Saturday. London. Lovely sunny day, stretched out on the grass, cold beer in hand. Fifty thousand happy revellers trekked to London's Finsbury Park on Saturday for the annual London Fleadh. Billed as the biggest celebration of Celtic music anywhere in the world, this outdoor musical extravaganza marks the beginning of the summer music festival season.
The fleadh (to be pronounced "flar" according to the less than helpful programme notes) remains very much a community affair, catering as it does for the massive Irish population in north London. Although ostensibly most acts are supposed to have a "Celtic" connection to qualify for inclusion, the organisers take a rather liberal interpretation of the terms. Thus this year's headliners were Manchester indie band, James.
Sinead O'Connor, Shane McGowan, Mary Coughlan, Paul Brady and Billy Bragg (who is from the well-known Irish stronghold of Essex) all admirably entertained the up-for-it crowd, while comperes Dave Fanning and Sean Hughes jollied things along with appropriate between-bands banter.
An on-site, part-shuddering bungee jump proved very popular but also had the drawback of emptying the odd stomach or two. The earth-bound punters contented themselves with tossing around giant inflatable Guinness pints. The stalls offered everything from a pair of leather trousers to herbal cigarettes and never have so many veggie burgers been seen in one place at the one time.
Given the ethnic nature of the show, there were more Tricolours being flown in the audience than you would see in west Belfast. Such is the laid-back success of the fleadh, and the strength of the bill, that this year the organisers (the Mean Fiddler Company) are putting the whole show on the road and next month the fleadh tours around America and then goes on to Australia and New Zealand. Everywhere, it seems, except Ireland.
