ÔClifden Trad FestÕ draws crowds to another successful weekend

Date Published: 19-Apr-2012

Clifden town can add another event to its annual calendar to rival the Clifden Arts Festival and Connemara Pony Show as the Clifden Traditional Music Festival, now in its third year, celebrated a very successful music weekend.

The ‘Trad Fest’, which ran from Friday top Sunday, was officially opened by Bill Whelan at the annual opening concert at the Clifden

Station House Hotel which was packed out for the three-hour event. The audience were entertained by local home-grown musicians and dancers as well as the invited musicians from around Ireland.

One of the major highlights of the festival was the Saturday evening Gig Rig on the town’s market square where the award winning Sligo based Dartry Céilí Band, along with a host of singers and dancers entertained a huge crowd for two and a half hours.

The weekend long Irish music festival had 20 official individual events including day time music sessions, night time music sessions, workshops, a traditional music mass, not to mention the numerous impromptu sessions around the town and other music that was on offer. Over 100 musicians, singers and dancers descended on Clifden from around Ireland to entertain the town and its visitors over athree-day period with the best in Irish music, song and dance.

The pubs were packed day and night with scheduled free entertainment provided for the three days of the festival and businesses reported excellent trade with the town itself reporting that there was virtually no accommodation available on the Friday and Saturday night. Many of the tourists in the town were delighted to have stumbled upon the festival and many extended their stay and extra day to soak up the festival atmosphere.

Clifden Comhaltas hope to replicate the success again next month when the town will again be taken over by musicians, competitors and general Irish music lovers as the town is hosting the Galway County Fleadh for the second year in a row from May 17-20. More information on http://www.clifdencomhaltas.com