crumlin Children's Hospital.

If you're in Cappamore this weekend, this is your best chance to fulfil your life-long dream of running away from your life of bean counting to join the world of clowning. Circus Gerbola are at the town's sports field with three shows - 5pm on Friday and 2pm and 5pm on Sunday. Tickets range from €10 to €18 and, while they're not currently looking for any extra clowns, if you turn up with a big red nose they can't really turn you away from your life's desire.

Running parallel to the circus visiting Cappamore, McCarthy's Circus Bar exhibition is also at the town's sports field all weekend. The travelling show of circus posters and memorabilia gives an insight into the history of nomadic circus performers in Ireland and is being accompanied by a contemporary art exhibition by 12 artists from east county Limerick. It will be open from 11am till 8pm on both Saturday and Sunday and it's free.

Seoda Shows are hosting their summer party at Dolan's Warehouse this Saturday night, with The Altered Hours headlining. The Cork quintet have a superb sound, ramming together psychedelia and post-punk to the point where you'll start to wonder why everybody else isn't doing it. Highly recommended. They'll be supported by Candice Gordon, The Claque, Silverbacks and PowPig. It's the best indie lineup you will see in Limerick all summer - possibly all year - and this is easily the gig you shouldn't miss this weekend. Doors at 6pm, tickets are a tenner.

Sunday (August 11)

There's a Record and CD Fair taking over the Milk Market this Sunday. In a world of digital downloads and hard drives that can store millions of songs, it's almost quaint to hanker for a record that stores just 10, despite being the size of a coffee table. Turn up early so you don't miss out on the only available copy of the record you really need. 11am to 4pm and entry is free.

All weekend

The three summer exhibitions at Limerick City Gallery run till August 25. The Forsaken On Calvary photo exhibition is at Limerick City Museum until August 31. All free to visit. Tickets are €10 for the Lavery & Osborne: Observing Life exhibition at the Hunt Museum, which runs till September 30.

That's your lot for this weekend and, as always, if you go to things, there will be more things!