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A KERRY festival is set to be one of the first to be held in the country without indoor restrictions next month.
The Patrick O’Keeffe Traditional Music Festival in Castleisland is one of the largest traditional music festivals in the country and kicks off on Friday, October 22, the day all remaining restrictions on the hosting of indoor events are set to ease.
The festival is a celebration of the life of Patrick O’Keeffe and the music of Sliabh Luachra which he helped pioneer.
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Patrick (Padraig O’Keeffe) is considered ‘The Last of the Great Fiddle Masters.’ He died in 1963, and in 1993 at the prompting of RTE and ‘The Rolling Wave’ a festival was founded in his honour. This year will mark the 29th year of the festival.
It platforms the very best of traditional Irish music. This year ‘Dervish’ will headline Saturday nights concert and they will be supported by leading lights of the tradition Danny O’Mahony, Macdara Ó’Raghallaigh and Micheál Ó’Raghallaigh as well as Johnny Óg Connolly, Clíodhna Costello and Pádraig Ó’Dubhghaill.
Sunday night will see the ‘Slliabh Luachra Composer’s Concert’ take place. The festival has commissioned four composers- Edel Fox, Jackie Daly, Connie O’Connell and Nickie McAuliffe. They will perform new pieces of music to the audience in Castleisland.
The annual ‘Dedication to the Music of Sliabh Luachra Award’ will also be presented on the night to Connie O’Connell. The festival this year created a new award ‘The Patrick O’Keeffe Young Musician Award’ and an independent panel of musicians has chosen Simon Crehan from Lattin in Co Tipperary as the winner.
Five album launches will be taking place over the course of the weekend. A pop-up Gaeltacht, a Céilí Mór, a Singing Concert, a Fiddle Concert, Classes on all the traditional instruments, a poetry extravaganza, and a session trail featuring the very best of Irish traditional musicians.
More info on all the events is available here http://patrickokeeffefestival.com/?page_id=2251
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