Manchester Irish Festival

Guinness Anniversary Tradfest

From Tony Hennigan
Manchester Irish Festival Guinness Tradfest Press Office
Tel 079 125 129 77
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Guinness Anniversary Tradfest is launched in Levenshulme for Irish Festival

Ireland’s favourite black stout are this year celebrating their 250th anniversary by sponsoring the annual two week Tradfest which takes place in Levenshulme’s numerous pubs, clubs and parks. The celebration of Irish Art, Culture, Crafts, Music, Sport & Theatre is one of the highlights of this years fourteenth Manchester Irish Festival. Close to two hundred events are taking place at thirty two venues, enough to represent each of Ireland’s thirty two counties throughout Greater Manchester, making it one of Europe’s biggest Irish Festivals.

Levenshulme village will stage just over eighty of those events making it once again one of the main visitor destinations, in fact on St Patrick’s day itself it is not uncommon to see queues forming outside the Irish bars of people wanting to celebrate their patrons feast day. The suburb which is situated along the A6 midway between Manchester and Stockport is home to the biggest Irish Community outside of London. The director of the Levenshulme Pub Company and the marketing executive of the festival website is Mayo man Lawrence Hennigan. He said about the forthcoming celebrations “We have been a big supporter of the festival since it started in 1996, Guinness along with other drink companies have been very supportive in helping us make the festival accessible to everyone. Many of the events are free or have been kept to a nominal charge. There are also a large number of events which are not drink related and the strongest drink you are likely to have is a cup of tea or a cup of orange. It has never been a festival just for the Irish and we get visitors from all over the world. With the pound being so low we are expecting a large influx of visitors from all over Europe and America, everything here is so much more affordable for them and they are sure of a warm Irish welcome.”

A special VIP prelaunch concert and brochure launch will take place on Thursday 26 February in the first floor acoustic room of m19 bar in the centre of the village. The special gig which is a curtain raiser for the festival which takes place from Friday 6 March to Saturday 21 March. It features four of the UK and Ireland’s premier traditional Irish musicians in the form of the award winning fiddle player Dezi Donnelly (Pride of Erin Award winner and RTE Musician of the year), Flute player Mike McGoldrick (BBC Folk instrumentalist of the Year), Donegal’s virtuoso accordion player Dermot Byrne of Altan fame and guitarist Steve Cooney who is also the produced and guitarist for Sinead O’Connor.

The two week festival features over two hundred and fifty hours of Irish entertainment, one for each year of the Guinness anniversary and a special Guinness anniversary pass of just £17.59 to mark the birth of its premises in Dublin will allow visitors in to every concert free of charge in the village.

Singer songwriter Claire Mooney celebrates her own twentieth anniversary on the opening night of the tradfest on Friday 6 March at m19 bar. While on Saturday 7 March James Cannon the son of Sean Cannon of the Dubliners fame headlines a free Celtic rock night at the Union with his band ‘The Sinners’, before they go off on a European tour.

An award winning Irish Crafts film festival is being staged during the day on Monday 9 March featuring the RTE ‘Hands’ series produced by Sally and David Shaw-Smith which receives its first airing in the Manchester at the festival. A special Gaelic junior training session is held in the evening on the same day for students aged 8-14 at the Energy Box.

Traditional Irish musicians Grace Kelly and friends who last year set a new world record for the most Irish musicians in a pub will host their regular Irish session in the Union on Wednesday 11 March. They will this year be attempting to play two hundred and fifty minutes of traditional Irish tunes, while stopping every now and again for a complimentary drink of the black stuff. The flame haired Grace is currently the new face of the Manchester Irish Festival campaign this year and if you bring along the festival brochure you can tempt her to sign it for you.

Drama plays a major part in this years festival and the Arts council funded play ‘Mouth of the Cave’ is being premiered in the first floor theatre of m19 bar on Thursday 12 March. The play which features the award winning traditional Irish musician Sabrina Piggott together with Irish Poet Siobhán Mac Mahon and directed by Sarah Hope. The play combines traditional Irish music with dance and poetry which is described as both passionate and provocative.

Kicking off a five day St Patrick’s weekend party is the young and vibrant ceili band ‘Shake the Barley’ who headline the ‘Tradfest’ showcase at m19 on Friday 13 Mach. While on Saturday 14 March traditional Irish band ‘Innisfree’ are headlining a gig at the Union, at the same time the Coventry based Celtic rock band Shkayla featuring the award winning fiddle player Joe O’Donnell, headline the ‘Tradfest’ concert at m19. The union put on a post parade Irish session featuring ‘Three’s a crowd’ and an opportunity for people to bring along their instruments or dancing shoes o joins in the session. Last year a party of twenty Belfast musicians turned up, so make sure you get in early to enjoy the ‘craic’.

The celebrations on St Patrick’s day on Tuesday 17 March start at 12 noon in the Union with an all day tradfest led by Traditional Irish duo featuring guitarist Matt Hegarty and female accordion player Tina McKevitt in the union. Again guest musicians and dancers are welcome to join in the sessions, an open invitation is being given to dancers who have qualified for the world championships in America to help them raise the funds for their trip. Headlining the St Patrick’s night concert is the Galway singer Noelie McDonnell who is flying in from New York to play m19.

Finishing off the festival is a live broadcast by the award winning Full Irish Radio show in the Union featuring a host of Irish musicians, singers and dancers on Wednesday 18 March. While the award winning Kieran Cunningham officially closes the tradfest with an Irish might of Ballads and traditional tunes on Saturday 21 March.

Other Irish festival highlights include the ‘Young, Gifted and Green’ show at the prestigious Gorton Monastery. The event which will be a historic achievement by the troupe being the very first Irish group to stage a show at the newly restored building which is classed as the Taj Mahal of Manchester and listed as one of the worlds top one hundred historical buildings. Saved by a £6.5 million restoration programme the building has been converted into a premier conference and events centre. Tonight’s concert by the award winning troupe from St Bede’s will be raising funds for the trust and a Youth pilgrimage to Lourdes.

The official Manchester Irish Festival Parade takes place in Albert square on Sunday 15 March, with the first float due to arrive about 12.45am. Other major festival highlights include the appearance of Declan Nearney who will officially open the festival and the ever popular Brendan Shine along with an abundance of top Irish comedians and plays.

Post Festival highlights include the farewell tour by Riverdance and the world premier of ‘Haunted’ by Edna O’Brien which also includes the ‘Manchester to Mayo’ Photo exhibition by Young, Gifted & Green which has been commissioned to compliment the world premiere.

For more information log onto www.manchesteririshfestival.co.uk