Belfast Tradfest

Seven day festival ends with gathering, organisers planning for the largest céilí in world in 2026.

The seven-day festival featuring music and song performed by artistes from around the world ends with céilí in the Titanic quarter. 

THE fifth annual Belfast TradFest is preparing to showcase the best of traditional Irish and folk music, with thousands expected to attend over 200 events at venues across the city. 

Calling Tradfest a series of music workshops is like calling Mount Everest a hill

A MAJOR traditional music festival is to open its doors today for the first time since before the Covid-19 pandemic.

THERE is an incredible number of people playing the harp these days, thanks in no small part to Máire Ní Chathasaigh, a harper who took the instrument 'back to the future', bringing it back to its original role of accompanying dancing and freeing it from the twee 'Oirish' world in which it existed for so long.

WELL, it still very quiet, isn't it? Not for a while yet will we hear the fiddle, flute, bodhrán, guitar, pipes and whatever you're having yourself animate a crowded backroom in a public bar.

I CAN say without any fear of contradiction that Ringo Starr never had to give drumming workshops before The Beatles played Shay Stadium.

IF YOU have an interest in traditional music, whether it is playing or just listening and enjoying the lift in the spirits that it gives you, then keep July 27 – August 2 as free as you can because the Belfast Summer School of Traditional Music has metamorphosed into the Belfast Tradfest, a bigger and better manifestation of all that is good in one of our cultural treasures.