‘Delight’ as Coventry confirmed as host city for All Britain Fleadh

THE annual All Britain Fleadh will be staged in Coventry this year the organisers have confirmed.

In a statement issued this week, the Provincial Council and Midland Region of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann said they were “delighted” to announce that the festival of Irish music, song and dance, will held be held at Bishop Ullathorne Catholic School from June 27 to 29, 2025.

A young performer pictured at last year’s All Britain Fleadh held at the University of Leicester (Pics: Chris Egan)

It will mark the first time the event has been held in Coventry, which was due to host the event in 2020 but it failed to go ahead due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“As proud hosts of the UK City of Culture in 2020, the Fleadh was supposed to take place In Coventry as a high point of the celebrations,” the organisers explained.

“Now members of several local branches, spearheaded by Coventry, are in full planning mode preparing for the final round of competitions across Britain, whose winners achieve the lofty heights of qualifying for the All Ireland Fleadh in Wexford in the summer,” they added.

Coventry Comhaltas’s Innisfree Ceili Band in action

The organisers are excited to welcome the 2,000 people that are expected make their way to Coventry from across Britian to take part in the competition this summer.

“Coventry Comhaltas celebrated 50 years recently and wants to continue the fostering of our newer generations in their rich culture by encouraging participation in the Fleadh,” the organisers said.

“The primary purpose of the Fleadh is competitions in a whole range of instruments, both as solo and group performances, and also singing.

Members of Coventry Comhaltas pictured at the Midlands Regional Fleadh

“However, aficionados of the music will also gather informally to play together in sessions, chat ‘as gaeilge’ and cement friendships formed from years of socialising with musicians from all over Scotland, Wales, and the North and South of England,” they added.

“Up to two thousand Fleadh attendees who will travel to Coventry for the weekend, which all in all, is shaping up to be one with plenty of craic, whether this is your first taste of Irish hospitality, or you are returning for the umpteenth time to a Festival which is one of the highlights of a musician’s year.”