Longford Summer Festival back with a bang for 2023

This photo was captured by Darren Holden of The High Kings who performed on the final night of the fantastic Longford Summer Festival

placeholder image — This photo was captured by Darren Holden of The High Kings who performed on the final night of the fantastic Longford Summer Festival

Longford Summer festival returns from July 13-16 after a three year Covid induced absence.

The festival returned to the streets of Longford town in 2017 and scaled rapidly to a mammoth nine day festival in 2019.

Highlights from 2019 included the recently deceased Christy Dignam and the late Liam Reilly of the famed Bagatelle.

Aided by grant aid from the LEADER fund, it was one of the biggest events in the Midlands that summer with a 30,000 plus attendance over the nine nights. Now the local committee has confirmed that the festival is set to return on July 13-16 for four nights.

Unfortunately, LEADER funding isn’t an option until 2024 but the organisers didn’t want to miss another year and now thanks to the support of their main sponsor Longford Municipal District Council, they are able to return for four nights.

The event will open on Thursday, July 13 with Johnny Brady, whilst it’s the turn of country sensation, Nathan Carter on the Friday night.

It will be an emotional return for Bagatelle & friends on the Saturday night as they return to remember Liam Reilly, who sadly passed away in January 2021 – 18 months after an epic Longford show.

Pride of place on a packed Sunday programme will be local band Audio Pilot. The lads are selling out festivals and theatres across the country and it's great to be able to showcase them in their home town and it's fantastic to have a local band bring the curtains down on what hopefully will be four great nights.

With no access to LEADER funding this year and whilst trying to preserve the ‘free music’ ethos of the event, the organisers are encouraging the public attending the festival to make a voluntary donation on admission.

The charge is completely optional and the organisers have suggested a €5 contribution for Thursday, Saturday and Sunday whilst its €10 for Friday night and Nathan Carter.

However they emphasise that the charge is entirely optional but will be critical to offsetting the considerable cost of running the festival.