The Trip to Birmingham TradFest

The Trip to Birmingham TradFest is the UK's newest Traditional Irish Music Festival, to be staged over a three day weekend in the latter part of November 2014. The festival is to be held in the Irish Quarter of the city (Digbeth) and will exhibit a colourful celebration of Irish culture with activities including sessions, concerts, workshops and ceilis. The name of the festival is derived from the famous reel written by Sligo flute player Josie McDermott about a trip to the city in the 1960's.

The festival is to appeal to a variety of different audiences from the city's Irish community youth, right through to the older generations, whilst embracing a diverse range of different cultral backgrounds. The festival plans to draw on widely acclaimed artists from across the UK and Ireland, giving the festival an exciting brand of sounds that will appeal to a variety of people's tastes whether they be rooted to core traditional or whether modern fused traditional takes their fancy. The TradFest will also link up 'the old' and 'the new' up and coming musicians, produced on the Birmingham Trad scene. As well as this, the festival aims to target the progression and advancing of the cultural heritage of the Irish community here in Birmingham, strengthening a sense of Irish identity and advancing community cohesion and spirit. We aim to celebrate the contributions that influential members of the city, both bygone and still present, have made to the upkeep of the traditional values of Ireland and it's music.

The Trip to Birmingham TradFest will allow Trad music to achieve the recognition that it rightfully deserves and popularise it with sustainable intentions in the UK's second city.

www.birminghamtradfest.co.uk www.facebook.com/birminghamtradfest www.twitter.com/bhamtradfest