South Manchester turned Green for fifteenth annual Irish festival

South Manchester turned Green for fifteenth annual Irish festival
Manchester will celebrate its fifteenth Irish festival with a two week extravaganza featuring two hundred events, staged at forty nine different venues throughout Greater Manchester. South Manchester will once again be one of the main areas of focus for the festival with over one hundred performers taking part in the two week event.

Lawrence Hennigan of the Manchester Irish Festival website said “The festival will feature Art, Culture, Comedy, Community, Dance, Music, Sport and Theatre events, making it one of Europe's biggest Irish Festivals. We have tried to include something for everyone to enjoy in the community and a warm Irish welcome awaits all our visitors.”

The official dates for this years celebration is Friday 5 March to Sunday 21 March, but there are also a number of pre and post festival events from February through to April.

Opening weekend highlights include on the opening night on Friday 5 March, an Irish Blues Festival is staged in Levenshulme as part of the area’s two week tradfest. While Irish Country star Stephen Smyth appears at St Kent’s in Fallowfield. On Saturday 6 March, the award winning 'Young, Gifted & Green' stage their annual show at Manchester Town Hall for The Christie Cancer Hospital and a Clancy Brothers Tribute night takes place on the same evening in Levenshulme.

The Saint Patrick’s weekend celebrations start on Thursday 11 March with the Magner’s sponsored Comedy Festival, followed by a special tradfest concert featuring Donegal’s ‘The Henry Girls’ on Friday 12 March, which are both at m19 bar in Levenshulme. Coronation Street’s newest Irish star – Kieran Cunningham makes his debut on the famous cobbles on the same night and then appears at a special concert on Saturday 13 March at the Union in Levenshulme. The big gig of the weekend takes place at the MEN arena when Dublin’s ‘Jedward’ appear as part of the X-Factor Live tour. The giant annual St Patrick’s festival parade takes place on Sunday 14 March in the city centre along with the Irish Festival market (12-14 March). While Davey Arthur & the Fureys, appear on Tuesday 16 March. St Patrick’s Day itself is filled with events all over the city, which range from special all day traditional Irish music sessions to black tie dinners and special Irish club nights.

The closing weekend of the festival is still packed with events with a special Irish family night in aid of the Niall Melon Trust taking place on Saturday 20 March, at St Mary's Parish Centre in Levenshulme. While the closing night concert on Sunday 21 March features ‘The Dubliners’ at the Lowry.

Levenshulme village which is home to the biggest Irish community outside of London will be staging its own two week annual Tradfest which is being sponsored by Levenshulme Pub Company, Guinness & Magners. The festival which is an intergral part of the city Irish Festival will feature over two hundred and fifty hours of Irish Culture, Comedy, Dance, Music and fun will take over the village's pubs, clubs and parish centres. Most of the events are free and those events where there is a charge have been heavily subsidised by our sponsors to make them accessible to all.

Interesting Facts

The Festival website www.manchesteririshfestival.co.uk is the world’s premier Irish Festival website.

It’s the world’s longest Irish Festival lasting just over two weeks. Dublin itself just stages a weekend.

It’s a community based festival, run by volunteers from the city’s vibrant Irish community. It is not commercially led, but has the support of local businesses and the Manchester City council along with some corporate sponsors.

Levenshulme village is one of the main areas of focus for the festival, it is home to the biggest Irish community outside of London. The village organises its own two week tradfest during the festival, which features twp weeks of Irish music, Comedy & Dance.

One of the highlights of the festival is the annual St Patrick’s Day Parade which has over 70 floats representing every county in Ireland is run by the Irish World Heritage Centre. The Parade is the biggest outside of New York and goes right through the city centre. It is solely a non commercial parade featuring different community groups and run by volunteers.
It has its own very popular annual Irish market attracting traders and visitors from all over Ireland and the UK.

There is a large School based free cultural educational programme, which is run by volunteers during the two weeks of the festival.

The first festival was launched in 1996 by the then President of Ireland Mary Robinson. Other VIP's and celebrities to launch the festival include the late Dr Mo Mowlam, Roy Keane, Michael Flatley, The Irish Prime Minister - Bertie Ahern.

The festival has played host to the likes of Shane McGowan, Toss the Feathers, Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, Westlife, The Corrs, Van Morrison , Mary Black, Sharon Shannon, Hazel O'Connor, Stocktons Wing and The Oyster Band.

Irish Comedians involved have included Peter Kay, Ardal O'Hanlon, Jason Manford, Tommy Tiernan, Jason Byrne and Dylan Moran. They have all appeared in Levenshulme village during the Irish Festival and this year Magner’s continue this tradition of bring the area a top line up Irish Comedians by sponsoring an Irish Comedy Festival.

The festival takes place all over Manchester at over 49 venues featuring 200 events and involving just over 1,000 performers.

It annually attracts close to 100,000 visitors to its parade day alone.