I took the train over the Malmö-Copenhagen Bridge (Öresundsbron) on
Saturday afternoon intending to play a few tunes at the Saturday evening
sessions at the Copenhagen Irish Festival
http://www.irishfestival.dk/index.htm then get the train back to Sweden.
Arrived at 6 pm and just missed Ditte Fromseier Mortensen’s CD launch:
http://www.irishfestival.dk/artist/cdlaunch.htm Ditte’s a great fiddler by
the way. Met up with 3 pipers doing the Paddy Keenan workshop. Robert
Lundblad, Morten Holm and Lars? which was nice, a piping session with pipes
by Dave Williams, Charles Roberts & a Dave Daye penny chanter. Morten
probably has one of the last chanters made by Dave Williams. It sounded fine
as did the Roberts and Daye chanters. Paddy himself came in and had a few
words. In the next room through the glass doors we could see a session had
started with the Diamonds playing away, Tara & Dermy and I think it was
their children on fiddles. Tara is one of my favourite flute players, I hope
she makes a CD soon, her two tunes alone on “The north wind” compilation are
well worth the price of the CD. I also met up and had a chat with C&Fer
Pixxy (Jerune, flute player) and a couple of Irtrad-ers. At one point there
were 4 sessions going at the same time in the festival cafe, and in the
space of prehaps 2 square meters/yards, compact set dancing too. Around
midnight I was ready for off, but Lars, a box player from Sweden, was just
starting to play some tunes with Ditte on fiddle, a guitar player?, and her
brother Jonas on banjo. So I ended up joining in on flute and eventually got
me pipes out, and it was a very nice session, Thomas, a Danish bodhran
player, joined in and played very well,. At one point a double-bass player
joined in, and it worked. And then suddenly it was 2.30 am , Sunday morning.
We played on until nearly 4 am, and then made for the train station which
turned out to closed, opening first at 5.30 am. We managed to walk around
the back and get onto the outside platform and there we saw 3 young lads
maybe 13-15 years old harassing a train driver on his break sitting in his
cockpit, one lad was even trying to climb in through the open cockpit
window. Suddenly to defend himself the driver presses his signal horn, and
those lads just about soiled themselves. Made us jump too. It was an
enormous deafening sound. So instead of hanging around the desolate, cold
and windy station platform, amid pools of vomit, and prehaps risking getting
mugged, we thought it would be a bit more civilised back on the street. So
at 4.45 am we found a mad, dirty McDonald’s with tables full of used
cartons, paper cups, ketchup, the only food place open at that time, and got
some chips and a coke, they were out of coffee. Copenhagen was full of
people still rocking even at that hour, both young and middleaged. Police
cars were tearing about, we passed a man bleeding from some head injury
outside a night club, big bouncers hulking in doorways, groups of rowdy
young men, boys 14-15 years old and up, roaming the streets, shouting, a
high level of testerone, potential violence and strangely enough, geniality,
in the air. Whilst waiting to be served at McDonald’s, two angels came in
and stood behind us in the queue, that is two men dressed in white robes,
complete with halos and wings. This occasioned much mirth and witty remarks.
I held tightly onto my pipes anyway, thinking “What am I doing here?”. A
quick walk then back to the train station, just about to go in when a police
car came blaring up, and two cops jumped out and ran into the station. I
don’t know what happened as they dissappeared somewhere inside. Was glad to
get back to a quiet peaceful Malmö at 6 am. The Copenhagen Irish Festival
has become a very good festival, good concerts, lots of people, good
sessions, nice atmosphere, well organised, I definitely recommend it.
Hi Steam,
Good write-up although you make Copenhagen sound like Crime City! But I suppose at 4 AM the area around the central station is pretty dire. 
Nice chatting with you for a bit. I also enjoyed listening to you, Morten and the two other pipers present. For some reason I didn’t feel like playing that weekend, so my whistles stayed in my bag (I didn’t even bring my flute). The baby at home does tend to make me a wee bit tired occasionally, so I was content with simply relaxing in a corner.
I didn’t know that you stayed until that late on Saturday; when the pipe session broke up I thought you were about to leave, but you obviously thought better of it! I left early, at about 1 AM, predicting an early start in the Hoppe house on Sunday (which turned out to be true).
My personal highlights this year were some of the concert performers. Paddy Keenan and Tommy O’Sullivan were great as always (I am a big fan of both).
On Saturday, fiddler Gerry O’Connor played accompanied by Paul McSherry on guitar, and with Mary Dillon singing. Now, I have always adored Mary’s singing on the old Deanta CDs, but this was my first chance to see her live. She didn’t disappoint and if possible I’m an even bigger fan now.
Oh, Dervish also played of course, but I had enough of them after about 15 minutes so I didn’t stay for the rest of the concert.
As always, I look forward to next year…
Cheers,
Jens
"Good write-up although you make Copenhagen sound like Crime City! But I suppose at 4 AM the area around the central station is pretty dire. " Jens
Aye, I must add that Copenhagen is indeed a nice place to spend time, at least during normal waking hours, and I’ve never had any trouble there - Also this was after a Saturday night in the wee small hours. Nice meeting you too Jens. I never intended to stay so late, but Lars on the box started some tunes with Ditte and her brother on banjo so it was hard to resist. Strange how after midnight, sessions can often take on a different quality, prehaps it’s just because people have been drinking, and/or are tired, or have finally started to really get into playing, but some nice music often gets played. The next evening in Lund, Sweden there was a session, but I was too tired then to do some serious playing.
I really enjoyed the festival this year as ever but this year I think was special…
Paddy Keenan had a “workshop” that was quite different. This was my third workshop though so I don’t have that much to compare with but he was just great.
A mystic man with a lot of depth in my opinion. He would talk about something and then trail off into something else.
Wonderful to see and hear him weaving magic with his pipes, he is truly a king on these bastards (pipes)
The nicest thing however was that piping session Thomas, Stefan, Morten and I had on Saturday night. It is just that it ended up with everyone playing solo which was a bit boring. Just gives me goosbumps thinking of the sounds we made and the feel. Not used to it living and playing pipes on my own in Gothenburg.
Thanks guys for a terrific weekend, hope to see you in spring or the next Copenhagen festival.
PS. Bottles in Denmark are too soft for thick-headed Swedes…hehe
Many photos from the Copenhagen Irish Festival 2004 can be seen at:
http://www.michn.dk/festival2004/index.htm
Mostly just of the local musicians, dancers and the visiting performers, none of us uilleann pipers except for Paddy Keenan of course, although Morten Holm can be seen in one shot. Nice session shot of Tara Diamond, Paddy Keenan & Seamus Beagly on page 10, also of Ditte & Seamus, same page