2026 Programme
Lowender Festival
thursday 15 – Sunday 18 October
thursday 15th OCToBER
Rose Cottage
- 18:00 – Yeth an Werin
Buttermarket
- 19:00 – Sundown Session
Redruth Wesley
- 19:30 – Anna Anise Album Launch pre-festival special
friday 16th OCToBER
Redruth Library
- 11:00 – 12:00 – Rhyme Time
- Join Molly Biscoe in Redruth Library for a special Lowender edition of Rhyme Time for children 0 – 5yrs with songs in Cornish and songs the Cornish love to sing
Redruth Community Centre
- Boos hag Ilow / Food and Music
- 18:30 – 19:00 – Music with Kessenyan
Evening Dance and Music / Dons hag Ilow Gorthugher (Main Hall)
- 19:00 – Nos Lowen Cornish Dance Workshop
- 19.30 – Nos Lowen Cornish Dance with Dalla Duo
- 20:30 – Floor spot with Pol Hodge
- 21:00 – Scottish Ceilidh with caller Kate Smith from Ceilidh Cornwall
- 22:00 – Manx floor spot with Skeddan Jiarg
- 22:30 – Manx Ceilidh with Scran
Acoustic Music Sessions / Rakka Ilow Acoustek (Murdoch Bar)
- Enjoy an informal acoustic music session, bring your instruments and singing voices or just enjoy the atmosphere.
Redruth Wesley
- 19:30 – Michael McGoldrick & Tim Edy
- Manchester born flutes, whistles and uillean pipes maestro Michael McGoldrick teams up with Tim Edey, one of the world’s finest melodeon and guitar players.
- Support comes from the excellent Toby & Jen Kessell.
Redruth Buttermarket
- Free event!
- 20:00 – DJ No-Sight Stu Celtic Takeover
- Groove to Celtic sounds.
saturday 17th OCTOBER
Redruth Buttermarket &
Market Hall
- Free events!
10:00 – 16:00 – Courtyard
- Music, dance, wrestling displays, family ceilidh
- 10:30 – 11:00 – Bagas Crowd
- 11:00 – 12:00 – Salt & Sky
- 12:00 – 12:30 – Kernow Pipes & Drums
- 12:30 – 13:15 – Gwerin & Family Ceilidh
- 13:15 – 14:00 – Skeddan Jiarg & Family Ceilidh
- 14:00 – 14:30 – Kekezza
- 14:30 – 15:30 – Cornish Wrestling
10:00 – 14:00 – Market Hall
- Intangible Cultural Heritage Expo
REDRUTH Community Centre
- 10:00 – 14:00 – Craft Fair, Music & Family Activities
- Free events!
- 10:00 – 10:30 – Bernado Cano
- 10:30 – 11:00 – Kernow Pipes & Drums
- 11:00 – 11:30 – Karenza Lily-May
- 11:30 – 12:00 – Willo Fergus Kendall
- 12:00 – 12:30 – Aggie Boys
- 12:30 – 13:00 – Richard Trethewey
- 13:00 – 13:30 – Martha Woods
- 13:30 – 14:00 – Nicole Tesseyman
Workshops / Hweljiow (Main Hall)
15:00 – 16:30 – Irish Set Dance Workshop
17:00 – 18:30 – Breton Dance Workshop
- Talk / Areth (Red Room / Stevel Rudh)
- 15:00 – 16:30 – Talk about Cornish Pub songs with Hilary Coleman & Sally Burley
- Shout / Garm (Murdoch Bar)
- 16:30 – 18:00 – Shout with the Red River Singers
Evening Dance and Music / Dons hag Ilow Gorthugher (Main Hall)
- 19.30 – Irish Ceili with Kevin & Carol Monaghan
- 20:30 – Floor spot
- 21:00 – Fest Noz with Duo Landat Moisson
- 22:00 – Floor spot
- 22:30 – Ginger’s Remix : Reels & Heels – a troyl with a twist from the sweetest Queen in town. Ginger from Redruth’s famous Drag Queen Diner joins Splann for an epic ceilidh guaranteed to ‘splanna’ (splanna means to ‘shine’ in Cornish).
