Festivals

April-May 2026

The 2026 Feile Chois Cuain will take place from Thursday, 30th April to Monday 4th May in Louisburgh.

The event is a traditional music festival that attracts music enthusiasts from many parts of Ireland and abroad.

It has earned an enviable reputation as one of Ireland’s premier traditional festivals, with many of Ireland’s most revered performers returning year after year.

It is renowned for the high quality of its informal sessions in pubs and streets all over the weekend. Everybody is welcome to join the music, sing a song, play a tune or dance a step.

It is also well known for the concerts and for the classes in every traditional instrument, such as accordion, harp, fiddle, flute, tin whistle, concertina and banjo and in sean-nos singing, ballads and set dance.

On Thursday, the Youth Concert will take place, featuring local and visiting artists In the Parochial Hall at 7.00 pm.

The Official launch will be in An Bhun Abhainn and McNamara’s at 5.00 pm on Friday 1st May with Cead Mile Failte Sessions, followed by Outdoor Performance with Glór na dTonn Ceili Band at 7.30 pm and Festival Launch Events at 9.30 pm.

The 2026 Programme is the following:

Saturday Masterclass

Masterclasses from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm at Sancta Maria College.

Tutors for 2026

Fiddle

Méabh Smyth and Jason McGuinness

Accordion

Seamus Tiernan and Noel Stapleton

Flute

Emer Mayock and Deirdre Hurley

Tin Whistle

Kathryn Tiernan and Tom Gavin

Concertina

Jack Talty and Mairead Hurley

Banjo

Paraic Mac Donnchadha

Harp

Laoise Kelly

Traditional Singing

Deirdre Scanlan

Singing in the Sean-nós Style

Slaine Ní Chathalláin

Sean-nós Dancing

Eimear Mulvey and Chloe Feeney

Set Dance Workshop

Padraig and Roisin McEneany

Group Performance for Teenagers

Maggie Maguire

The Trad for Teens will follow from 5pm to 7pm

The Tutors’ Concert wil take place at 8pm.

Sunday

All social events will take place

The Trad for Kids Session will take place at 2.00 pm followed by Trad for Teens Session at 5pm.

The Set Dance Social will take place at 9.00 pm

Monday

From 12.30 pm onwards there will be “Slan Ahaile” Sessions in all pubs.

There will be shuttles from Louisburgh Square to the main pubs.