Keep Her Lit festival in Inistioge celebrates commemoration and community

The Keep Her Lit festival to be held in Inistioge on August 13 and 14 aims to create a positive from a negative. Festival organiser, Jadzia Kaminska lost her husband, musician Dave Donohoe to a heart attack in June 2021 and then his “great friend” Johnny O'Donnell of O'Donnells pub in Inistioge, in the same way, six months later. Dave was 53 when he passed and Johnny, 57. The new folk and trad festival is her way of keeping going in the face of such profound shock and loss.

As a creative person, working on this life affirming festival is Jadzia's coping tool to negotiate that experience. She explains: “when all of this tragedy kind of happened, myself and the girls ... we had to do this”. It is a family affair as Jadzia's daughters, Liadain and Kasia have worked alongside her on the event.

The Keep Her Lit name evokes not only Dave Donohoe's career in traditional music where the phrase is used as a shorthand to keep the music going, but also Dave who was very “community orientated” and jumped in “very deep” with all his projects.

Jadzia, a Dubliner, moved to Inistioge three years ago, having previously lived in the village of Kells for 18 years. She loves the intimacy of village life explaining: “I wouldn't live in the city again – I could never go back to the city. I love being in the countryside, I love being in the open, I love small communities, like this.”

And community is very much at the heart of this boutique festival. All the events are based in Inistioge, with a sold out performance by Lisa O'Neill and Clare Sands in the beautiful historic St Mary's Church, the Gomárach Walk with forest walker, Maura Brennan along the River Nore, Niamh Regan and Brigid Mae Power's concert in the Cois Abhann Community Centre and Frankie Lane and friends' free Counter Attack Concert at the village's Millennium Garden. There are also trad sessions both afternoon and evening in the Otter Bar and the Woodstock Arms, music workshops in the community centre and a craft and food market on Sunday, August 14.

Jadzia's Counter Attack Campaign is the driving force behind the festival – she wants people to be more aware of the symptoms of heart disease and the signs of a heart attack. Frankie Lane, formerly of the Fleadh Cowboys, who suffered a serious heart attack 5 years ago, was an early supporter.

Jadzia recalls, he literally came up to us in the graveyard as he's been wanting to do an awareness campaign for a long time. She continues: “It's all about the, 'I didn't know that facts' and they are so basic, he is doing a concert on the Millennium Garden on the Sunday afternoon at 2 o'clock with special guests, which we're not announcing.”

She hopes that the festival will be a healing event saying: “Music, music ... is just a tonic of recovery, I suppose and it just brings people together.”

Keep Her Lit promises to be a magical weekend of music and song, walks and workshops, food craft and craic in the sublime setting of one of Kilkenny's most beautiful villages.

The Keep Her Lit festival requests that people car pool for the event as parking will be provided at The Rower Inistioge's GAA grounds but will be limited. Tickets are still available for the Niamh O'Regan and Brigid Mae Power concert from www.keepherlitfestival.ie/tickets.