Well celebrated in music. There are fiddle tunes called "A trip to Carlisle", "The Carlisle Reel" and "Carlisle Races". The famous Scottish song "The hundred pipers" refers to an event that happened in Carlisle in 1745(though a recent Mudcat thread on the subject cast some doubt on whether it ever happened). The "Scarlet town" of Barbara Allen is commonly supposed to be a corruption of Carlisle. A Kingston Trio song(I think) had the lines:
And Billy broke locks
And Billy broke bolts
And Billy broke all that he came nigh.
This was an American version of an old Border Ballad about an escape from Carlisle Castle.
    The etymology of Carlisle is supposed to be from Caer Luguvallium (the castle on the Roman wall). The local accent is strange and unfamiir to people in the rest of England. There are some very strange placenames in the region of Carlisle, including Cargo, Aspatria, Blennerhasset and Blencogo. There is a big music festival in nearby Brampton which ahs a lot of folk music. In the military museum in the castle you can see a very old painted tambourine(or bodhran if you prefer the Irish name).
   
    In the Cumbrian dialect the town is frequently called "Carel". I was refused entry into a pub in Carlisle once some years ago.I can't remember the name of the place, unfortunately. There is a nice very homely night club with an open fire called "The Front Page", where I used to play but not for years, so I cant vouch for it still going.
   Offhand, that's about all I can think of about Carlisle.