My time at TradFest

By Conor Diamond

I started learning the fiddle 5 years ago and have been attending the Belfast TradFest Summer and Winter festivals for the past 3 years. As someone who is relatively fresh to the traditional music world, it can be intimidating at times to think about joining in with a session or participating in a workshop with so many seasoned players, but with every Belfast TradFest event that I have been to I'm only more convinced that the traditional music world is for everyone regardless of your background or experience.

During the Summer festival, Belfast feels transformed - it's surreal that you can go from a lesson in the morning with one of the musicians responsible for you picking up the instrument in the first place, to watching them perform on stage after lunch and end the night playing alongside them in a session.

Some of my favourite memories are from the talks I decided to sit in at the last minute that completely changed how I think about the music.

I've also volunteered a few times for Belfast TradFest - it's fun to see a bit behind the scenes of how everything comes together but even better to just meet the other volunteers and learn something about their own stories.

If you would like to attend Belfast Summer School of Traditional Music in 2025, find out more here.

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Conor is on the board of Belfast Trad, an organisation that offers a variety of weekly traditional music classes at Stranmillis University College, Belfast.

If you would like to find out more, please visit BelfastTrad.com.