Another successful Feakle Festival

The Feakle Festival committee has reported another successful year as it marked the 25th anniversary of the International Festival of Traditional Irish Music.

 

As in other years, the musicians thronged to the East Clare village for the weeklong gathering and with 25 years of history associated with the festival, this year had plenty to offer old friends, newcomers and regulars alike.

The festival opened by bringing its 25-year history to life on the big screen as it launched Feakle 25 In Time; In Tune, a documentary DVD featuring archival footage and material down through the years.

The DVD, which was made possible through the support of CLDC, brought with it some laughs, plenty of nostalgia, as well as sadness as images of musicians and friends who are now deceased flashed across the screen.

Speaking about the festival, Gary Pepper, chairman of the organising committee, said the 43-minute DVD was very well received and supported by the local community and the extended traditional music community, who shared their footage and photographs.

“It was very interesting because we got a lot of archive material going back to the first year, which included Ciarán MacMathúna and Michael Lillis, who was one of the founding members of the festival. We also had footage of people like P Joe Hayes, John Naughton and Joe Bane, to name a few. It was very nostalgic. It goes back 15 to 20 years, more than 20 years, so even to see people who were then in their youth, it was very nostalgic,” he said.

Foreign visitors once again travelled in their droves to East Clare with musicians and music lovers coming from Japan, Holland, Israel, the US and the UK attending the programme of events. 
While the weather was a mixed bag during the week, the rain didn’t put a dampener on the festivities and while Sunday’s open-air concert was held indoors at the community hall, it was quite the session.

Hits with the crowds over the week included the gala concert with the Ronstadt Generations and the Burns sisters. Meanwhile, Gary described the performance by new, up-and-coming band Ciorras as “electric”.

Other highlights included the concert with Tommy Fleming, featuring Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill, while the Caher House concert with Thrillogy and Trúir also sold out. The dancing at the crossroads was also well attended, even though it unfortunately had to be held in the marquee due to the weather.

“Numbers for this year’s festival were similar to other years over the week. Funnily enough, on Thursday when we had a warm day the numbers dipped a bit but it balanced out. The most important part of the week is that the musicians claim it as their festival, they feel very comfortable here and they can just let go. That was evident again this year with the visiting musicians, who came from all over the world and this country,” Gary said.

Another popular event was the walk, which attracted over 100 people last Thursday. Led by Feakle’s former school principal Ted Harrington, those who joined the walk were treated to the history of the route and among the places of interest along the way were Johnny Patterson’s house and Biddy Early’s home.

The walk has proved successful since its recent introduction and it is envisaged it will remain a mainstay of the festival, although it is expected a different walking route will be chosen each year.
Many opened their homes to visitors this year, with more locals than usual participating. This enabled many of the visitors to remain within walking distance. However, Gary said accommodation was also booked up in nearby Scariff and Tulla during the festival.

“The official events were all very successful this year so we will be hoping to balance the books again this year. Firstly, we will review how this year’s event went and we’ll start planning for next year’s festival again in late September, early October. We are adamant we will start afresh again next year and we will change a few little things but we will be sticking to the tradition,” Gary revealed.