Daithí Ó Drónaí: Fiddlers Green

It’s not long before the crowd is rolling to Irish music’s most exciting rising star

Daithi at Body and Soul during the Electric Picnic Festival at Stadbally. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons/The Irish Times
Daithi at Body and Soul during the Electric Picnic Festival at Stadbally. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons/The Irish Times

Stars: ****

When Daithí Ó Drónaí takes to the stage in the early evening, there's a sparse crowd to welcome him.

Within minutes, he fuses a huge house beat with some fine pop and vocal samples, and layers it up with his frenetic, trad-infused fiddle playing, and it’s not long before the main woodland stage is thick with a crowd rolling to Irish music’s most exciting rising star.

Daithí lands plenty of heavyweight pop punches, though he’s not afraid to drag it down into a clubbier basement, and this 30 minutes of music is the first set worthy of the festival.

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Finishing with Chameleon Life – a track Rihanna would be lucky to call her own – and a spot of tabletop dancing seals the deal. He’s doing it all again today at 2.30pm in the Little Big Tent; run and you can still make it.