Laois band scoop super prize at huge European festival

Laois trad group Buíoch left some impression on the Iberian peninsula this summer where they won a legion of new fans and a big prize at one of the biggest folk festivals in the world.

Festival De Ortiguiera is a prestigious Celtic music festival which happens at the beginning of July each year. Ortigueira is a small town on the north west coast of Spain, in the province of A Coruña. It is a stunning area, most known for its pilgrim root along the Camino. The town itself is about two hours by car from Santiago De Compostela.

But while it might be off the beaten path and far-flung from the huge cities of Madrid and Barcelona, it is the beating heart of festivals for folk music in Europe.

The festival promotes the shared Celtic music heritage of the European western seaboard. Its slogan is 'eight nations, one culture.' Recent editions of the festival have attracted around 100,000 people.

So it was some coup for the Laois outfit to find themselves a slot on the line-up and didn't they make the most of it.

But before finding out how here's a little background on Buíoch. The group was founded in 2020 during the height of the covid pandemic and has gone from strength to strength in Ireland with our first album dropping in August of 2023. It is made up of Ruaidhrí Tierney (Button Accordion), Kurt Dinneen Carroll (Uilleann Pipes and Whistles), Dale McKay (Guitar) and David Harte (Double Bass).

They say they write all their own music and this originality is the keystone of our band. During their short time together, we were delighted to play at such festivals as Electric Picnic, Forest Fest Emo, Temple Bar Tradfest, Ennis Tradfest and Kilkenny Tradest to name but a few.

They had always dreamed of playing their music at festivals abroad and with this in mind Ruaidhrí entered them in the 'Runas competition' at Festival de Ortigueira 2024.

This battle of the bands competition takes place at the festival each year. It requires bands to submit recordings of original music. Three finalist bands are then picked by a rigorous judging process. This happens with a combination of public vote, critical analysis from musicians, music critics, publishers, press, music producers and the council of Ortigueira who fund the festival.

Ruaidhrí takes up the story.

“We entered and gave it a go, not expecting to be considered. We all have 'day jobs' and life went on. One day, There was a missed call on my phone from a Spanish number. I called back and it was the Festival de Ortigueira Press Office. They told us we had been chosen as on of the three finalists. We were astonished and very excited,” he said.

The Festival's press office said that the judges were "most impressed by Buíoch's original tunes, strikingly progressive arrangements" describing us as "a breath of fresh air" in modern Celtic music.

“While waiting in line at passport control in the airport, people came up to us asking if we would be performing at the festival. It was all so surreal,” explains Ruaidhrí.

On arrival in Spain, they rented a car and had to drive for two hours up to Ortigueira. Theny they got some shock when they arrived for their gig which was fixed for Thursday, July 11.

“We arrived at the Estrella Galicia stage expecting it to be a small stage on the outskirts of the festival but quickly realised it was the main stage,” he said.

They group say they treated really well at the festival. Almost like stars, they had their own dressing room, catering and met with the other bands.

“We liked that we were there as part of a competition but there was no emphasis on that. All the bands were treated the exact same and the atmosphere was really positive.

“The performance itself was a surreal experience. We were on at 12:30 at night and played for approximately 20,000 people that night and our music was received very well,” said Ruaidhrí.

“This was by far our biggest crowd to date. We felt so proud to be playing our music that we wrote. We then went along to support the other bands in the competition, Alana and Picarós both from Spain. They also put on a spectacular show and were lovely people,” he said. MORE  AFTER INSTA VIDEO.

The quartet had to return to Ireland the next day as they all had other work commitments.

“We were tired, elated, deeply privileged and honoured to be part of the festival,” he said.

Fast forward to the following week to a band rehearsal on for the Forest Fest in Emo. Ruaidhrí got a second surprise call from Spain of the summer. He got an even bigger shock than first time around.

“It was the press office in Ortigueira. They said: 'We are delighted to inform you that you have won the competition jointly with Alana our co-finalists'. We all screamed with joy, we could not believe what we had achieved. The prize for winning the competition is that we get to return to play at next year's festival and win a prize of €3,000 for the band.

“We would like to thank everyone who voted for us and wished us well on our journey to play in Ortigueira. We could not have done it without your incredible support,” concluded Ruaidhrí.