The Johnny Keenan Banjo Festival held in Longford town is on for September 24th-27th.
The festival includes concerts, including the trad Irish group Lúnasa, and workshops on traditional Irish instruments, especially on the banjo. You can see the full schedule here:
http://www.johnnykeenan.com/index.htm
I met Johnny Keenan for the first time during a session at O’Donoghue’s in Dublin, where I’ve joined in on the bodhrán over the years, when on hols there. I also ran into Johnny in Boston a couple of times, always had great conversations with him about the music. Johnny Keenan passed away in March of 2000, and the annual festival in his honor started up in 2002.
Here is a nice video of Johnny and Brendan Keenan:
Decided to add a clip of Lúnasa in concert:
I have connections with the group, Cillian Vallely, Uilleann piper from Armagh, taught me flute one summer when he was part of the Boston session scene in the 1990′s, around the same time I met Seán Smyth, fiddle player from Mayo, as we were on a Paddy’s day parade float playing the trad in Lawrence.
The festival should be very good, wish I were over for it..
