70 artists unite for folk festival in Cork town

The Carrigaline International Maritime and Folk Festival takes place from June 26-28 with performers from six nations.

Heading up the main festival concert is Maddy Prior with Andrew ‘Spud’ Sinclair of Steeleye Span.

Dubbed the Queen of Folk Rock, Maddy has spent a lifetime singing largely traditional songs, and remains one of the most influential voices in international folk music.

Steeleye Span transformed the face of folk music, taking it from village halls into the realms of gold discs, international tours, and mainstream recognition.

Alongside her celebrated work with Steeleye Span, Maddy has written longer, more exploratory pieces covering subjects as wide-ranging as hares, ravens, the Plantagenets, King Arthur, and an imaginative journey through the Chakras. Mostly working with co-writers, she has now set time aside to create a new piece with guitarist Sinclair.

With the aid of modern technology, they will put on an evening of thoughtful and engaging material. The event will include traditional and familiar songs. Maddy is still bringing fresh visions and creativity to her performances.

This concert, in the Carrigaline Court Hotel, will open with a number of other groups to provide a flavour of the overall festival, including Steve Hicks & Lynn Goulbourn, Sound Tradition and Fastnet. Full information on performer profiles and access to tickets (€28) is available on the festival website, or you can get them through Eventbrite.

See carrigalineinternationalmaritimeandfolkfestival.ie

Weekend events

This weekend of song starts on Friday evening, June 26, with a grand opening, when all the performers, 70 in all, come together to do a one-hour session in the hotel, exchanging song after song. They will then split up to follow their weekend programme of songs in the pubs of Carrigaline: The Corner House, The Stable Bar, Mabel Lane, The Gaelic Bar and the Carrigaline Court Hotel, through Friday evening, and all day Saturday and Sunday from opening time to closing time, with additional open air sessions on the Festival Gig Rig in the central car park.

A special concert in The Inkwell Theatre on Saturday night in Minane Bridge will feature five groups from the festival who will provide an eclectic mix of Songs from Land and Sea. Tickets (€18) are now available on the website, at the XL Shop in Minane Bridge and the Inkwell Theatre.

A full list of all performers and their backgrounds is available on the festival website, along with the weekend programme, the venues and some videos.

Who is the festival for?

If you like any type of folk music, this is the festival for you. Almost every performer, both individuals and groups, has a broad repertoire, embracing the wide range of traditional songs from around the world, including sea faring songs and shanties in their programme.

I am told that if you would like to sing along with the old shanties from the days of the Tall Sailing Ships, the sailors’ songs, or ‘Jack Tars’ as they were often called, you are very welcome. All the pub sessions are free entry.

While many of the performers use instruments to accompany themselves on guitar, bouzouki or concertina, the festival is leaning towards a capella groups, so one can expect rich harmonies as they tell their tales through the human voice - groups like Sound Tradition, Wholehearted, Fastnet and Close Quarters.

Of course, there are individual performers too, well known on the international folk festival circuit, such as Martyn Wyndham-Read, Tom Lewis, James Connolly, Clementine Lovell, Chris Wilson, Dick Miles, Brigitte Kloareg and Tom Browne to name a few.

What I like about folk festivals is the fact that there is something genuine and authentic about the singing. Not just because it’s live, but because of its traditional authenticity.

Generally, you get to hear the old songs, sometimes with new interpretations and arrangements, but you know that the roots of the song and the story are still present - perhaps with a tenuous link back through history, sometimes to an unknown origin - but the beauty of the poetry and tune retains its emotion and legitimacy.

Listening to some modern recorded material classed as folk music, it seemed to me to have lost some of the nuances of tradition and storytelling. While the shift from the very traditional to the folk-rock groups of the ’60s and ’70s was an eye-opener for the purists, many realised that, apart from a creative approach with electric instruments, drums and sound management, something fascinating had emerged, and without diminishing traditional storytelling. The music was enhancing the story and reaching out in a new way to our emotions and integration with the story and storyteller.

In fact, that creative shift, kick-started a renewed interest in the whole folk genre. Of course, this did nothing to halt the traditional singing, accompanied or unaccompanied, such as sean nos, which has its own following. If anything, it probably had a positive impact and without any loss to folk culture.

We have singer-songwriters today who retain the great storytelling ability in their work and also have the ability to let us hear their words without crossing the bridge into popular music, where the nuances of the story are often lost in gimmicks, artificially generated sound, disjointed sound bites and story abbreviation.

We are lucky to have a wide range of performers at the Carrigaline International Maritime and Folk Festival that span this range of creativity, tradition and credibility, who can, deliver their wide repertoires with clarity and feeling while entertaining international audiences at festivals and folk clubs worldwide.

Whether you have a specific or passing interest in folk music, be prepared for a first-class weekend of entertainment and the craic.

See carrigalineinternationalmaritimeandfolkfestival.ie