'We couldn’t get people here without quarantine': West Cork festival moves online

West Cork Chamber Music Festival may be a virtual event this year, but Francis Humphrys has a plan to eventually create a dedicated concert venue in Bantry

Francis Humphrys, director, West Cork Chamber Music Festival. Picture Denis Minihane

The champagne corks should have been popping in Bantry last summer as the West Cork Chamber Music Festival marked its 25th year in existence. But it wasn’t to be as festival founder and CEO Francis Humphrys and the team behind the event were forced to put together a virtual programme due to lockdown restrictions.

“We keep putting off the 25th anniversary because we want to have a live festival. I’m looking at this year as 24c — 24a was live in 2019, 24b was last year. Presuming we get a live festival next year, I will treat it as the 25th,” he says.