About Us
Féile Oslo is a non-profit organisation promoting Irish music and dance in Norway. Our main task is to organise an annual summer school – a place to learn and evolve as musicians, as well as a social event celebrating Irish music and dance.
Who are we?
Féile Oslo was founded by Brendan Monaghan, Cecilie Stensrud and Kaja Kowalska. We share a passion for Irish music and dance, and we're so excited to organise this first summer school of Irish music and dance in Oslo.
Brendan and Cecilie are responisble for all things artistic and organisatorial. Kaja is the organisation's treasurer, and makes sure we keep to the budgets.
Other things we do include playing in the band Muintir, the duo Dúchas, and teaching.
Our Vision
Irish music and dance have taken the world by storm and there is a great interest for Irish culture in Norway. However, there are few organised platforms for learning, and few meeting points.
There is a strong session scene in Oslo, and several sessions organised in other Norwegian cities as well – but there are few occasions to meet across regional borders.
Another thing we have observed, is that there is very little contact between the musicians and the few dance schools/ companies we have. Irish music, however, is dance music, and we believe it is extremely enriching for both musicians and dancers to meet more often.
With this summer school we want to provide tuition of high quality and give the participants good value for money. At the same time, we want this to be an enjoyable social event where we build a true feeling of community in the Irish dance and music circle throughout the country.
In time, we also aim to recruit participants from outside of Norway and establish the Féile Oslo as a natural extension of the Irish summer school tradition.
As far as we know, there has never been a summer school of Irish music and dance in Norway. This is about to change!