Willie Week...Still the Bomb, or Now an Annoying Bust?

Whistle
1

Hi Everyone!

My girlfriend (hopefully fiancee soon :smiley: ) has family in Ennis (sp?) which is somewhat near Miltown Malbay, so we’re thinking about coordinating a trip “home” and possibly doing Willie Week…

However, I’m hearing rumors that the character of Willie Week has been changing over the past few years, becoming less about the music and more about commercialism and drinking and partying (or more so than it once was)…so much so that it impairs the joy of the musical experience.

Can anyone in the know confirm or deny this? We are fairly flexible about when we go to Ireland, and I’d like to hit a really good Trad festival and some good sessions when we’re there…if there is a better event these days than Willie Week, one with good strong focus on the music, then I’d sure like to hear about it, as well as anyone’s suggestions re any particularly good sessions to visit that are reasonably sociable and open and friendly to visiting musicians.

Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions!

Kev

2

Willie week is not the same it was 25 years ago. But is anything? Things change with time. I don’y think anything can beat it yet for the amount of good music you can have in the one week. If you look beyond the mobile chippers, the street sellers and the general mayhem there’s still the school itself and connected lectures and the concerts. This last year the week was actually quieter than previous years and it was the more pleasant for it.

3

Congratulations!! :slight_smile:

4

Looking for flutes, fiddles and bodhrans to chip? :boggle:

5

This is a better version!!

http://www.theshed.co.uk/fishandchipvan/index.html

Slan,
D.

6

:laughing: I get it now. Of course.

Here in the Empire, “chipper” is a machine that you feed tree branches (or whole trees) into one side and get wood chips out of the other.

7

Are you kidding? What would a good trad festival be without the guy selling bean hats, the nighttime burrito stand and the drunk whistler who didn’t know about the first octave…

Seriously though, I loved Willie Clancy Week. Mostly for the company - I had the great good fortune to meet up with about half a dozen fellow chiffers when I went in 2003. I also got to take some wonderful concertina workshops. Looking forward to trying to attend again in 2005!

8

Years ago before I got bit by the IT bug I lived in Ennis( 1975,'76 ,'77) I had seen a few IT bands on TV and liked it but at that age my friends and I were into rock and punk was also big ( The Boomtown Rats!) During what I guess was Willie Week the neighbors advised we not go to town as it was full of drunken tourists and you could hardly walk the street.I took that advice and all these years later regret it as in the years since I have seen many drunks but not one Irish Music Fest. :slight_smile:

9

I agree with Peter & Avanutria. I enjoyed the 2003 festival immensely, even though I had already made the decision to drop whistle for fiddle - but went to whistle classes anyway.

I really enjoyed the evening concerts, though I wish they had either been a little shorter, or my sit upon had more padding, and the Ceilis and sessions were great to drop in and out of. I met several chiffy friends, and made a few non-chiffy friends too.

I missed this year’s event for any number of reasons, but, like Avanutria, hope to make it to 2005 and have a few late night chips, burritos, and chocolate hazelnut pancakes.

Smaller crowds are always nicer, so the other tourists don’t get in the way of this tourist.

Azalin attended in 2003 but not as a student, he may have some interesting comments to add.

10

I’ve had the good fortune of attending Willie week twice – once about 5 years ago, and then this past summer.

I found the level of druken revelry and craziness to be about what I expected. If you’re looking for quaint Irish countryside, do not look here, and you will have to deal with a bunch of people looking for an excuse to drink to excess and party. For sessions, it can be frustrating at night because of crowds (and mediocre players who don’t know when to just listen!) but you can get lucky and find something great in town, and if you head out of town, some quieter places can be found and some really great music can be heard & played.

I’m going to second Peter’s comments. Things change, but Willie week cannot be beat for the massive numbers of excellent players, the great concerts, classes, workshops, and lectures that happen in this little town.

I enjoyed this year, and look forward to going back, hopefully next year.

