Entertainment

Trad/roots: Armagh piping festival has great line-up for 25th birthday bash

A piping festival, named after an 18th century pipe-maker? You’re kidding, aren’t you? Well, no, Brian Vallely wasn't and Armagh's William Kennedy Piping Festival this month celebrates its 25th birthday. Put that in your pipe etc

Paddy Glackin will join Paddy Keenan for a one-off reunion performance in Armagh
Paddy Glackin will join Paddy Keenan for a one-off reunion performance in Armagh Paddy Glackin will join Paddy Keenan for a one-off reunion performance in Armagh

ARMAGH will be alive with the sounds of reeds, chanters and drones from all over the world from November 15 to 18 as it celebrates the 25th anniversary of the William Kennedy Piping Festival.

The festival, organised by Armagh Pipers Club, is now the longest-running international festival of pipe-based music but typical of the club, the 2018 edition brings together an unprecedented line-up of the most accomplished pipers from all of the main bagpiping traditions of Europe, as well as the cream of the crop from closer to home.

It just shows what a bit of imagination, hard work and never-say-die attitude can achieve.

What inspired the piping festival was the Armagh Together festival in 1993/94. The city committee asked groups in the city to put forward their suggestions or ideas. Brian Vallely suggested that a piping festival be held in honour of the blind piper from the city of Armagh, William Kennedy.

When Brian and Eithne Vallely approached the committee with an idea of starting a piping festival named after an 18th century Armagh pipe-maker, they thought he was a bit bonkers.

Years ago, Brian told me that the first response was, “You’re kidding, aren’t you?

“Two hours of solo piping? Are you really serious?"

"Then they were worried that the music of the bagpipes would be played inside a small hall and not outside in the countryside park. "It was hard to sell the idea at the outset, even among the traditional music supporters,” Brian said.

Brian acknowledges that the pipes had "an image problem". People who watched marching pipe bands thought that they had no connection with traditional music.

“I discovered when I went to Scotland that the Scots had a similar attitude, even among the pipers themselves; they did not recognise that there was a link between the music of Scottish pipes and traditional music," he said.

"They did not even see themselves as solo musicians but as a member band who wore military uniforms and whose main purpose was to march.

"Not everyone believed this, of course, but there were others in Scotland who recognised that the pipes was a solo instrument before it became pressed into military service. It was first of all an instrument for dancing sessions.”

Brian’s persuasive manner saw the first ever William Kennedy Piping Festival take place – to great, if unexpected, success.

“People who went to the first festival were stunned to find what most of us knew already, that pipe music can be exciting, very varied and great fun. They learned that there were pipes of all kinds everywhere in the world and that there were various exciting links with different versions of the instrument."

The audiences also met the long list of wonderful characters who play various versions of the pipes – Highland pipes, border pipes, Northumbrian Pipes, the Tadghtita (Algeria), Mashak (India), and the gaita (Galicia) are just some of the variations you’ll find throughout the world.

“Probably the biggest publicity we got was through the best kind of publicity there is, word of mouth,” Brian told me in that interview, 13 years ago now.

That word of mouth continues to this day and tongues are definitely wagging about what the William Kennedy has lined up for Armagh later this month. First up, the four-day event will feature a one-off reunion performance from two legends of Irish music – Paddy Keenan and Paddy Glackin.

Former members of the Bothy Band, they recorded a seminal album, Doublin’, in 1979 which became one of the most influential Irish traditional music albums.

Other highlights include a return from globetrotting Lúnasa, who have just released their latest album Cas, which features collaborations with Natalie Merchant and Mary Chapin Carpenter.

Festival favourites Ulaid will perform with Armagh’s singing legend Ríoghnach Connolly, while Gàidhlig-language supergroup Dàimh, from Skye and Lochaber, will also be making another highly anticipated foray across the Straits of Moyle.

The international dimension of the festival is bolstered by the participation of a galaxy of top performers from across Europe including Anxo Lorenzo from Galicia, José Manuel Tejedor from Asturias, Luigi Lai from Sardinia, Ivan Georgiev from Bulgaria, Georgi Makris from Greece, Dråm from Sweden, and Duo Lagrange Rutkowski from France.

From neighbouring Scotland come Ross Ainslie, Finlay MacDonald, Brighde Chaimbeul, Fin Moore, and from Northumberland, Andy May.

2018 also marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of William Kennedy, the blind master pipemaker after whom the festival is named and the occasion will be marked by the unveiling of an Ulster History Circle blue plaque on the site of his home and workshop in Tandragee.

Over the weekend, a new double CD of material recorded at the festival will be released to mark the quarter-century landmark. The album consists of 36 live tracks originally collected by the Irish Traditional Music Archive, curated into a unique and diverse compilation.

The festival again hosts the prestigious William Kennedy Piping Academy, with a stellar line-up of tutors including Seán Óg Potts, Mick O’Brien, Louise Mulcahy, Seán McKeon, Mikie Smyth, Síle Friel, Jarlath Henderson, Tiarnán Ó Duinnchinn, Mary Mitchell-Ingoldsby and Peter Browne.

There is also a full range of workshops in all instruments, plus sessions, lectures, performances for children, a special Day of Song, and much more.

The festival’s main sponsor is Armagh City Banbridge & Craigavon Borough Council who have generously supported the event since its inception while four concerts, from among over 40 festival events, are funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.

Full details of the 2018 Festival are available from wkpf.org or info@wkpf.org. For a full listing of events and things to see and do in Armagh, go to visitarmagh.com.