Inaugural Nenagh TradFest a success

Last weekend saw the first ever Nenagh TradFest take place across the town.

The organisers of the festival, Ormond branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, say the festival was a great success, bringing music, musicians and visitors to Nenagh.

“We were hoping to replicate some of the festival atmosphere which we saw last summer during Munster Fleadh 2015,” said Tom Boland of the organising committee. “Our aim this year was to get Nenagh established with the musicians as somewhere they will want to return to, as well as providing entertainment for the Nenagh people and visitors to the town, and we feel we certainly achieved that.

“From speaking with the musicians, each and every one of them was highly impressed, not just with the sessions they played in, but also with Nenagh town itself. We were blessed with great weather on Saturday and Sunday and that definitely showed in the numbers at each session around town.”

Apart from some fantastic pub sessions, the highlight of the festival was the Leeds CCÉ concert on Saturday night. “From when we started organising the festival, this show was the centrepiece,” Tom explained.

“Leeds CCÉ brought a bus full of people, musical instruments and stage equipment to Nenagh for the weekend. They put on an amazing show and we were delighted to see the large crowd turning up at the Arts Centre. Included in the crowd were a large group of people from Tonnerre, in France who were in town as part of the town twinning project.”

Another major success were the musical workshops which took place in Nenagh CBS. Each workshop was fully booked and the organising committee are already looking at expanding that aspect of the festival. Having completed the workshops in the afternoon, some of the children taking part took to the streets to show off their talents with some street music.

Ormond CCÉ are satisfied overall with the staging of the festival and feel they have laid decent foundations to build on in the coming years.

“From a musical perspective, we were absolutely delighted with the way it went,” Tom said. “We had really top class musicians in every session. At one stage on Saturday, we had the All-Ireland Under 15, Under 18 and Senior champion accordion players – Keelan McGrath, Colm Slattery and Daithí Gormley – playing together, which was just amazing to see.

“I’ve also spoken with the publicans we were working with and they are equally happy with the first running of the festival. Looking at the weekend overall, I think it was of great benefit to the town. We had plenty of visitors staying around town, dining out and enjoying the pub sessions.

“On behalf of Ormond Comhaltas and the TradFest organising committee, I would like to acknowledge and thank both Nenagh Municipal District Council and Diageo for their support and we look forward to working with them into the future to build a festival the town can be proud of.”