Expanding the idea of trad to somewhat stretched limits at times, TradFest has nonetheless thankfully mushroomed in scale over recent years. Martha Wainwright, Judy Collins, Andy Irvine & Donal Lunny, This Is How We Fly, Wallis Bird, The New Folk with Ailbhe Reddy are among the mash of old and new. We’re going to google Socks in the Frying Pan once these words are written. This year TradFest also pays a musical tribute to the legendary Eamonn Campbell (The Dubliners) with all proceeds from the concert at St Michan’s Church will go to Coolmine, a charity dedicated to overcoming addiction. There’s family concerts, free gigs and a screening of Robert Manthoulis’s The Irish Or The Memory of A People which examined Irish traditional music in 1971.
