The Snug Storytelling Sessions with Macdara Yeates & Wynton Moore (2pm)

An afternoon of music and stories featuring Uilleann Pipes with Macdara Yeates, Wynton Moore (plus more TBA) in The Snug at Wicklow Wolf Brewery.

About The Snug

The Snug is an experimental participatory design project exploring the place and places of conversation in contemporary Ireland. Led by international arts collective Unqualified Design Studio (Architecture Project Award 2023/24), the project invites communities to come together in the unlikely privacy of a 6x6m popup snug - giving life to a momentary, real-world ‘chat room’. 

The Snug debuted in June 2024 at Carlow Arts Festival, hosting a curated talk series examining the relationship between the stories we tell and the spaces where we tell them - and asking what it is that makes us feel connected to each other and the world around us

About Macdara Yeates

Traditional Singing from Dublin, the debut album by Macdara Yeates, marks a new arrival on the Irish folkscape. Named in MOJO’s Top 10 Folk Albums of the Year and nominated for two RTÉ Folk Awards, the ten-track effort features a rich store of old and weathered folk songs, ranging from the comic and surreal to the mournful and disconsolate. Siobhán Long of The Irish Times writes: “Raucous, bawdy, reflective and wistful in turn, Traditional Singing from Dublin is a candid, clear-eyed snapshot from a singer who is finally stepping into the spotlight.

Macdara Yeates is an Irish folk singer. Born and raised in Dublin, Yeates is one of a crop of artists associated with the recent resurgence of young folk talent in the Irish capital, alongside acts such as Lankum, Ye Vagabonds, and Landless. In 2012, Macdara became a founding member of The Night Before Larry Got Stretched, a monthly Dublin folk gathering, counting such luminaries as Lisa O’Neill, Ian Lynch and Radie Peat (Lankum) among its earliest attendees. Then, from 2013 to 2017, Yeates served as a member of seven-piece trad ensemble Skipper’s Alley, recording and touring across the UK, Europe, India, Canada, and the USA. Following the release of Traditional.

Traditional Singing from Dublin, Macdara was nominated for two RTÉ Radio One Folk Awards, including a nomination for ‘Best Folk Singer’ alongside Ríognach Connolly, Cathy Joran and Christy Moore. With a stentorian voice described as “a bracing, baleful, baritone that sounds as if it's been dug from the deepest, most fragrant turf” - Songlines, Macdara Yeates is ploughing his furrow as a solo performer, garnering wide critical praise and performing on some of the most coveted stages in folk music, from An Góilín Traditional Singers’ Circle to the Sidmouth Folk Festival.

About Wynton Moore

Wynton Moore is an uilleann piper and singer from New Zealand, now resident in Dublin. His piping has been influenced by the playing of Séamus Ennis, Robbie Hannan, and Seán McKiernan, among others. He also has a strong interest in Donegal fiddle music and in adapting this to the pipes. He teaches piping classes in Na Píobairí Uilleann, anchors weekly sessions in the Cobblestone and Piper’s Corner in Dublin, and has appeared in the piping recital at Scoil Samhraidh Willie Clancy. Wynton is also a traditional singer with a small but growing collection of songs in English and Irish. He has recently been a guest at An Góilín, Na Píobairí Uilleann, The National Celtic Festival Australia, and Ceol Aneas in New Zealand.