Fleadh 2026 Belfast

[Tony Baloney]

City centre was packed at 7 this evening when I left. Disappointed with music could hear very little with pubs and amplification. Never seen so many Antrim jerseys in my life.

This really needs to be addressed for next year. Whites have a stage slap bang on the centre of High Street that I gather is their own and not an "official" stage. Loudspeakers blasting it everywhere.

Was standing outside Maddens on Thurs afternoon chatting to a fella I know and he said he was inside but too packed and was expecting an outdoors session. I said to him it's round the corner - there were about 10 musicians in full flight and they couldn't be heard from about 10m away!

[Dougal Maguire]

Amplified music is now a plague at fleadhs but it has crept in over the years although Ennis and Mullingar were free of it from what I can remember. Banty McEnaney's pub was blasting out John Cougar and the like when the Fleadh was in Drogheda, there was considerable piped and amplified music in Derry while Wexford, along the quay, had a huge car park converted to open air venue with loads of loud music from various genres.

[Square Ball]

Jez, some social media accounts working overtime spinning the impact some bands had on the Fleadh 😂

[Wildweasel74]

Said at the start of the week, the pubs with the speakers full tilt, drowning out people actually playing traditional irish music and instruments!

[Newbridge Exile]

We ended up most of the day yesterday in the Sunflower, a trad session going on inside and outside  and no music blaring out over speakers ,it was our first time in it and there was a real good  vibe about(cheap beer too )

[Tony Baloney]

We ended up most of the day yesterday in the Sunflower, a trad session going on inside and outside  and no music blaring out over speakers ,it was our first time in it and there was a real good  vibe about(cheap beer too )

Was probably the pick of the venues for me on Thursday too. The pepperoni pizza helped too 

[Newbridge Exile]

We ended up most of the day yesterday in the Sunflower, a trad session going on inside and outside  and no music blaring out over speakers ,it was our first time in it and there was a real good  vibe about(cheap beer too )

Was probably the pick of the venues for me on Thursday too. The pepperoni pizza helped too 

The  Pizzas sure did hit the spot  ok

[gallsman]

Heeeerrrrrrre's Nolan!

[imtommygunn]

What's he on about?

[gallsman]

Nothing much so far. Gordon Lyons praising it but some SFer spoke too much about the Irish language. Nolan found all the coverage completely OTT and essentially sycophantic but he was in and found it all very emotional and it's the Belfast and Norn Iron he wants to live in.

[Norm-Peterson]

I don't know why they allowed an orange pipe band to play at it. Why do they have to be involved in it? That is the organisation who don't even allow Catholic unionists to join. Is it just a case of virtue signalling by Catholics? Trying to look better than them.

I also heard there was highland dancing too. This is something that confuses me. It is considered a part of unionist culture yet they always say that their ancestors were lowland Scots rather than the Highland Gaels. They seem to pick and chose what part of Gaelic culture that suits them.
It shows you how twisted they are. If they are interested in dancing they could have just joined the local Irish dancing club but they view that as too Irish.

Although there was a well known Irish dancing teacher in my area who was raised Protestant.

[gallsman]

They seem to pick and chose what part of Gaelic culture that suits them.

They are far from alone in that regard.

[imtommygunn]

The only two complaints I heard were about the hatch food takeaway (which apparently has had to shut in banbridge) playing whatever song it was and then there were apparently two "IRA bands" played somewhere I think on Friday.

Lockhart and Poots going mad on the former. The latter I have heard less about as it just seemed to be some random street stuff.

Your man Brett is a bit of a laugh too talking about a confident unionism. His party ethos seems to be vote for us to keep them ones out so maybe he should practise what he preaches and try and showcase their values rather than the value being we're not them.

All in all more or less no negativity which given the number of people at it is amazing.

[Tony Baloney]

Don't think next year will go quite so smoothly. The "other side" already making waves that it should essentially be 50:50 orange and green. As we know if you give them an inch, which is what happened with introducing loyalist bands, they'll take a mile. They seem to be pushing a narrative that Orangefest i.e. triumphalism, burning pallets, hatred for other cultures etc. is a direct equivalent of the joy-filled scenes we have seen all week.

[imtommygunn]

I think the loyalist bands playing was the right thing to do though. There still seems a lack of awareness though that the culture isn't very inclusive or welcoming.