If you’re a shy singer, it might stop you from being a bucket of nerves.
Every year, the annual Tradfest takes place in Dungarvan on the June Bank Holiday weekend and attracts visitors from far and wide who come to hear traditional Irish tunes and music performed by numerous artists.
Dungarvan is widely known for its pub sessions making it easy to attract traditional musicians to the town in Waterford for a weekend of ól, ceol agus craic.
However, the Tradfest has also become well known for other reasons in recent years and that is because of the odd but wonderful tradition of bucket singing.
What is bucket singing? Well it is basically what it says in the name, people stand up in the pub and place a galvanised bucket over their head before belting out a tune as demonstrated below…
Clip via valdonican
According to The Munster Express, the proprietor of Downey’s Bar, John McGrath, took over responsibility for funding, budgeting and coordinating the whole project this year.
The unusual art of Bucket singing was born at an early Féile na nDéise as organisers wondered how they would manage to fill a Bank Holiday Monday programme after splashing out on activities throughout the weekend.
An organiser at the time in the Trad Fest and a well-known musician in the town, who takes part in the festival each year, spent the night trying to outdo each other with ideas of unique singing events.
After hours of pitching back and forth, the idea of asking people to sing whilst wearing a bucket on their head seemed like an odd but perfect tradition that would fit in well with the unique festival
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