Fleadh to attract thousands of music lovers
Many leading contemporary trad acts are performing at the week-long event, with workshops, dancing and music and a number of venues throughout the town.
Already intensive preparations are underway to stage the event. A festival village has been provided, with custom built marquis catering for the crowds expected.
However, with some rain due, part of the cliff-top Atlantic stage, venue for outdoor concerts, will be covered.
“The World Fleadh compliments the work on the ground of many Irish traditional movements. It seeks to reach towards the sky while keeping its feet on the ground,” said Dr Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, of the Irish World Music Centre.
Colm O Snodaigh, of Kila, welcomed an Irish festival that, he said, celebrated traditional and Celtic music on a par with the other great international festivals.
“Such festivals are held in Lorient, Glasgow, Denmark, Belgium, Cambridge, in England, and Milwaukee in the US.
Festival director, Eric Cunningham said they hoped the World Fleadh would replicate annual folk festivals staged in other countries.
’There are many festivals each year in Ireland which feature a selection of our most respected performers and tutors, but it is equally true to say that there is no Irish-based, all-encompassing, week-long national event which brings so many professional artists together in the way that the aforementioned festivals do“, he said.
