The idea of starting a Music festival began in 1996. The members of the Bandon Vintners Association set up a fund, which would be used to start up the festival in Bandon during the June Bank holiday weekend each year. As soon as the fund was in place we approached Guinness Ireland Group and with them on board the festival was born.

Originally called after a well-known jig, the first “Humours of Bandon” Traditional music festival got off to a great start in 1997 with a huge line up of well-known traditional musicians. With the help of two well-known people in the music world, Una Johnson and Lisa Tinley of CARPE DIEM PRODUCTIONS, we built up a great relationship with the musicians who have played for the festival over the years. We would not have gone this far without their help. “Treat the musicians well and everything else will follow”. We did this and over the years many of the musicians have returned. Traditional musicians SLIDE, from Dublin played in two different groups in Bandon in 1997 and afterwards started up together.

At the beginning the festival theme came from the traditional music area and we built up a very strong following of supporters who return each year. In 2002, we decided that the time had come to spread our wings, whilst maintaining the high quality of entertainment. We promoted the festival as the BANDON MUSIC FESTIVAL and the headline acts included Hothouse Flowers and Juliet Turner. On the Guinness Music Trail the music was a mixture of trad sessions, folk and rock music. The festival captured an even greater audience and we were into a new era.

Over the following four years the Bandon Music Festival has grown from strength to strength.  We have witnessed great acts e.g. Mundy, Gerry Fish and The Mudbug Club, Aslan and the Saw Doctors.    And this year is no exception – Mary Black, Director, Duke Special and Jennifer Lomasney.  We are very proud of what we consider to be one of the best music festivals in Ireland.

Finally, none of this would be possible without the continued support of our sponsors and the participating vintners from Bandon, which are listed in the sponsorship section.  

Carmel Nynan, Chairperson
Email : info@bandonmusicfestival.com