Headline acts announced for Kilkenny Tradfest

Tradfest Kilkenny have announced the headline acts who will grace the city’s stages and venues on St Patrick’s weekend this year.

Perennial favourites Hothouse Flowers, John Spillane and Iarla Ó Lionáird will be joined by newcomers including Pádraig Jack, Buíoch, Breaking Trad and Clare Sands.

Festival Committee Chairperson, Brendan Treacy, said they were very excited with this year’s lineup and the fact that tickets are already selling within days of becoming available.

Delays expected to return to busy Kilkenny road until Friday

“Kilkenny Tradfest’s small team have worked really hard in recent months to secure some of the best performers in the traditional music scene in Ireland,” he said. “Despite the attraction for so many artists to travel abroad for the national festival, we have consistently attracted both long-established acts and relative newcomers who are showing the brightness of the future of traditional and folk music.

“We are particularly excited to host the legendary Shaskeen group with Katie Theasby, celebrating their 53rd year in the music business. Having been formed in London in 1970, they have released 15 albums in that time and have featured some of the best-known names in traditional music over the more than half a century of their time on the road. The band is led by Tom Cussen, along with fellow Clare musicians Eamonn and Clare Cotter, Mary Liddy and Dave Sanders. Connemara box player Patsy McDonagh and Mayo bodhrán player, Johnny Donnellan are joined by London native and Clare-based singer, Katie Theasby, who has been singing on the Irish and English folk scene for decades, including an appearance at Glastonbury festival at just 14 years of age. The band will perform in the Pembroke Hotel on Saturday, March 16 at 7pm.

“Hothouse Flowers are always a hit in Kilkenny, since their earliest appearances in the 1980s. They have close family contacts in the county and always put on a powerful and upbeat performance with numbers from their own back catalogue of over 12 albums. They also heavily feature their own takes on Irish and international sean-nós and traditional songs and tunes. Their Friday night (March 15) gig at 8.30pm sees our festival return to the Ormonde Hotel, which has hosted many legendary gigs over the years. There will be plenty of room for dancing to the Flowers pulsating beats!

“Pádraig Jack from Inis Mór on the Aran Islands has been making waves in the singing scene in recent years and featuring in festival line-ups all over the country and abroad. The bilingual singer-songwriter broke through with his debut album Making Sand which immediately became RTÉ Radio’s album of the week and earned him nominations in the national folk awards.

“I want to thank the festival committee and all the members of Kilkenny City Vintners for their hard work,” he added. “We are looking forward to another great St Patrick’s weekend with 70 free sessions on the festival’s Bulmers Music Trail.

“Kilkenny is definitely where the musicians want to be for the national holiday and we look forward to seeing so many old friends of the festival getting together for mighty tunes and songs, here in Ireland’s medieval capital.”
The festival has put all the tickets for its headline, paid and ticketed events on kilkennytradfest.com. More information on further acts will be released over the coming weeks.