About
History
The Interschools Music Festival has a rich history of celebrating young musical talent, providing students with a platform to perform and represent their schools. Established in 1975, the festival was born out of a unique fundraising initiative led by Frank Hughes, the former Head of Music at Wesley College. His goal was to raise the necessary funds to build a pipe organ for the college’s Myles Hall. To achieve this, Frank set out to break the world record for the longest continuous organ performance, playing for an incredible 92 hours. His efforts were successful, not only raising the required money but also earning him a spot in the Guinness Book of Records, surpassing the previous record by 10 hours.To celebrate the success of the event, a silver trophy was offered to Wesley College, with the suggestion that some competitive musical evening be organised, of Frank’s choosing.
And so, the Interschools Music Festival was born.
Originally aimed at providing a platform for school students to showcase their musical talents and to promote the enjoyment of music across various genres, the Interschools Music Festival was designed to be an inclusive and collaborative event where schools from across the country could come together to compete in a friendly and supportive environment.
Over the years, the festival has grown in scope, welcoming participation from both primary and secondary schools. It includes various categories such as solo performances, chamber ensembles, choirs, and orchestras, covering a wide range of musical styles from classical to contemporary, rock and traditional. Though noted for its friendly and relaxed atmosphere, standards are high and the festival provides a perfect testing ground for examinations, other feiseanna and public appearances. The festival emphasizes not just competition, but the celebration of music as a means of personal expression and cultural exchange.
Wesley College Dublin has been proud to host the festival, contributing to its reputation as a nurturing space for young musicians. The festival continues to be a key event in the Irish school music calendar, inspiring and influencing the next generation of musicians.
All photos available free of charge
Photography
Interschools Music Festival strive to give schools, parents and students alike the enjoyment of seeing a photographic record of their performance.
The festival is lucky enough to have a team of photographic students coordinated by a professional photographer. This year, due to a shortage of trained young photopgraphers, we will only have photographs of events from the Myles Hall and also Trad Bands.
All photos taken will be made available online where people can download the images digitally. All photographs are available free of charge. A password for each competition is sent to each school/competitor who takes part in that particular competition. This gives only competitors access to the photographs. Each school/competitor may then decide whether they wish to download their photos or not.
To this end, the festival has a dropbox and in the weeks following the festival each year we upload and edit all the photography from the weekend. All schools and competitors are then emailed the link to this box as soon as it is ready. This gives everyone direct access to all pictures and the ability to download any images they would like. Please try to be patient, it may take a number of weeks for us to edit and upload all the photos onto the dropbox. We will let you know as soon as the pictures are available.