The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Record crowds for 25th anniversary O’Keeffe festival
WE have just put the 25th Patrick O’Keeffe Traditional Music Festival behind us and from all estimations is has been the best in that long, long line stretching back to 1993.
Friday night broke all previous records in terms of crowds and content. The informal launch at the River Island Hotel is something which will be kept for years to come. There, the departed friends of the festival were remembered and their praises sung.
On Saturday the newly formatted singing session was a great hit as the invited guests got more air time than in other years. Up to now the plan included as many locals who cared to show up and sing. People who travelled to hear the invited felt done out as there couldn’t be enough time allotted for them.
On Saturday the line up was: Tim Dennehy, Mickey MacConnell, Don Stiffe and festival first-timers, Muireann Nic Amhlaibh, and Dónal Clancy. Their wonderful performances kept the packed house almost silent for a solid couple of hours.
And the local singing? You might ask.
There is a full afternoon now well established for them and run by locals, Mikey ‘The Legend’ O’Connor and Joe Walsh.
The pub sessions went swimming well all weekend and the standard of music was ‘out of this world’, as one woman put it. There were visitors from America, Canada, Japan, Holland and the UK. Don Stiffe announced that he had met a group of people who brought a bus load from Cavan.
There was great joy and celebration at the concert as Matt Cranitch received his festival award for dedication to the music of Sliabh Luachra from festival co-founder Peter Browne. In turn, Matt introduced young fiddler Caoimhe Flannery from Rockchapel, who has just won the U-18 Fiddler of Dooney competition on Saturday in Sligo.
We were delighted to welcome Peter Browne’s son, Ciarán, on his first visit to the festival.
Tim Dennehy conducted the concert with absolute professionalism with an informed citation on each of the acts performing.
To wind it all up, festival chairman Cormac O’Mahony thanked everyone for making the effort to be there and he thanked the festival’s many backers and sponsors without whom, he assured the crowd, it could not happen.
Pats Broderick resigned from his role as festival president – again. His offer was rejected in a hastily convened EGM and by a unanimous verdict. There’s always something.