It started with the classes!

Accordion with Mick Mulcahy                         Banjo with Mick O Connor

Concertina with Michelle Mulcahy             Fiddle with Antone MacGabhann

Flute with Aiofe Granville

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 View Festival highlights video

It was a fantastic event!!! My first time at the Turning Wave Festival - certainly not my last.

Everything was not only so well organised, and entertaining, but everyone was so friendly. Even the weather was brilliant! My friend and I had a wonderful time - nothing to fault. Keep up the great work. You all put a lot of hard work into  making this such a successful event - it shows! Great web-site too. It was great to dance every Ceili and workshop and still be able to attend music concerts. (Diane Green)

Thank you all for another fantastic Turning Wave festival. As in 2006 I had a ball and haven't stopped talking about how great it was since I got home.  The organisation was very impressive. The volunteer t-shirts were great and made it easy to identify someone who could help. The availability of food during the day was also first rate with a lot of great options. It was a brilliant festival and I am already booking the time off work for next year. (Patrick Kelso - Sydney)

The festival highlight for me was Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh. There aren't too many trad players who can make time stand still - he's one of them (along with Martin Hayes - I can't actually think of a third one). Instead of trying to "out do" everybody with a zillion crunchy ornaments, he's gone in the opposite direction. Thanks to Culture Ireland for bringing him and his two mates Eithne Ní Chatháin - a wonderful sean nos singer and herself a great fiddler and her brother Enda O' Catháin who kinda took a 'back seat' to the other two but also an outstanding fiddler. (Mark Huppert - Canberra)

Thankyou very much for having Tulca Mór at the festival this year. All the lads really enjoyed it and found it to be a very good experience. A really great setting for the type of festival you are running as well. I hope the event went well for you and that your expectations for the event were well met. We very much appreciated being invited to participate this year. We really like the cultural integrity of the festival and find that it fits neatly with our own philosophy and appreciation of Irish music. We especially like the small acoustic venues and St Patrick's hall. Our billets and the organisational side of things was brilliant! Thanks very much to yourself and the festival committee members. Fred Graham (Tulca Mór)

Just had a momentous week at the Turning Wave Festival. Ruth Boylan from Kildare was teaching concertina, and for three days eleven of us were injected with enough concertina wisdom to keep us going for a year. She's one of those sneaky legends... monstrously good player, brilliant take on tunes and seamless technique.

The festival's master classes run from Wed to Fri before the festival, and they're intimate and well-run. I'd recommend them to any Aussies, especially as it's so difficult to make it to Ireland for similar classes.

Had some great tunes on the weekend with various characters from all over. Lott's pub had a perfect front room and the publicans were friendly and into the music. Looks like the town will support the festival for years to come, which is great because it's not easy for a festival to please locals and festival-goers simultaneously.

Any festival that gets sessions right has got to be supported, I reckon!  (Kate Burke)

Many thanks to everyone involved in the organisation and presentation of TWF 2007. I thought last year was fantastic and this year was even better. I had an absolutely brilliant time, and the performances I managed to get to were fantastic. There were lots of informal sessions popping up and it seemed you couldn't go more than 100 metres in the main street without running into musos and festival groupies hanging out at a café, restaurant, or in the park. (Bill Quinn)

2006

The First Turning Wave Festival

It is generally acknowledged that the Irish nation never invaded another country nor did they ever establish a political or economic empire, but on the very long weekend of September 13-17, Gundagai was definitely invaded by the Irish, bringing music, dance, poetry and stories, crafts, and above all atmosphere. (John Carroll)

All the tracks are winding back…. These words, on the front of the free ‘ What’s on in Gundagai’ seemed very clear to me. Yet, on the first day I spoke to locals who claimed they were not sure what it was all about.  Nevertheless, the township had bedecked itself with more Irish colours and shamrocks than I had seen since St Patrick’s  day. Everyone was friendly and keen to talk about the Gundagai and the Festival. Rain, though not enough, had fallen in the previous weeks, so it seemed even the surrounding paddocks had donned emerald green. (R. Dale Dengate) 

Spread the news - A brand new festival of Irish and Australian Music has been founded in the historic town of Gundagai – and long may it continue! Two years in the planning, this event impressively combines interesting characters, excellent music and dance, poetry and storytelling, a welcoming atmosphere and comfortable venues. The historic main street of Gundagai makes for an ideal setting – café’s and bakeries spread their tables onto the pavement in the glorious sunshine, while solid verandahs shade the fronts of hotels alive with music. (Chloe & Jason Roweth)

2010 Festival Theme

Ireland over here!

A celebration

of our Irish heritage

and all things Irish in Oz.

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