Welcome to the Burlington Irish Heritage Festival 2023!

For our 28th Festival, thanks to our supporters, we offered a special event – a tribute concert for Senator Patrick Leahy, Vermont’s own Irish-American legislator, on the occasion of his retirement. This event, which took place on March 11, showcased the outstanding talent we have in Vermont, featuring many of the performers you have seen over the years celebrating Irish culture through music, dance, and poetry. In the week after our March 11 kickoff, we hosted more of the events you’ve come to connect with the BIHF, including a community ceili, an introduction to the Irish language, children’s crafts, movies, and our grand finale, the Festival Ceili at City Hall, Burlington.

The Festival wouldn’t exist without the generosity of our donors. Thank you all, and we hope to meet you at one or more of our events. We are also very grateful to our many sponsors providing venues and other means of support, including the Fletcher Free Library, St. Michael’s College Fine Arts Department, Young Tradition Vermont at Vermont Folklife, and the Vermont Genealogy Library.

Senator and Mrs. Leahy enjoying the show!

2022 Summary of Events

2022 Video Archive

2022 Photo Archive

All Archives

2022 Festival Information:

Cead Mile Failte indeed! Or in the case of this year’s festival: a hundred thousand “welcome-backs!” The Burlington Irish Heritage Planning Committee would like to welcome you all back to our first in-person festival since 2019! Last year we hosted a set of wonderful virtual events, but we were unable to be in-person. And since community is a hallmark of Irish culture, we are happy to be able to enjoy it together. This year, we will continue some of the online offerings to accompany an exciting collection of in-person music, dance, poetry and film activities throughout the month of March. Our group organized some of these events, while others were arranged by local groups like Young Tradition Vermont and Vermont Genealogy Library. And we’d like to acknowledge Fletcher Free Library for once again hosting many of our events. We’ll be happy to see you at venues around Vermont for some of our old favorites as well as many new performers and events! The button below will bring you to the event calendar for this year’s festival. Sláinte!

“Samhain in Vermont”!

A special one-hour video presentation of the Burlington Irish Heritage Festival, broadcast on VCAM, Burlington’s Channel 15 (Comcast Channel 1074).

Samhain is a Gaelic harvest-time festival – the Celtic origin of Hallowe’en – when magic and mystery abound. For Hallowe’en in our 25th year, the Burlington Irish Heritage Festival is proud to present a special celebration: Samhain in Vermont, featuring some of our best loved musicians and dancers.

The hour-long show combines wonderful footage from O’hAnleigh, Young Tradition Vermont, and the Garrett School of Irish Dance against a thematic narrative and visual background.

You can view the program here.