The 39th Cork Folk Festival will see a special performance of its first commission piece, Corcach: A Journey, by renowned musicians The Casey Sisters at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral on opening night (3 October).

Running from 3 – 7 October, over 15,000 people are expected to attend the 2018 Festival. Tickets are available at www.proc.ie/tickets and in ProMusica, Oliver Plunkett Street.

Commemorating the founding of the Cork Folk Festival in 1979, Corcach: A Journey will be performed by harpist Máire Ní Chathasaigh and fiddle players Nollaig Casey and Mairéad Ní Chathasaigh. For full details, visit www.corkfolkfestival.com.

Further highlights include a performance by folk singer, Kate Rusby at the Cork Opera House with her band and special guests, accordion player and singer Séamus Begley and guitarist Jim Murray on 7 October.

Three of Ireland’s most influential instrumentalists, Paddy Keenan, Frankie Gavin and Dermot Byrne — also known as KGB — will be joined by fiddler Kevin Burke at the Triskel Arts Centre (5 October). The Tobin Street venue will also see sean-nós singing meet Portuguese Fado on 4 October, as Máire Ní Chéileachair and Nell Ní Chróinín perform alongside Portuguese fadista, Claudia Aurora.

The only orchestra in the western world to play exclusively from memory, Dave Flynn’s Irish Memory Orchestra, will perform with special guest, accordionist Máirtín O’Connor, in CIT Cork School of Music on 6 October.

Cork Folk Festival is proudly supported by the Arts Council, Cork City Council, Fáilte Ireland, Cork Institute of Technology and RTÉ Supporting the Arts.