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SLIGO LIVE MUSIC FESTIVAL

Sligo Live is a national festival celebrating traditional, roots and acoustic music. It was started in 2005. Now in its eight year, it has carved out a niche as one of the most relaxed, intimate music festivals in Ireland. It is held over the October Bank Holiday weekend and brings leading Irish and International Artists to Sligo in the west of Ireland.

Alongside International Acts the festival also consists of free Café Culture concerts, Irish Traditional Music Sessions, Fiddler of Dooney Competition, World Air Fiddle Championships,Street Entertainment, Open-air Markets, Y-Tunes and Spoken Word events.



Every available space in the town is used for music. In addition to concert venues such as The Model Art Gallery, The Hawks Well Theatre, The Knocknarea Arena concerts are also held in Cafes, Pubs, Shopping Centres, Bus Eireann Station, Sligo I.T. and the beautiful Calry Church. Artists mingle freely with the audiences and visitors. 100's of volunteer's and people who work on the event all year around, making the Sligo Live a community driven festival.

More than 40,000 attended the six-day Sligo Live Festival in 2011 where the eclectic programme featured everything from sell-out concerts by Elvis Costello KT Tunstall & Hayseed Dixie, to the World Air Fiddle Championships and a “Y Tunes” competition inspired by the legacy of W B Yeats. More than 400 performers participated at 100 events during Sligo Live where a new addition this year was “Under Bare Ben Bulben’s Head”, a spoken word and literary strand, organised in conjunction with locally based and visiting writers and theatre groups.

It generates an estimated €4.5 million for the local economy.

SLIGO LIVE is in partnership with Glasgow’s much larger Celtic Connections Festival, the world’s largest roots music Winter Festival. The alliance sees festivals cooperating on programming and marketing. Celtic Connections Celtic Connections hosts a Sligo Live night each year and Sligo Live presents a Scottish Programme during Sligo Live. This cements the strong cultural links and kinship between Scotland and Ireland. This partnership has significant cultural value not just for Sligo but for Ireland, and is an opportunity to promote Irish Artists and Scottish Artists to an international audience. This is the first time Celtic Connections a 18 day event, which is held in January each year, has partnered any overseas event.

The very first Sligo Live @ Celtic Connections in 2011 featured Téada, The Unwanted and Túcan. In 2012 accordionist Máirtín O’Connor is paired with guitarist, singer and fiddler Seamie O’Dowd, supported by The Gorgeous Colours & The JPTrio.

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Category:Music Festival