Quiet Lights festival in Cork was launched in 2018 as a platform for alternative and experimental folk and indie artists that didn’t quite have a place in the established folk spaces at the time. Producer Jonathan Pearson, who was living in Dublin and working as Concerts Manager of Crash Ensemble at the time, wanted an excuse to create something new in his hometown that was intrinsically linked to the city. The winter festival, which curates intimate concerts in venues across the city centre, takes place this year from 21 to 24 November. 

Pearson, now based between Los Angeles and Ireland, started the festival with his production and artist management company Islander – which works with artists such as Ye Vagabonds, Anna Mieke, Niamh Regan and Loah – and manages it with business partner Marjie Kaley. He is also the Creative Producer for the annual contemporary music festival New Music Dublin and founder of Iceland-based composer publishing company and label, Inni.

‘I wanted to do something outside of the classical world in Cork, where I’m from,’ he said, speaking to the Journal of Music. ‘There were loads of folk festivals at the time, but nothing really showcasing the weird, left of centre side of it that wouldn’t necessarily fit in established folk festivals like the Cork Folk Festival or Doolin or any of those brilliant festivals. It was just more to showcase some of the weirder side of it.’ 

Musicians such as Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, singer-songwriters Inni-K and Katie Kim, and folk singers Radie Peat and Lisa O’Neill were on that first year’s line-up. Since then, the festival has included John Francis Flynn, Scottish piper Bríghde Chaimbeul, singer-songwriter Maija Sofia, experimental collective Trá Pháidín and many others.

When the pandemic arrived, due to the restrictions on live events, the Islander team took the initiative of producing two creative short films directed by Myles O’Reilly. A City Under Quiet Lights Vol I and Vol II feature intimate performances amidst winter scenes in the city, the English Market, and by the river Lee. Artists such as Joshua Burnside and Laura Quirke, Junior Brother, Kate Ellis and Caimin Gilmore, Martin Hayes, Eoghan Ó Ceannabháin and Niamh Bury performed on the streets and also in empty venues such as the Crawford Gallery and Coughlan’s.

Both films are available on YouTube and the comments capture how special they are: ‘You can live in Cork all your life but never see the beauty of it until someone points it out’; ‘Irish music is an unstoppable river. If you are lucky in life you will get the opportunity to stand beside it and listen to its flow’.

‘That’s just an absolute love letter to Cork,’ says Pearson. ‘The two of them. And it shows how the festival fits within the city. The entire premise of the festival is Cork’.

Post-pandemic 
Pearson and the team continued to produce other work during the pandemic, including live and online events while following Covid restrictions. However, post-pandemic, putting on concerts and festivals has not slotted back into the same processes as before. The biggest complication now is extremely long timelines for booking concerts on a global scale. ‘In live music, there was a massive backlog of artists who had to cancel festivals. That backlog has just been cleared.’

‘Everything is done so far in advance now,’ he adds. ‘So even with our management artists… I have concerts booked for all of them in 2026. Beforehand, you’d work on a six- to nine-month cadence and it’s now done way further in advance.’

This means that there’s a greater risk factor with putting on shows. ‘You never know. If you have artists who are between the ages of 25 and 40… there’s a lot of life changes in there… What if one of their partners has a baby and they can’t do this American tour that we booked? Just things like that, it’s become a lot trickier.’

Quiet Lights is in receipt of Arts Council funding, which goes mostly towards staffing and design costs. ‘If we weren’t funded, we wouldn’t be able to do it’, said Pearson, who takes no remuneration from the festival.

Quiet Lights 2024
When curating the festival, Pearson and Kaley choose a mix of artists who have recently released new music as well as acts that have a broad appeal and could perform at any time. ‘That’s how it goes, looking at who’s doing interesting stuff, looking at who’s releasing things where there’ll be a bit of hype. That’s how we go about it… There’s never a lack of things to draw from.’

This year, Rachael Lavelle, who released her debut album Big Dreams last year, and Elaine Howley will perform a double-bill concert at Live at St Luke’s on 23 November; Irish-based Kurdish/Syrian singer and bouzouki player Mohammad Syfkhan, who released I am Kurdish in February, performs at Coughlan’s on 21 November; and Fionn Regan, whose new album O Avalanche is out on 1 November, performs at Coughlan’s on 24 November. 

Alt-folk duo Lemoncello, who released their self-titled album on Claddagh Records in May, perform at Coughlan’s on 22 November; Belfast folk singer Joshua Burnside, who recently released new singles ‘Marching Round The Ladies’ and ‘The Good Life’, performs a double-bill with indie band Memorial, who released their second album Redsetter in May; and singer-songwriter Morgana (one half of alt-folk duo Saint Sister), who just released her debut solo single ‘I’ll Cry When I’m Dead’, performs at The Kino on 27 November.  

The festival will also feature blues guitarist and singer Muireann Bradley, Lisa Hannigan, Cormac Begley, Aoife Ní Bhríain and Catrin Finch, accordionist Seamas Hyland, and West Cork five piece The Kates, comprising Eve Clague, Liz Clark, Mary Beth O’Mahony, Míde Houlihan and Paula K O’Brien.

‘Even though we have artists coming in from everywhere,’ said Pearson, ‘it’s very much a Cork festival through and through.’

For further information and tickets, visit www.quietlights.net.

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