Largest festival of uilleann pipes outside of Ireland returns to west Wales

Stephen Price

One of the largest gatherings of uilleann pipers outside of Ireland is set to take place in a west Wales village this May as part of an annual Uilleann Pipes Festival.

Each May, Ferryside (Glanyfferi) becomes a magnet for traditional musicians from across Ireland and the UK as well as Europe and North America.

Gŵyl Uilleann Glanyfferi (Ferryside Uilleann Pipes Festival) is the largest Irish uilleann piping event in Wales and since its beginning in 2023 has grown into one of the largest annual gatherings for players and admirers of the traditional Irish instrument outside of Ireland.

This year’s festival, which takes place across 15—17 May in the Carmarthenshire seaside village, will feature a full weekend of classes, concerts, lectures and sessions.

The festival is focussed on teaching, performance, preservation and history, with festival goers celebrateing the traditional music and songs of Wales as an integral part of the weekend.

In 2026, the festival will again be offering a range of classes for Irish and Welsh traditional musicians of various abilities.

The uilleann pipes, also known as Union pipes and sometimes called Irish pipes, are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland.

Their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms píobaí uilleann (literally, “pipes of the elbow”), from their method of inflation.

This year, the festival will feature five local venues hosting concerts, classes and sessions, including the local pubs, community centre, village hall and the church. Local street food vendors will set up in the village in the evenings to offer food for hungry musicians.

The local Ferryside Village Forum has renewed its grant to support the festival’s scholarship programme. They have a group of around 12 volunteers – the Ferryside Festival Champions – who work all weekend to ensure guests are made to feel welcome and are well fed.

Further afield, the festival enjoys the support and sponsorship of the Consulate General of Ireland, Cardiff and Na Píobairí Uilleann, the international association of uilleann pipers based in Dublin.

Festival attendance has grown steadily since its first year. In 2023, they had 27 registrations in total, 18 of
them pipers. Last year in 2025, we had 60 people registered for the full weekend, 44 of them pipers – a
full sell out of our registration ceiling.

One 2025 attendee described the weekend as being ‘big enough to create a festival vibe but small enough to be warm and friendly’, which is exactly the kind of event they set out to achieve.

Guest Musicians

In 2026, the festival will welcome a range of talented guests from Ireland, Wales and England as well as Canada including:

• Tommy Keane and his son Pádraic Keane of Co Galway (both leading pipers of their respective generations)
• Emmett Gill of London/Dublin (Deputy CEO and Archivist of Na Píobairí Uilleann)
• Ceri Rhys Matthews (flute) and Julie Murphy (singing) of Carmarthenshire (two of Wales’s most important traditional musicians)
• Mikey Kenney of Liverpool (a leading player of English fiddle tunes and member of the Liverpool Ceili Band)
• Debbie Quigley of Ottawa, Canada (one of Canada’s finest uilleann pipers)
• Jason Rouse of Co Tyrone/Cardiff (piper and co-organiser of the Festival)

To date, the festival has 45 musicians registered for the weekend, 34 of them pipers, and they are hoping again for another sell out this year.

As always, we will host a ticketed concert of traditional Irish and Welsh music on Saturday evening in the village church.

Highlights include:

• Uilleann pipes workshops
• Fiddle workshop
• Flute workshop
• Workshop on traditional tunes of South
West Wales
• Workshop on traditional unaccompanied
Welsh folksongs
• Workshop on the playing of airs
• Workshop on uilleann pipe regulator
playing
• Workshop on uilleann pipes maintenance
In addition, this year’s event will contain a number of new elements.
• Workshop: The piping style of Patsy Touhy
• Workshop: The piping style of Tommy Reck
• Workshop: Tips on Improving your Piping
• Discussion: Sourcing Repertoire
• Lecture: A History of Uilleann Pipes Recordings: 1898—1940 (free to the public)
• Sunday lunchtime Solo Piping Recital (free to the public)

Full details are available at www.uilleannfestival.wales

For more information contact Rick Lines at [email protected]