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Moville's TradFest a qualified success

Posted Monday, March 1, 2010

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TradFest

There was a big crowd out on Saturday night in Rosatos at Moville's TradFest. It was like a very busy night during the summer - although maybe not as big as a summer festival night, but you wouldn't expect it to be at this time of the year and in the current economic climate.

The Bar-A-Cuda had the disappointment of their musicians from South Armagh cancelling a couple of days before and so they couldn't get replacements in time.

The Friday night saw Aoibheanas from Derry play in Rosatos.

They included Ciaran Carlin the All-Ireland flute champion. They gave an excellent display even if the crowd was not what you would hope for but it was still much busier than the normal Friday.

It was a little busier at Rawdons where Cecilia Keaveney played with Paddy McLaughlin. She was enjoying it so much she stayed a little longer than she expected to before going down the street to Rosatos to play with Aoibheanas there.

Saturday Night

If it was a little quieter than hoped for on the Friday the crowd turned out for the Saturday night's fare.

There was a good crowd at Rawdons to see a mixed night of trad and their normal set from Paddy McLaughlin and Paul Bredin but the crowds really turned out in force to see Clodagh Warnock, Ted Ponsonby, Roisin McGrory and Edel McLaughlin in Rosatos. They were joined by three other musicians later to form a formidable seven.

While this year's TradFest was a qualified success there are plans to make it even bigger in future years.

Said organiser Gerry McLaughlin "I've approached the Inishowen Traditional Music Society who exist to foster traditional music in Inishowen. Clodagh Warnock and Edel McLaughlin are in the society and we spoke briefly after their performance about enlisting their aid both in booking musicians next year and getting word out to the Trad community for next year. It seems we clashed with a major trad festival in Brittany this year which made many of the top musicians unavailable although we are happy with who we did get. I do my best to organise, and get publicity for, the TradFest but I don't really have any links into the Trad Community like they have. We want to make this one of Ireland's biggest Traditional Music festivals to go along with the one at Temple Bar in Dublin and the big one in Cork. Next year should see us take further steps towards that".