Belfast TradFest 2024

Date: Sunday 21 to Sunday 28 July 2024

Venue: Various venues in Belfast

Category: Arts and culture, Festival, Music

Belfast TradFest, Northern Ireland’s premier traditional music, song, and dance festival, is back for its much-anticipated sixth edition.

Running from July 21 to 28, this year’s festival offers over 350 events with the world’s finest trad musicians, and promises an exhilarating week of concert performances, workshops, sessions and community events, bringing together some of the finest talents in the world of traditional arts.

The concert line-up includes legendary Clannad songstress Moya Brennan, Zoë Conway and John McIntyre, Cherish the Ladies, Trans-Atlantic supergroup Lúnasa, West Kerry songbirds Pauline Scanlon and Éilís Kennedy aka Lumiere, Cathal Hayden’s Bow Brothers, musical maestros Mary Dillon, Neil Martin and Dónal O’Connor, Seamie O’Dowd, Jiggy, Pólca 4 and BIIRD, a brand new 11-piece, all female, superstar collective made up of some of Ireland's best traditional musicians and singers.

The Belfast TradFest Summer School of Traditional Music is the hub around which the festival is built. Young and ‘not so young’ come to Belfast to learn from the very best in the business, for a five-day long programme of summer school events. This year’s line-up of tutors features no less than seven TG4 Gradam Ceoil Award recipients, and amongst the list of world-class talent will be Tyrone’s Ryan Molloy, acclaimed Belfast composer and musician Neil Martin, County Kerry’s Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, banjo maestro Cathal Hayden, Tara Breen of The Chieftains, Cross Border Orchestra Bagpiper Grahame Harris, Sean Nós dancing dynamo Mary McGuiggan, and Belfast’s very own set dancing master Ronán Eastwood. These workshops are designed not only to hone technical skills but also to immerse attendees in the cultural and historical context of the music.

Festival highlights also include Dunville’s Irish Whiskey Session Trail, Pride Céilí in partnership with Belfast Pride and TITANIC CÉILÍ, a free, one-day outdoor family event on Sunday 21 July from 1pm to 5pm, celebrating traditional music, song, and dance.

For programme information, go to Belfast TradFest (link opens in new window).