19:30 – The Red Room
Film Screening – HOME
Shot in the stunning Celtic landscapes of Scotland and Cornwall UK, HOME explores the sense of belonging and fondness for the place you live. Leaving, returning and the feeling of deep connection with the place you call home.
Home is a film close to my heart, which for me speaks about some of the feelings I hold towards my childhood homeland of Cornwall. I feel like it is a subject which many people can connect with in this modern era, where so many of us end up living far from where we grew up.
A film by Kes Tagney
Fiddle – Ronan Martin
Spoken word and step dance – Sophie Stephenson
Young girl – Niamh Lakeman
Musicians
Ronan Martin
Jack Evens
Tenzin Wainwright
Gordon Neil Alan
Sound Design – Simon Lacelle
Color Grading – Christophe Chemin
Acoustic Music Session / Rakka Ilow Acoustek (Murdoch Bar)
- Enjoy an informal acoustic music session, bring your instruments and singing voices or just enjoy the atmosphere.
THE LADDER
Workshops / Hweljiow
- 10:30 – 12:00 – Accompaniment Workshop
- with Tim Edey on guitar
10:30 – 12:00 – Whistle Workshop
- with Michael McGoldrick on whistles
13:00 – 14:00 – Book Launch
- with Taylor Strickland
- Free event!
- Join us for the launch of a book of poetry by C18th Scottish Gaelic poet, Alasdair mac Mhaighstir Alasdair (Gaelic tutor to Charles Edward Stuart, popularly known as ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’), newly translated into English by Taylor Strickland.
- Drinks & nibbles.
14:30 – 16:30 – Celtic Languages in Translation
- A unique opportunity to experience readings of literature written in each of the Celtic languages – Breton, Welsh, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Manx and Cornish – in both their original languages and in English literary translations. Read by professional translators from each of the Celtic nations who will be visiting the festival this year.
17:00 – 19:00 – Cornwall – a Sense of Place
- Join Tir ha Tavas (Dee & Dave Brotherton) and guest reader, Helen Musser on a journey in music, words and images around this beautiful world at the end of the land.
Redruth Library
Free event!
- 11:00 – 12:00 – Rath a’n Fordh Veur – The Highway Rat
- Join Elizabeth Ellis for a reading of Rath a’n Fordh Veur, the Cornish translation of The Highway Rat by Julia Donaldson.
Kressen KERNOW
Free event!
- 14:00 – 15:15 – Author talk – A Cornish Bestiary with Luke Thompson
- A celebration of the animals of Cornwall with a talk from local author, Luke Thompson. Luke’s new book is a compendium of Cornwall’s most curious creatures from folklore, natural history, song, literature, hagiography and the news, featuring beasts real, imagined, suspected, rumoured, feared and hoaxed.
REDRUTH WESLEY CHURCH
- 14:00 – Concert / Kescan with Neear Nesañ, Duo Landat Moisson & The Twin Tides
- 19:30 – Concert / Kescan with Mari Mathias supported by Isaac I. Ockenden, curated by Stone Club
sunday 18th OCTOBER
redruth Community Centre
- Workshops / Hweljiow
- 10:00 – 11:30 – Irish Sets Workshop (Main Hall)
- with Kevin & Carol Monaghan
Wesleyan Buildings: Jubilee Hall
- Free event!
10:30 – Celtic Service / Gonis Keltek
A special Celtic service held by Redruth Methodist Church. All welcome.
Rose Cottage
- Free event!
10:30 – 14:00 Music Industry Conversation
Join artists and music industry professionals for discussion and networking.
10:30 – 11:30 Celtic Music & Minority Language Song with Mari Mathias (Wales), David Kilgallon (Isle of Man) and Anna Anise (Cornwall). A conversation exploring releasing and touring new work and building careers in the world of Celtic music and minoirty language song.
12:00 – 14:00 New Music Round Table
An open, facilitated discussion on releasing new music, audience development, digital tools, artist identity, funding and sustainable careers. Featuring guest speaker Rose Cook, sharing insights from Lowender’s recent digital music research.Food and refreshments available from Rose Cottage throughout the event.
REDRUTH WESLEY CHURCH
12:30 – 13:30 Mike O’Connor Music Talk
on the making of Lost Voices of the Moor.
