Fleadh fever at TradFest
News of Fleadh 2010 in Cavan spread through Dublin's trendy Temple Bar area last weekend, when members of the Fleadh committee took the opportunity to use the TradFest as a platform for publicising the event, which will take place in Cavan town in August 2010. TempleBar TradFest 2010's festival programmer, Kieran Hanrahan, invited Cavan musicians to take part in the week-long city centre festival to help promote the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil. Fleadh PRO Martin Gaffney was 'front of house' all week introducing the Teada and Beoga performances at the Project Arts Centre and announcing details of Fleadh 2010 to packed houses every night of the festival. Fleadh events organiser Martin Donohoe and the Cavan NYAH music group, which included Mickey McDonnell, Tony Smith and Trevor Bury, played sessions and promoted the Fleadh at packed venues in this busy city centre cultural heartland. "The Fleadh 2010 promotion at TradFest was a superb opportunity to reach the traditional music community including to top class performers such as Matt Molloy, Noel Hill and Alec Finn," said Martin Gaffney. "TradFest also provided many unique promotional platforms to announce details of the Fleadh directly to the thousands of ardent trad fans who travelled to the capital all week attending the concerts, sessions, exhibitions and workshops," he added. One of the most popular events was the Singers Club hosted by Fleadh Ard Olamh, Sean O Sé who is looking forward to travelling to the Breffni county for the Fleadh in August. The All-Ireland Fleadh representatives distributed over a thousand of the new Cavan 2010 brochures and received widespread encouragement and interest in the Fleadh 2010 from both media and trad fans alike. Mr. Gaffney believed Cavan made the most of the opportunity. "By the end of the week, I was really delighted with what we achieved. If you were at the TradFest, you couldn't miss Cavan! People I met on the streets commented that they nearly felt like they were already at the Fleadh in Cavan," he said of the level of exposure.TradFest in turn will be represented here at the All-Ireland Fleadh. Meanwhile, in Cavan where some 250,000 people are expected to descend for Fleadh 2010, people can expect to hear more in the coming weeks with public meetings and a local launch being planned.