Tradfest serves up a feast of music

MUSICIANS and those with an ear for music beat a path to Dingle over the weekend to enjoy the concerts, sessions, workshops and general good craic that is part and parcel of Dingle Tradfest.

Running over a long ‘weekend’ that started on Thursday, the festival kicked off, quite literally, with a blistering performance by local dancing star David Geaney in a packed Hillgrove Hotel.

The Dingle dancer presented a show of jaw-dropping footwork, alongside Anne Marie Kearney who was taking the place of the injured James Devine. This show places Geaney firmly at the forefront of development in Irish dance, respectful of tradition but ready to kick the proverbial bucket down the road to establish Irish dance firmly in the context of modern culture – not as a set piece to be admired from a distance but as a living breathing evolving tradition.

Another highlight of the festival was the concert in St James’s Church with the Asturian Trio Ruben Bada and Maeve Gilchrist. And many festival-goers also found their own highlights in the ‘session trail’ of Dinglepubs that formed the beating heart of Tradfest with music flying out the doors all day and long into the night.

Photos by Declan Malone ABOVE: James Devine (left) and David Geaney with young participants in their Velocity dance workshop in Benner’s Hotel on Saturday. LEFT: Gráinne Hope, Brendan McCreanor and Deirdre Granville who held an interactive workshop in the Temperence Hall on...

Conal Ó Gráda from Baile Bhúirne and Edel Lovett, Dingle, sharing the fife and drum tradition in O’Flaherty’s pub during Tradfest.

Tradfest organisers Aoife and Deirdre Granville playing a tune in O’Flaherty’s pub with members of the Loch a Bhogaidh fife band from Baile Bhúirne.