New addition to East Clare festival calendar

RENOWNED guitarist and fiddle player, Ged Foley, is using his former festival organising skills to bring East Clare its third local traditional music festival.
The first East Clare Fiddle Festival will be held in Feakle from Wednesday, June 30 to Saturday, July 3.
The festival will feature classes, sessions, a céilí and a concert. Classes will run morning and afternoon on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with tutors James Kelly, Tony Linnane, Eileen O’Brien, Patricia Clark and Tony Trundle. The festival’s headline concert, which will take place on Saturday, July 3, will feature all of the tutors, as well as special guests. Sessions will run every night and all musicians are welcome. The céilí takes place on Friday, July 2 in Pepper’s Pub Feakle, with music by the Five Counties Céilí Band at 9.30pm, while a concert, featuring all of the tutors and a number of special guests will be held in the community hall in Feakle on Saturday night.
Ged is well known in Celtic circles as a gifted guitarist. Originally from Durham, he was a member of Scotland’s Battlefield Band from 1980 to 1985 and a founder of England’s House Band, as well as a key part in Irish traditional group, Patrick Street, with Kevin Burke, Andy Irvine and Jackie Daly, until last year. He is described as a talented singer, instrumentalist, arranger and producer. He now lives in Flagmount with his wife, Polly, and daughter, Clare. His recent recordings include Patrick Street’s On the Fly and Celtic Fiddle Festival’s Equinoxe.
He also lived in Athens, Ohio for many years, where he was twice recognised by the Ohio Arts Council as a master artist.
Ged said that he had been thinking about organising another festival in East Clare for some time.
“Historically, Feakle is a big area for fiddle playing and I did some research, which showed that two generations ago, there were many fiddle players. There’s a great appreciation in the area for music historically and even for people who don’t play here, there is an enjoyment of the music. It’s a great area for listening. However, times have changed. So I would hope this festival will try to increase people’s interest in the fiddle festival. I’m currently doing the MA in Irish Traditional Music Performance in UL and as part of that, I have to do a vocational project, so I thought I’d combine the two. The festival has only been in the pipeline since the end of January so it is all a little last-minute. The guitar is my job and the fiddle is my love and obsession so that’s why I chose to develop a fiddle festival,” he said.
With a number of established festivals already in place in East Clare and in the county, Foley believes this four-day event has something new to offer and will also help boost the local economy.
“Naturally, anything that will bring people into the area will be an added help. Times are tough in the small villages so anything to bring people in to eat in the local places has got to be good for the area,” Ged added.
Ged previously taught at the Catskills Irish Arts Week in East Durham, New York, for a number of years, before running it as artistic director for two years.
“Based on my experience with the Catskills festival, I decided that the classes will be taught in bars in Feakle, during the day when they are not occupied by customers. This brings a sense of festival atmosphere into the village,” he said.
The classes will be taught in Bohan’s, Pepper’s, Moloney’s and Lena’s (Shortt’s) from Wednesday to Saturday, from 10.30am to 12.30pm and from 2pm to 4pm. There will be sessions in the local bars at night time.
“I don’t intend to teach at this festival unless numbers spiral. All students for the classes must have experience of playing. So far the youngest student to enrol on the classes is 10 years old. Students can pick who they want to be taught by and that will be their morning class and in the afternoons, they will be taught by a different tutor,” Ged added.
There will be a céilí in Pepper’s Bar with the Five Counties Band on Friday night, as well as sessions on each of the festival nights, at which all of the teachers will play, as well as a number of other well-known musicians, including Seamus Bugler, Paul Smith, Brendan Harty, Lena Ullmann, Dominic Lyons and John Canny.
Ged admitted that people were dubious about holding another festival so close to the Willie Clancy Week and with the P Joe Hayes Festival and Feakle Festival also so popular.
“However, I’m finding that there is considerable interest so far. Of course, the success of the festival itself will determine whether there is room for it but I genuinely feel that there is. I am finding that a number of people coming to the Willie Clancy Festival have decided to come a few days earlier and take in the East Clare Fiddle Festival as well, so at this point, it looks like the timing could be working in our favour. I intend to see how the first festival goes and develop it from there. I am very enthusiastic about the festival and feel that it will be well received and very enjoyable,” he commented.
A festival office/shop will be open in Loughnane’s Hostel, Feakle from 10am on each of the mornings of the festival, providing information on sessions and accommodation. Tutor CDs and fiddle strings will also be available in the office.
There will also be a masterclass on Saturday, but for anyone who couldn’t make the weekday classes.