HIGH STEPPING and high spirits set the tone for the hugely successful World Fleadh, which took place in Portlaoise at the weekend.
Some 30,000 people from across Ireland and the world converged on the midlands town for the three-day festival, which looks like being a regular event on the seasonal calendar.
The headline concert on Sunday night featured Brian Kennedy, Frankie Gavin and Hibernian Rhapsody, Anthony Kearns, Moya Brennan and Michelle Lally, as well as the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra.
With the help of Portlaoise Gospel Choir to swell the chorus, over 150 artists raised the roof of the dome with a finale performance of You Raise Me Up.
Highlights of the weekend included workshops in two-hand dancing and set dancing, the Hothouse Flowers and a heart-stopping performance by Jack L at the Sky Venue on Sunday night.
There were also numerous céilithe and what has been described as "the biggest session trail in Ireland", with live music in many of the pubs each day.
Organisers were delighted to see the fine weather bring many families to Portlaoise on bank holiday Monday to enjoy the street performers, buskers, and street athletics and badminton for children, and say it was central to the success of the event.
Festival director Eric Cunningham said feedback had been "very, very positive. There were a number of thousand people in front of the town stage in Market Square on Sunday for John Spillane and George Murphy and that couldn't have happened without the great weather."
He said this year's festival had been improved with the festival dome in the town centre, which replaced last year's muddy greenfield site.
"The crowds really seem to have come out in force for the country music concert too."