11

I just looked out of the window and really guys , it is still there but you’ll have to get out of town to see it. :stuck_out_tongue:

As for mediocre players taking over the town. that;s true butyou can always follow the good ones to MUllagh an beyond. or maybe on the other hand yez shouldn’t :smiling_imp:

12

But is it still quaint? :laughing:

13

I have probably lost perspective seeing it every day but i suppose it is fierce quaint altogether, no new houses where i am. See what Bloomfield says next week :stuck_out_tongue:

This is a half a mile away from where I live, quaint enough?:

(edited to insert image)

14

Being part Irish and all Texican, sound like my kind of place! :party:

15

Irish Burritos:

16

Actually, I think that’s a British burrito.

17

Multiculturalism is a wonderful thing.

18

Nah, too fallen down! And not enough pixies. :wink:

19

:slight_smile: :slight_smile: Thanks Jessie! I kinda have you to thank, too, cause I’ve never done the online dating thing, but your success inspired me to try Match.com, and Wooohoooo baby am I glad I did!!! :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

Thank, everyone, for your observations about Willie Week. Are there any other festivals I should know about? Edel remembers going to one near Ennis years ago that used to be very Trad (kind of a mini-woodstock but with the Chieftans, etc instead of Jimi) but I think that one is long since dead.

20

How’s it goin’ there everybody,
From Cork, New York, Dundalk, Gortahork and Glenamaddy.
Here we are in the County Clare
It’s a long, long way from here to there.
There’s the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher,
And the Tulla and the Kilfenora,
Micho Russell, Doctor Bill,
Willie Clancy and Noel Hill.
Flutes and fiddles everywhere.

If it’s music you want,
You should go to Clare.

CHORUS

Oh, Lisdoonvarna

Lisdoon, Lisdoon, Lisdoon, Lisdoonvarna!


Everybody needs a break,
Climb a mountain or jump in a lake.
Some head off to exotic places,
Others go to the Galway Races.
Mattie goes to the South of France,
Jim to the dogs, Peter to the dance.
A cousin of mine goes potholing,
A cousin of heres loves Joe Dolan.
Summer comes around each year,
We go there and they come here.
Some jet off to … Frijiliana,
But I always go to Lisdoonvarna.

CHORUS

I always leave on a Thursday night,
With me tent and me groundsheet rolled up tight.
I like to hit Lisdoon,
In around Friday afternoon.
This gives me time to get me gear together,
I don’t need to worry about the weather.
Ramble in for a pint of stout,
And you’d never know who’d be hangin’ about!
There’s a Dutchman playing a mandolin,
And a German looking for Liam Óg O’Floinn.
And there’s Adam, Bono and Garrett Fitzgerald,
Gettin’ their photos taken for the Sunday World.
Finbarr, Charlie and Jim Hand,
And they drinkin’ pints to bate the band.
.. Ain’t it grand?

CHORUS

The multitudes, they flocked and thronged,
To hear the music and the songs.
Motorbikes and Hi-ace vans,
With bottles - barrels - flagons - cans.
Mighty craic. Loads of frolics,
Pioneers and alcoholics,
PLAC, SPUC and the FCA,
Free Nicky Kelly and the IRA.
Hairy chests and milk-white thighs,
And mickey dodgers in disguise.
Mc Graths, O’Briens, Pippins, Coxs,
Massage parlours in horse boxes.
There’s amhráns, bodhráns, amadáns,
Arab sheiks, Hindu Sikhs, Jesus freaks,
RTE are makin’ tapes, takin’ breaks and throwin’ shapes.
This is heaven, this is hell.
Who cares? Who can tell?
(Anyone for the last few Choc Ices, now?)

CHORUS

A 747 for Jackson Browne,
They had to build a special runway just to get him down.
Before the Chieftains could start to play,
Seven creamy pints came out on a tray.
Shergar was ridden by Lord Lucan,
Seán Cannon did the backstage cookin’.
Clannad were playin’ “Harry’s Game”,
Christy was singin’ “Nancy Spain”.
Mary O’Hara and Brush Shields,
Together singin’ “The Four Green Fields”.
Van the Man and Emmy Lou,
Moving Hearts and Planxty too!

CHORUS

Everybody needs a break,
Climb a mountain or jump in a lake.
Sean Doherty goes to the Rose of Tralee,
Oliver J. Flanagan goes swimming in the Holy Sea.
But I like the music and the open air,
So every Summer I go to Clare.
Coz Woodstock, Knock nor the Feast of Cana,
Can hold a match to Lisdoonvarna.

CHORUS
Christy Moore

:roll: