#14 Belfast Tradfest

Belfast Tradfest is a major, week long music festival that celebrates traditional Irish and international folk music. It was started as a small event eight years ago by musical director Donal O'Connor and has it grown to become a major festival for the City and N Ireland. There are workshops and masterclasses held at the Ulster University and there are concerts and live performances all over Belfast that week.

This was my first Tradfest and I was very excited because it was the first of two busy weeks in Belfast. Tradfest one week and then the All-Ireland Fleadh the next.

I signed up for the trad harp workshop which ran each morning from Monday to Friday. Registration first thing Monday morning was very busy! There were hundreds of musicians at Ulster University, all queuing to find out where their courses were. After a while, I got to my class and settled in. My tutor was the fantastic Belfast harper, Una Monaghan and she was lovely. We worked through a couple of different pieces that week and it was great fun. There were other harp tutors there too including the very well-known harper, Michael Rooney.

The workshops and classes ran each morning and there was live music every afternoon and evening. I managed to get to the 'Harps Alive' performance at the Redeemer Centre on the Wednesday night. The Redeemer is an old, converted church and it is a fantastic place to listen to live music. There were many harpers performing including my tutor Una and Michael Rooney. It was a great concert and I really enjoyed it.

The Tradfest classes took place in the Cathedral Quarter, next to St.Anne's Cathedral. One afternoon, a special event took place in nearby St Anne's Square where the we had the World's largest trad music session! After morning class, all the students and their tutors (over 1100 musicans) all gathered together and played 'Haste to the Wedding'. It was a brilliant event and the atmosphere was amazing.

Belfast Tradfest was a great success, I really enjoyed being part of it. The atmosphere in Belfast that week was amazing. Everyone was enjoying the music and everyone was so excited - both for Tradfest and for The Fleadh which was only days away...

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