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2024-08-02 Tribfest - North Kildare Sports Club, Kilcock

No one, and I mean no one, goes to TribFest to be cool.  After all, it's hard to look cool dancing to the music of Joe Dolan, ABBA, Tom Jones, Cher or Queen, well, maybe Queen, but... No, people go to TribFest to party, to listen to great music and most of all, to have fun.  Fun, that's the most important part of a festival, and it was in abundance this year! The festival was a three day affair this time out and, for the first time, kicked off with a night dedicated to hard rock and metal, featuring IE/DC (AC/DC), Live Lizzy (Thin Lizzy), Whiplash (Metallica) , Guns Reloaded (Guns n' Roses), and Legendary (Bon Jovi).  Was it loud?  Yes, yes it was.  Did it rock?  Most certainly!  Were the leather clad crowd entertained?  Most definitely.  What a way to kick off TribFest! Live Lizzy Whiplash Legendary Guns Reloaded IE/DC Night two of TribFest was a much more relaxed affair with sets from Mairead Rooney (Shania Twain), The Classic Beatles (The Beatles), Will Power (Joe Dolan)

2022-10-07 Féile Liam O'Flynn

Féile, the Irish word for Festival.  

Liam O'Flynn, a world renowned Uilleann Piper from Kildare.

Put the two together and you get Féile Liam O'Flynn, a three-day festival celebrating the life and music of Liam O'Flynn!

Féile Liam O’Flynn was a three-day traditional Irish music festival taking place in the pubs and music halls of Naas and Kill. There were Céilí dances and Uilleann Pipe and Harp workshops, open air concerts and street musicians, it was a wonderful affair featuring the best of traditional Irish music players.

Did I get to it all?  No, it turns out I'm not omnipotent, so I had to make do with only catching a few shows!

Right, now for some photos.  We'll start with Friday night in St. Davids Church, Naas and the opening night concert.

Kathryn McKiernan

Joe Byrne

Cormac Mac Aodhagáin and Emmet O Toole

Brian Hughes

Kildare Youth Folk Orchestra

Saturday night I headed down to Poplar Square, Naas to catch FullSet in concert.







Roll on Sunday, the last day of festivities.  I started the day in 33 South Main Street in Naas watching Steve Cooney, Laoise Kelly and Louise Mulcahy perform a selection of tunes by and inspired by Liam O'Flynn.




Sunday night, I headed out to the Village Hall in Kill, where Liam O'Flynn grew up, for the closing Gala Concert.

Liam Ó Maonlaí

Steve Cooney

Laoise Kelly

Mark Redmond

Paddy Glackin

Heidi Talbot

Donal Lunney

And then it was all over... There's talk of this becoming an annual festival.  If the rumours are true, and I hope they are, this could grow to match some of the best traditional music festivals around and would be a worthy addition to the festival calendar!

Roll on 2023.


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