Twenty years ago the great Irish fiddle player, Martin Hayes, gave a late night concert in this Festival. This led directly to the creation of Masters of Tradition, another Bantry Festival that he directs for us every August. Half the audience that night was made up of the Festival musicians, many of whom were huge fans of Irish traditional music. Martin has a head full of Irish traditional tunes and does long mesmerising sets improvising on one tune after another. For the score-bound chamber musician his playing is a revelation.
