Festival to stage Charity concert for The Christie Cancer Hospital

Submitted by acousticfest on Fri, 2010-02-05 16:05
A special Irish concert in aid of The Christie is being staged at Manchester Town Hall on Saturday 6 March

South Manchester College stage Charity concert for The Christie

St Bede’s College in South Manchester and its award winning Irish Music & Dance troupe is to stage a charity concert for The Christie Cancer Hospital. The special event will take place on Saturday 6 March 2010 at the prestigious Manchester Town Hall. It is one of the highlights of the city’s annual Irish Festival and takes place on the opening weekend. Tickets for the event are very limited and have just gone on sale priced £15 for concessions and £20 for adults. They are available online from www.ticketline.co.uk or the College on 0161 226 3323.

The Lord Mayor of Manchester Councillor Alison Firth will officially launch the star studded evening which will feature close to one hundred Irish musicians, singers and dancers. Special guests include the Keegan Kennedy School of Irish dancing and traditional Irish group Shake the Barley, the show is to be compered by the award winning Joe Casserley of The Full Irish Radio Show.

The troupe have been involved in staging sell out annual charity events during the Manchester Irish Festival since 1998 and have helped raise over £160,000 for different charities. They have appeared on numerous national TV shows which include the BBC’s Blue Peter and Songs of Praise. Its former founding principal dancer is the three times world champion – James Keegan who is currently one of the principal dancers with the world famous Lord of The Dance show. A number of this years cast have qualified for the forthcoming World Irish dancing championships and hope to follow in James’s footsteps.

Tony Hennigan the director of the troupe and Head of Technology at the College said “We are delighted to stage this years show for The Christie Cancer Hospital, Manchester is very lucky to have such a world beating institution on our doorstep and it deserves all the support it can get. The Town Hall s a fabulous venue and would like to thank the chairpersons of the Irish festival – Cllr John Flanagan and Kevin Fitzpatrick for helping us secure it for the event.