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ICONS Music and Arts Festival
"ICONS or Irish Connections Festival" has a long history in the Boston area as a unique event that celebrates the old and the new, traditional and contemporary, classic with avant-garde... Music assembled and presented in the Irish style, along with it's connections.

The festival dates back to the early 1990s when a group of motivated Irish-Americans in the New England area decided to mount a campaign to create an Irish Cultural Centre. It was decided that a festival to celebrate Irish Culture would be a good way to bring a variety of forces together, and to raise funds in the process.

Through the good-will of then President of Stonehill College, Father Bartley McFadden (originally from County Donegal), a site on the college campus was found to be suitable and the first festival was launched. That was 1990 and the subsequent festivals were truly special events celebrating Irish culture in all its vibrant diversity.

After many successful festivals and other fundraising efforts, and most importantly, the volunteer efforts of hundreds of men and women who believed in the project, a new centre was opened in 1999 on a 50 acre campus in Canton, Massachusetts. In 2005, the Festival was moved home to Canton and since then has been staged at the campus of the Irish Cultural Centre of New England where it will continue into the future.

The name ICONS which is a contraction of Irish Connections, was adopted in 2007 and immediately gained brand recognition. The festival will continue to pay tribute to the true ICONS of Irish Culture along with those who, in time, will themselves become ICONS.

Past Performers Include:

2007- The Black Crowes, Altan, Black 47, Beoga, The Saw Doctors, Cara Dillon, Heidi Talbot, Uncle Earl

2006- Solas, Crooked Still, Liz Carrol and John Doyle, Paul Brady

2005-

2004- The Sharon Shannon Band, Paddy Reilly, Frances Black, Sean Keane, Alison Brown, Eamonn Coyne, Lúnasa, Solas, BCM Fest

2003-

2002-

2001-

2000-

1999-

1998- Marie Brennan, De Dannan, Natalie MacMaster, Cherish the Ladies, Black 47, The Makem Brothers, Dougie MacDonald

1997- Altan, Ashley MacIsaac, Natalie MacMaster, The Black Velvet Band, Delores Keane, Paddy Reilly

1996-Frances Black, Delores Keane, Sharon Shannon, Cherish the Ladies, Dervish, Joe Derrane, Eileen Ivers

1995-

1994-

1993- The Clancy Brothers, Robbie O'Connell, The Rankin Family

1992- The Chieftains, The Clancy Brothers, The Barra MacNeils, The Sharon Shannon Band, Aoife Clancy

1991-