About
Feis Dhoire Cholmcille was established in 1922 and has remained the premier showcase for Irish arts and culture ever since.
Held during Easter week since 1925, the feis provides a platform for young performers to show their abilities across a range of disciplines including the Irish language, traditional Irish music, Irish dance, speech and drama, singing, choral music and instrumental music.
The feis has launched many internationally famous names from Josef Locke, Phil Coulter, Dana, Roma Downey through to Bronagh Gallagher and may more besides.
Arts education for young people is another of the primary objectives of the feis. To aid this, the feis awards aspiring young performance artists with small financial bursaries to set them on their way to achieving their career ambitions in the sector.
Other fundamental objectives of the feis include promoting Derry in a very positive light, not only for feis participants but for as a tourist destination for visitors to the city; to increase the social skills and confidence of young people taking part which will stand them in good stead for their employment prospects in later life and to preserve and to continue to enhance the city and wider regions well documented reputation for nurturing world renowned artistic talent.
During Feis Dhoire Colmcille 2025 around 260 competitions take place across all the above disciplines. In advance of the upcoming feis, this leads to the conservative estimate, in keeping with figures from recent years, that up to 3,000 individuals will participate.
Feis Dhoire Cholmcille is also an open platform event, which means that competitors need not be a pupil of a school of education or school of arts to participate. Prospective participants can therefore enter any event under their own name. In this way, no child or young person is ever excluded from taking part in in the feis.
A unique facet of the open platform policy is that the feis is only place on the island of Ireland and one of the very few places in the world where both main Irish dancing organisations An Chomdhail and An Coimisiun compete against each other. This came about because of a conciliatory deal brokered by the late Bishop Edward Daly in the early 1970s and is another example of the unifying nature and inclusivity evident at Feis Dhoire Cholmcille.
