Mayo harpist says it's 'surreal' to play Night and Day festival

Alannah Thornburgh is headed for the Music of Mayo festival in Castlebar when she spoke to The Mayo News on Friday.

Next week, she will play the biggest solo gig of her career when she takes to the Electric Cave stage at the Night and Day festival in Lough Key Forest Park in Boyle, Roscommon. 

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She is particularly excited to “share the same line-up as some artists that I've been listening to since I was young, like KT Tunstall and José González, so it’s kind of surreal.”

“It’s so great for the West to have this festival and it’s in such a beautiful location as well.” 

Proud Ballyhaunis man Craig Hughes is one of the festival’s co-founders and is “really excited for what will be the fourth edition of Night and Day and the biggest one yet.

It’s a real privilege to showcase so many amazing home grown artists as well as bringing in some international acts to the west of Ireland too.”

An aerial shot of the Night and Day festival

‘We were told we were never allowed to set foot in the fairy fort’ 

The Day and Night festival is just the latest highlight for Alannah in a year that has seen her win the ‘Best Folk Instrumentalist’ at the 2025 RTÉ Folk Awards, release her first solo album, ‘Shapeshifter’ and complete a nationwide tour with it. 

Her ‘Shapeshifter’ album is a collection of competitions inspired by fairy folklore and mythology in Mayo, mainly Swinford and the surrounding townlands, as well as North Mayo.

She interviewed almost fifty people from Mayo and the west of Ireland about fairy folklore. She then composed music in response to this for the album. 

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Her fascination with fairy folklore started with a big fairy fort behind her family home. 

“We were told we were never allowed to set foot in the fairy fort. It’s a superstitious thing but you’re not supposed to touch or go inside a fairy fort and not disturb the fairies.

So I was always fascinated by it and to this day, I have never been inside.”

‘We were a bit like a family band when we were younger’

Alannah comes from a very musical family and another highlight this year was  to “share a stage in the Linenhall with both my parents on separate occasions.”

Her dad played with her when she launched her album and she was a special guest for Cill Aodáin Choral Society in Kiltimagh, which her mother sings in, when they performed in the Linenhall. 

Her brothers and sisters also play music, so “we were a bit like a family band when we were younger.”

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Tickets for Night and Day are on sale at https://nightandday.ie/ for €195 for weekend adult camping tickets, with children’s tickets costing €2.

Day tickets are also on sale now; Friday (€65), Saturday (€98) and Sunday (€98).

Night and Day boasts a full itinerary of immersive family friendly activities such as dance workshops, kids yoga, circus skills, nature foraging, ancient bemusement games, imagination playground, craft making and much more.