Tradfest: Frankie Gavin & De Dannan with Special Guests (24/1/25)

Coming from a musical family, Frankie Gavin has played fiddle and flute since his teenage years. At the age of seventeen, he won All-Ireland competitions for fiddle and flute. Originally influenced by the great Irish and American-Irish fiddle players such as James Morrison, he later found himself playing with stars: The Rolling Stones, Stephane Grappelli, James Galway and Yehudi Menuhin, and for celebrity audiences including four American presidents: J. F. K on his 1962 visit to Ireland, followed later by Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama. Perhaps most importantly, the name Frankie Gavin is synonymous with De Dannan, the globally celebrated band he founded with Alec Finn in the mid-1970s. Over the years, there have been a numerous star-studded line-ups, and 2023 saw the birth of the latest incarnation of the band. De Dannan now comprises Frankie Gavin on fiddle and flute, Catherine Mc Hugh on piano, Ian Kinsella on guitar, Diarmuid Ó Meachair on melodeon and Kaitlin Cullen-Verhauz on vocals and cello.

Since their formation, the new band have played at Wickham Festival (UK), Ballyshannon Folk and Traditional Music Festival, The All-Ireland Fleadh, Mujllingar, Tonder Festivak (Denmark), and Belfast Tradfest.

The new line-up is as creative and inspiring as any from the band’s long history.

Frankie Gavin and De Dannan are thrilled to share the stage with special guests, BIIRD, for TradFest 2025. BIIRD is an eleven piece all-female supergroup comprising of some of Ireland’s best traditional Irish musicians and dancers who are changing the narrative around the image of women in trad by teaming up with some of Irelands most disruptive and innovative designers and stylists.