From Wednesday to Monday August 3-8, the Feakle Traditional Music Festival will celebrate its 24th year with a vibrant programme of Traditional music, song, and dance.
The Festival continues to expand its programme and offers a wide variety of events. It is hoped that the festival as always will attract genuine music lovers from all corners of the globe, while providing a platform for local musicians to demonstrate their musical heritage.
The continued success of the festival is sustained through the quality of its music programming, the master tutors at the workshops, the support of the local community, businesses and sponsors as well as Clare County Council, Shannon Development and the Arts Council.
The Festival will commence on Wed Aug 3 with a tribute to an East Clare popular musician Samus Bugler from Mountshannon, Co. Clare. Samus is a fine accordion player and a firm favourite of the festival. The committee are delighted to have this opportunity to pay tribute to Seamus and his music.
This year the Thursday night youth concert will take on an international focus as part of a Norwegian and East Clare Youth exchange programme funded by Largas. The audience will have a rare opportunity to hear young musicians from Norway interact with young musicians from East Clare. The students from East Clare are tutored by Mary Mac Namara and the concert is an integral part of the festival.
Also on Thursday night we will have what promises to be a very special event with Niamh N Charra & her band, followed by Jigs and Jazz featuring Eimear Quinn, Steve Cooney, Brendan Larrissey, Pat Collins & Drazen Derek performing in the beautiful surroundings of Caher House.
The Friday night recital presented by poet Theo Dorgan, will showcase some of the best musicians that traditional music has to offer, with outstanding acts performing on the night. This year the talented Mulcahy Family from West Limerick will open the concert followed by a much anticipated act Lumiere featuring singers Pauline Scanlon and Eilis Kennedy and guitarist Donogh Hennessy. The concert will conclude with the annual heart stopping performance by Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill.
The Saturday night concert will focus on celebrating the array of talented musicians, singers, dancers and storytellers by artists from Co.Clare and beyond. This concert is a more informal night of entertainment featuring a variety of artists including Mary Staunton and Band, Sen Garvey, Charlie Harris, Mark Donnellan and Jim Corry; Vincent Griffin and Mary Corry; Brendan Begley and family and many more
The workshops are an integral part of the festival and we continue to include all the workshops from the previous years with some new tutors added to the team. They include ine U Cheallaigh, (sean nos Singing ); Deirdre Scanlon (traditional singing ); Danny O’Mahony (accordion ); Tara Diamond & Kevin Crawford (flute ). This year we have also included a seans and set dancing workshop for children with award winning teacher Edwina Guckian. There is no advance booking for the workshops.
