Hi, I would like to know if there are any good Irish music festivals / summer schools / workshops in Australia or New Zealand? I’m considering attending more Irish music festivals and both of these countries are more economical/convenient for me to visit than Ireland is. Details/website URLs will be appreciated.
Thanks!
Eld, I really should be able to tell you more than I can at the moment. I’m not a big festival-goer for a variety of reasons so I’m out of touch. Celtic Southern Cross however run a summer school and usually have some high profile Irish musicians giving classes. That would be held in Tasmania in mid January. As a start, you might want to check out their website, easily found from their name, and, if in doubt ring or write to Mike or Beth who are both very friendly and helpful.
Edited to be more helpful:
Here’s the URL
http://www.celt.com.au/
Apparently the National in Canberra ia THE best fetival EVER - I think it’s around January but couldn’t be sure - try running a search for it.
Jo.
There is a huge folk festival in Canberra at Easter I think but it is not Celtic-only. It’s apparently very good but I’m usually otherwise committed then. There’d be easily enough music of interest to make it worthwhile. There’s also a festival in Port Fairy which is very high quality. I’ll check out details and keep you posted.
Thanks for the replies guys! Maybe I’ll just consider taking private classes with a flute player if the festivals dont work out.
Eldarion;
For Australian festivals check out http://www.folkalliance.org.au/AFD_Directory.cfm?category=festivals&AustInter=Australian for a listing of festivals. If you’re after workshops I recommend the National Folk Festival ( www.folkfestival.asn.au ) at Easter. The national celtic festival in Geelong looks good for Irish Performers but I’ve not been there( http://users.pipeline.com.au/celtic/ ). Other festivals that are generally strong in ITM include Port Fairy ( www.PortFairyFolkFestival.com ) which is always sold out! , Apollo Bay ( http://www.apollobaymusicfestival.com/the_festival.htm ) and The Blue Mountains Festival ( http://www.bmff.org.au/ ) . The daddy of them all size-wise (50,000 people in tents!!) is Woodford ( http://woodfordfolkfestival.com/festival/qff/qff_main.htm ) and it is always good for a few ITM sessions and workshops.
The only festival I was at in NZ is the Whare Flat one near Dunedin which was small but enjoyable. I hear some of the North Island festivals are quite good (tho’ generally smaller and with less ITM content than the Australian ones mentioned).
Hope this helps. Let me know if you need more advice on any of the above.
Best.
Ciaran
Wow Ciaran thanks for the links! Are there any festivals more in the line of Gaelic Roots, Willie Week etc? I was hoping to go somewhere with sessions and flute classes. Thanks!
Eldarion, you can try www.woodenflute.org I missed out on this year’s bash because I was busy 
Ooh thanks Chih.. was looking for that one!
Sorry Eldarion, I haven’t heard of any festivals in Australia that have a series of classes like Willie Week. There are a few teachers who might be able to give you some private tuition. Maybe you could try to plan a trip to Oz for lessons to co-incide with a festival with workshops and a few sessions? Let me know if you need more info. I might have some old phone numbers somewhere.
Cheers;
Ciaran