Carrick-on-Suir hosts the 12th annual Clancy Brothers Music & Arts Festival this weekend

Carrick-on-Suir will celebrate the musical legacy of the famous Clancy Brothers ballad group at the town's 12th annual folk music and arts festival named in their honour this June Bank Holiday Weekend. 

Hotel rooms and other guest accommodation in Carrick-on-Suir are reported to be booked out for the Clancy Brothers Music & Arts Festival, which opens tonight and continues until  Monday. 

Clancy Festival Committee chairman Jim Butler said in addition to tourists they are expecting a lot of young people from Carrick-on-Suir living in other towns and cities around the country to come home this weekend to enjoy the  music concerts and gigs and the live music in the town's pubs. 

"The Clancy Festival is really three festivals rolled into one - music, arts and the river festival," he explained. "People look forward to different aspects of the festival. Some love the River Family Day at Sean Healy Park; more like the concerts and pub music sessions while others like drama, the workshops and art exhibitions. There is a variety of events there to suit everyone." 

Mr Butler called on local people to support the festival and encouraged people from all over Co. Tipperary and further afield to visit Carrick-on-Suir and check out the festival   celebrating the music legacy of Paddy, Liam, Tom and Bobby Clancy from William Street. 

The festival kicks off tonight (Wednesday, May 23) with the festival opening concert at Brewery Lane Theatre.  The Clancy Family Concert featuring performances from members of the Clancy Brothers extended family and Robbie O'Connell takes place at the same venue on Thursday night.  

While the Clancy Family Concert is underway, local folk singers will be competing in the Eoghan Power Memorial Singing Competition in Figgerty's Pub at 9.30pm on Thursday. 

The High Kings folk group, which includes Bobby Clancy's son Finbarr, are once again by the headline act performing at festival. Some tickets are still available for their concert at the Strand Theatre this Friday, May 31 at 8pm.   

Carrick-on-Suir Musical Society's members will host a concert to mark  the Society's 75th anniversary at the Strand on Sunday at 8pm. 

Cork singer/songwriter John Spillane will perform in concert at Brewery Lane at 8.15pm on Saturday and will  host a songwriting workshop earlier for people aged 16 and older earlier that day. 

Carrick's Main Street will also be filled with traditional music on Saturday thanks to the festival's Youth Busking Competition, which kicks off at 2pm. The competition is open to solo and group acts, whose performers are under 18 years old. 

Other music highlights include the Evolution concert by local duo Breege Phelan and Will McLellan, who call themselves The Wood of O and the Sionnach traditional music and song concert in the Nano Nagle Centre Chapel on Sunday, June 2 featuring Martin Murray, Paul Grant, Gerry Madden, Mick Forristal and Tommy Keane. Robbie O'Connell and Rose Clancy will perform at Ormond Castle on Bank Holiday at 3pm on Monday. 

There will also be music every night on the Live Music Pub Trail, with many favourites returning and new faces coming to town to play folk and trad throughout the town.  

Riverside Fun Day and other events at Clancy Festival 

Clancy Festival organisers are keeping their fingers crossed for good weather for the Riverside Fun Day in Carrick-on-Suir's Seán Healy Park on Sunday afternoon June 2. 

The event kicks off at 2pm and will feature amusements and merry-go-rounds, local and international traditional crafts, face painting, Irish dance, food stalls and a free open air concert. 

One of the highlights will be a series of river races featuring traditional cots and rafts. Fun day visitors will also be treated to a range of musical entertainment performed from the festival stage.

Arts Trail 

Local artists will exhibit their work in venues throughout Carrick town.  In keeping with the Festival's Woodstock Festival 50th anniversary theme, artists will be giving the town a hippie style decor makeover.   

 Festival walks

A programme of walks and tours is also planned. The first will be a walking tour of Carrickbeg Places and Faces led by Brian White, which takes place on Thursday at 7pm. 

Teresa Moran, artist and national tour guide, will lead a heritage walking tour of Carrick at 10am on Saturday June 1. It will cost (€5). 

There is the popular River Walk to Dove Hill at 9.30am on Sunday, June 2 which includes breakfast at Dove Hill Design Centre. 

Brian White will lead a cycle from Ormond Castle to Kilsheelan on Monday, June at 12.30pm, stopping along the way for stories from guest raconteurs highlighting the nature and history of the River Suir. 

Drama

Brewery Lane Drama Group  will stage a lunchtime drama called  ‘After Hours’ by Philip Callan  at Brewery Lane Theatre on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Kids Workshops

A range of childrens and youth art and music workshops will take place in various venues around Carrick-on-Suir. 

For more festival details contact the Tudor Artisan Hub at (051) 640921 or check:www.clancybrothersfestival.com.