Sun-soaked Castlefest a great success
A sun-soaked Nenagh Castle played home to a fantastic weekend of music, dancing and general fun for Nenagh Castlefest 2018.
Visitors came from far and wide to the town for the weekend, which was hailed as a great success. Large crowds attended the Castle Field for the Live@TheCastle stage where Muriel O’Connor and Fran Curry got the show on the road on Saturday.
Locals Lisa Manning, James McGrath and FarHaven kept the crowd rocking until country singer Johnny Brady, one of the stars of the show, took it to a new level on Saturday afternoon. The amazing Sharon Shannon and her band brought Saturday night to a crescendo.
Sunday saw Nenagh Ormond Brass Band kick things off before the Flynn O’Kane Dance Academy wowed the crowd with some amazing sets. The jazz and blues of Ebony had everyone up dancing again before the energetic Derek Burke and Crystal Swing brought the house down with some amazing moves and lots of classic dancing tunes.
The chair of the organising committee, Cllr Hughie McGrath, said: “We knew that the weather would be a big factor and so it was great to get such great weather all weekend. It was brilliant to see everyone enjoying the festival, and we thought it was lovely that each of the artists took the time to come out and meet their fans and have their photos taken or have a chat with them. Even though last year’s festival was a great success, you always want to improve things and I think we got the right blend of music.
“There was a bit of everything – country, folk, ballads and trad. And there were people up and down the castle all-day both days too, so it’s nice to see that with all that’s going on, people still have a grá for Nenagh Castle and are interested in it.
“We’ll sit down in the coming weeks and put our heads together and tease out how we might go about 2019 – but first we have to recover from 2018!”
Tom Boland of Ormond Comhaltas said the festival is now established with the people of Nenagh: “I’ve had so many people come to say thanks and to congratulate us on the festival, which is always nice to hear, but more importantly they told us that the Castlefest is now established as a festival to be proud of.
“From the traditional music perspective, we had a huge weekend – our concert in the Arts Centre went great, our workshops on Saturday morning were all full, we had pub sessions in full flow on Friday and Saturday nights, and we found impromptu sessions breaking out in various places over the weekend. Through our Facebook page we had contact from people from all over the country and tourists visiting the country, asking about the events and most of these came and spent the whole weekend here.
“We’re looking forward to working with Hughie and his crew again for next year’s festival; we all get on very well. We’re all working towards the same goal – creating something good for the town – so we’ll get back in the saddle in the autumn and start working on next year’s festival.”