Accommodation info needed for Patrick O’Keeffe Festival
I GOT a call from a lady in Dublin during the week and she told me she had to book accommodation in Tralee and that there wasn’t a bed to be had in Castleisland during the coming Patrick O’Keeffe Traditional Music Festival.
She is bringing pupils with her for fiddle classes and one for a concertina class. While there is no official concertina class included in this year’s programme, the organisers are planning to facilitate her with a one-to-one class with a visiting musician.
On the accommodation front: the festival committee is appealing to anyone in the B&B business in the area to make themselves and their accommodation availability known in advance and even during the October bank holiday weekend from and including Friday 27th to Monday 30th.
Details of available accommodation can be posted to the Patrick O’Keeffe Traditional Music Festival Facebook page and it can be shared from there.
Frankie Gavin is the latest of the fiddling greats to declare his intentions to be at the festival over that weekend. He will also get involved in the fiddle recital which will accompany classes on the Saturday.
During his last visit in 2012 he played a very impromptu session at Fagin’s / Hartnett’s Bar on the Monday and it’s being talked about ever since.
The committee is expecting a huge attendance at this October’s festival as it’s the 25th festival since its founding in 1993.
Classes in the local, traditional instruments, the fiddle and accordion, flute and banjo have been organised with some of the leading players of our time officiating.
The festival came about as a result of a prompt from Peter Browne to Mary Jones on the completion of his RTÉ Radio One documentary on O’Keeffe in 1993.
Festival PRO Conor O’Mahony posted an impressive list of names on the festival Facebook page and he said that Ireland’s finest traditional musicians will come together to celebrate the music of Patrick O’Keeffe and Sliabh Luachra.
“It promises to be the biggest festival to date, with a mixture of music classes, recitals, sessions, singing sessions, poetry workhops, céilídhne and of course the concert – there will be something for everyone.
Concert booking and accommodation details can be accessed from the River Island Hotel 066 71 42 555. For event updates and accommodation details see the festival website on: www.patrickokeeffefestival.com