Manchester joins forces with Dublin’s Temple Bar Festival

Manchester joins forces with Dublin’s Temple Bar Festival

The Manchester Irish Festival which is one of Europe’s biggest Irish Festivals has joined forces with Dublin’s Temple Bar Tradfest. The Manchester Irish Festival which is now in its 17th year runs from Friday 2 March to Sunday 18 March and features over 200 events at 56 venues. Whilst the Dublin Festival which is now in its seventh year kicks off on Wednesday 25th January and runs until Sunday 29th January in the City Centre.

The 2012 celebration includes headline performers, a showcase of new Irish musicians and a packed family programme. The Festival programme will feature over 200 free events including free music performances on the two outdoor stages in Temple Bar on Saturday and Sunday. In 2011 60,000 people visited the festival with over 12,000 people travelling from oversees. It is expected that this figure will increase to 70,000 in 2012. The festival takes place over 5 days and nights and features more than 23 venues and over 700 performers.

Tony Hennigan the Press Officer of the Manchester Irish Festival said “We are delighted to link up with Dublin, the festival has already established a link with Mayo’s Ballina Festival and eventually wants to create links with festivals all over Ireland and abroad. We recently met the organizers behind New York’s St Patrick Day Parade and hope to tie up a link with the world famous parade sometime in the near future.”
“Temple Bar’s line up looks very exiciting, its great to see Manchester’s multi award winning Mike McGoldrick amongst the headlining acts, as well as the Dubliners who are also playing Manchester Festival in March.”

For more information about the Manchester Irish Festival logo onto www.manchesteririshfestival.co.uk

Temple Bar’s Kieran Hanrahan added “I am very proud of how the TradFest has grown over the past seven years and has become a firm fixture on the Irish festival calendar. The 2011 festival was attended by over 60,000 people who we hope to see increase this year. The 2011 edition of the festival saw a huge increase of international visitors from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, France, Spain and Germany who we look forward to welcoming once again in 2012. Year on year the festival has presented some of the biggest names in Irish music alongside many exciting new performers and musicians. In our headline concerts we have assembled a line-up of some of the most iconic figures in Irish Traditional music coupled with some of the most exciting names in emerging Irish talent. Families will not be disappointed either, with outdoor stages with an emphasis on young Irish music and dance talent; street entertainment and a children’s club are just some of the many free events taking place during the festival. We will also be working in partnership with the Scurlogstown Olympiad who will bring a taste of country life to the city. I have no doubt that people will enjoy a truly exciting celebration of our culture.”

For further information
http://templebartrad.com
TWITTER.com/templebartrad
http://www.facebook.com/TempleBarTradFest