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seasonal · Wednesday 5 August 2026 · Various 
39th International Feakle Festival of Traditional Irish Music 2026
At Various Venues, Feakle · Feakle, Co. Clare
At Various Venues, Feakle · Feakle, Co. Clare
Every August, the small East Clare village of Feakle draws traditional musicians and listeners from across Ireland and well beyond for what many regard as one of the most intimate and genuinely rooted trad festivals in the country. Now in its 39th year, the International Feakle Festival is not a commercial spectacle - it is a week-long gathering built around the East Clare music tradition, with workshops run by leading players, evening concerts in the community hall, céilithe, pub sessions that run late into the night, and events for children. If you care about traditional Irish music and want to experience it close up rather than from the back of a large arena, this is the one.
The 2026 festival runs Wednesday 5 to Monday 10 August, and the programme builds across the six days. The Opening Night on Wednesday (7:30pm, Community Hall) is free to attend. From Thursday through Saturday, three days of workshops take place across multiple venues including the National School, local pubs and the Community Hall, starting at 10:00am - tutors for 2026 include Martin Hayes, Mary MacNamara, Eileen O’Brien, Jack Talty, Maeve Donnelly and several others. Workshop tickets are €25 per day or €60 for all three days. Evening concerts run €15 to €30 and tickets are available through feaklefestival.ie. Céilithe with the Tulla Céilí Band and others cost €10 on the door. Running through the week are informal pub sessions - these are free and open to all, whether you play or just want to listen. The 2026 theme is “Looking back while moving forward: the past, present and future of the East Clare music tradition,” which shapes the talks, a pop-up Gaeltacht, a village heritage walk and a feature-length documentary on Martin Hayes called Natural Grace. Children are well catered for with free puppet performances and other activities.
Feakle sits in East Clare, roughly 30 km east of Ennis on the R462. The most practical way to reach the village is by car - there is no direct public transport link. From Ennis the drive takes around 35 minutes; from Limerick city allow about an hour. Parking within the village is limited, and the festival signposts overflow parking during the week. If you are coming from further afield, Ennis is the closest large town with rail connections to Limerick and Galway.
Feakle itself is a quiet village most of the year, but it sits in some fine East Clare countryside, close to Lough Graney and the Slieve Aughty hills. Accommodation in the village is very limited - book well in advance in nearby Scariff, Tulla or Ennis. There is more to see in Feakle and across Co. Clare.
Heading to Various Venues, Feakle in Feakle? Clare has plenty more to see. Read the Feakle area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.