What can listeners at home who've not heard it before, what can they expect?

Well, the flag here on the Heron is the biggest celebration of traditional music in the world.

It has been in existence since the 1950s.

And in that time, it has just mothballed into one of the greatest celebrations of traditional arts to be found anywhere.

It welcomes those who are intricately involved in the music and compete and qualified to get to compete at the Flag Hall and then gathers up a whole tribe of listeners, people who enjoy the music on the fringes and in the margins and those who are central to it in sessions and on the streets.

It's just an amazing celebration of all of our arts here on this island.

And just going back to you briefly, Donald, Tradfest, which is just wrapped up and you're the artistic director and co-founder of, why was it important to establish a festival like that in Belfast, do you think?

Well, we established Tradfest because there was no summer school of traditional music in Belfast or in the north of Ireland.

Mm-hmm

... um, and my grandmother Rose's tunes that she taught us.

But they weren't the same tunes as the tunes that were being played in the sessions in Belfast, I quickly discovered.

And so I would come up, and I would spend quite a bit of time with a fiddle on my knee, if I was brave enough to take the fiddle out in the first place.

And it took some older, well-established musicians and their encouragement to invite me to take the instrument out of the case.

I think particularly of people like Brendan O'Hare, and Andy Dixon, and Davey Maguire.

And then there were some younger musicians, still slightly older than me, but they were encouraging, the likes of Jason O'Rourke and Jim Rainey.

[laughs]