With a toot of the f lute... Flatley gets Fleadh going
HE’S known as the Lord of the Dance but Michael Flatley was more like the Pied Piper of Ennis yesterday as he did a whistle-stop tour of the Co. Clare town.
Not swaying too far from his traditional Irish roots, the retired superhoofer picked up a flute and showed off his other musical talent to help launch the 2017 Fleadh Cheoil.
‘How cool is this?’ the Irish dancing maestro asked as he surveyed a crowd of over 10,000 music enthusiasts before kickstarting the Fleadh with some virtuoso flute playing.
On stage at Ennis’s Abbey Street car park, Flatley told the crowd that it was festivals like the Fleadh ‘that bring joy into our lives and into our hearts and that mean so much to many people’.
The Fleadh is the largest traditional Irish music festival in the world and is set to deliver a €38million bonanza to the Ennis economy over the next week.
Between now and next Monday, the town will become the epicentre of the Irish music world. Some 10,000 session musicians will play – with 3,000 of them competing – playing, singing or dancing, for All Ireland glory in 180 competitions.
It is the second year in a row that the Fleadh has been staged in Ennis after a 39-year break.
Flatley was a fledgling flautist when he competed on flute in the town in 1977, then just 18.