51st Annual Irish Music & Dance Festival

Name: 51st Annual Irish Music & Dance Festival
Start: 2025-10-10T19:00:00-04:00
End: 2025-10-12T17:00:00-04:00
Location: 6815 Emlen St, Philadelphia, PA

Schedule

Fri, 10 Oct, 2025 at 07:00 pm to Sun, 12 Oct, 2025 at 05:00 pm

UTC-04:00

Location

6815 Emlen St, Philadelphia, PA | Bala Cynwyd, PA

Hope you like music because we made sure that our 51st Irish Traditional Music and Dance Festival is packed from top to bottom with live music over three days. FRIDAY, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY October 10,11 and 12, 2025.
The oldest traditional Irish traditional music festival in the county runs from from October 10-12 at The Irish Center in Philadelphia.
Our beloved Traditional Singers’ Night of the festival will be held on FRIDAY October 10th (a change from years past
When we held this on Thursday night) bringing some great singers, including Martha Wright and hosted by our very own, Terry Kane!
On Friday night, there will be a ceili dance with live music in the Ballroom of the Irish Center. John Shield’s will be calling sets and Ceili dances PLUS a Costume contest with prizes!

Saturday is a full day of music and Irish Culture:
Workshops and Children's programming starting in the afternoon including Mask Making, children's crafts, turnip/Jack O' Lantern decorating, irish language for kids, St Brigid's Cross making and Face painting.

The Ballroom will have music all day including a showcase of The Next Generation session featuring The Callahans and Noonans, The John Kelly Memorial Session, A Rambling House with the Rookery and friends and closing out with Tim Britton and Brendan Callahan with Jefferson Hamer and the band, Open the Door For Three!
Open the Door for Three is fiddle player Liz Knowles, uilleann piper Kieran O’Hare, and Dublin-born singer and bouzouki player Pat Broaders. Their music is a rare combination of unearthed tunes from centuries-old collections, newly composed melodies, fresh arrangements of songs old and new, homages to the musicians and bands they grew up listening to, and the unmatched energy of a trio of good friends playing great Irish music together.
Liz, Kieran, and Pat have been mainstays of the Irish music scene around the world, having distinguished themselves over the last two decades as soloists with Riverdance, Cherish the Ladies, String Sisters, Secret Garden, Anúna, and The New York Pops. As a trio, they have played to a wide range of audiences in venues large and small, from Irish festivals, to concert halls, house concerts, and pubs. They have performed around the world: on Broadway and at Carnegie Hall, at L'Olympia and the Palais des Congrès in Paris, in Malaysian rainforest festivals, in theatres from Shanghai to São Paulo, and even in a bullring in Mallorca. Most recently, they have been featured at The Kennedy Center’s Ireland 100 festival, the Celtic Colours festival in Cape Breton, at The Milwaukee Irish Festival, and in The Masters of Tradition series in Bantry, County Cork, Ireland.
Irish music is a living, breathing part of Irish and Irish-American culture, and there is no single story that can sum up its history, its charm, grace, and drive. The soul of Open the Door for Three’s music is filled with connections: the connections to people and places, to teachers and heritage and audiences, and to the stories and humor that bring us all together. From these connections comes inspiration, which fills a bottomless well that keeps the trio coming back again and again – to refill, refuel, reinvent, and share.
Join us for our Monthly 2nd week of the month FREE events that begin and end the festival: Every 2nd Thursday, join Terry Kane for our Local Singers Session beginning around 730pm. Every 2nd Sunday we join the Next Generation session from 1-3pm and teach Ceili dancing with Bobby Graham from 3-5pm! FUN FOR ALL AGES + FREE!
You do not want to miss out on this year! Get your tickets now and remember to bring the whole family--- Kids under 17 are ALWAYS FREE!
Tickets to the festival are available at:
www.philadelphiaceiligroup.com
☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️☘️