Sean-Nos singer Iarla O Lionaird is fear a' ti at the Beo 2000 festival, which began on Thursday in the National Concert Hall. Traditional music, or Celtic music as Donal Lunny describes it, will be heard over four nights ending tomorrow night with Kila. Earlier on Sunday, a four-piece band called Lia Luachra who won La Bolee des Korrigans' Best Band competition at the Interceltique Festival in Lorient in France two years ago, will play.
The festival continues tonight with Micheal O Suilleabhain on piano and the Clare-born fiddler Martin Hayes and Chicagoan guitarist Dennis Cahill. The festival "gives people an indication of what the potential of traditional music is," says Donal Lunny. A weekend of music in the National Concert Hall is "a step in the right direction". His own group, Coolfin, played on Thursday at the festival. Other acts featured flute and uileann pipe player Michael McGoldrick, and the energetic group, Cran.
Watch out for Altan, who played last night at Beo, and who can now be spotted around the Teelin area in south-west Donegal, as Altan accordian player Dermot Byrne and Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh, who married last year, have just bought a pub, called Cul a' Duin, there.