In one month, the Cracker and I will be heading to the North Texas Irish Festival in Dallas. This is the 2nd largest Irish Festival in the US. We've been going to the festival, one or the other of us for 11 years and is it worth the trip! In addition to the music at the festival, which is held at Fair Park, the host hotel is the scene of some great seisuins! Every meeting room, bar, hallway, nook and cranny will have a group of folks making music! (A group of our friends in particular tend to favor a back hallway.)
The festival itself is nothing to sneeze at. They offer 11 headlining acts and 28 featured acts, filling Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday with Irish music (well, actually they throw in a little Scottish and even Breton, or French Celtic). For you dance aficionados, there are several dance schools in attendance and the local feis coincides with the festival. They have a stage just for the little ones and lots of vendors selling their wares (I've been known to start my holiday shopping here).
Performers include the following:
Liz Carroll & John Doyle
Mairtin de Cogain
Jimmy Crowley
Seven Nations (ROCK ON!)
Ed Miller (the "Token Scot")
Needfire
Jiggernaut
"Scottish" Rogues (kick-ass drumming & piping!)
Poor Man's Fortune & Bourree Texane (the Brittany connection)
Jim Flanagan
the triumphant return of Memphis favorite--Clandestine!
and many more!
Here's a video that gives some of the flavor:
We'll be stopping for the requisite Whataburger on the way down, and eating at one of our very favorite restaurants--Cafe Brazil--probably several times while in Dallas. It's a great event, not a bad drive, and awesome music! Join us!
Showing posts with label Seisuins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Seisuins. Show all posts
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Road Trip!
Each year as the New Year begins, the Cracker and I begin planning our assault on the North Texas Irish Festival. Their website has the list of performers up. This festival always provides a great weekend of entertainment. We head down on Friday, stopping in Texarkana to get the Cracker his Whataburger fix. On Friday, we'll either head down to Fair Park for the evening's music or hang out at the hotel to listen to the seisuins.
Seisuins (or sessions), for those who don't know, are where musicians gather together for the joy of playing. Sometimes the most amazing music comes out of seisuins; sometimes new bands are formed at seisuins. I have this great memory of Eileen Ivers playing at a seisuin in Dallas with a family of youngsters. At NTIF, you just wander the ground floor of the host hotel and you're likely to find seisuins in empty meeting rooms, hallways, nooks and crannies, anywhere there is a space big enough for a couple musicians.
Then there's the actual festival! We go at the beginning and stay until the end, or close to the end. We may do a little shopping with the vendors and the CD booth, but it's mostly about hearing as much music as we possibly can. Oh, visiting all the doggies with the different rescue groups--Irish Wolfhounds, Greyhounds, and little dogs too.
Here's a video that gives a flavor of NTIF from 2007
This one shows more of the dancing, but we usually don't see a whole lot of that:
NTIF is a time when we get to see friends that we only see once or maybe twice a year. I have been going to NTIF since 1999, without missing a year. The Cracker didn't travel with me for only 3 of those years. Anyway, we highly recommend this event.
In addition to the music, the seisuins and the old friends, we also get to eat at one of our favorite eateries, Cafe Brazil. Yummy!
We'll see you in Dallas, March 6-8!
Seisuins (or sessions), for those who don't know, are where musicians gather together for the joy of playing. Sometimes the most amazing music comes out of seisuins; sometimes new bands are formed at seisuins. I have this great memory of Eileen Ivers playing at a seisuin in Dallas with a family of youngsters. At NTIF, you just wander the ground floor of the host hotel and you're likely to find seisuins in empty meeting rooms, hallways, nooks and crannies, anywhere there is a space big enough for a couple musicians.
Then there's the actual festival! We go at the beginning and stay until the end, or close to the end. We may do a little shopping with the vendors and the CD booth, but it's mostly about hearing as much music as we possibly can. Oh, visiting all the doggies with the different rescue groups--Irish Wolfhounds, Greyhounds, and little dogs too.
Here's a video that gives a flavor of NTIF from 2007
This one shows more of the dancing, but we usually don't see a whole lot of that:
NTIF is a time when we get to see friends that we only see once or maybe twice a year. I have been going to NTIF since 1999, without missing a year. The Cracker didn't travel with me for only 3 of those years. Anyway, we highly recommend this event.
In addition to the music, the seisuins and the old friends, we also get to eat at one of our favorite eateries, Cafe Brazil. Yummy!
We'll see you in Dallas, March 6-8!
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