When it is time to listen to music and enjoy a variety of festivals one of the best places you can visit year round is Ireland. Let’s take a look at 6 of the top music festivals throughout Ireland and you will see there is something for everyone and you can plan your next trip around the festival you would most like to attend.

Fleadh Ceoil na hEireann

August 10th to 17th – Sligo: This festival was held for four years in Ulster but now it comes to Connacht and brings around 10,000 musicians for the fun. This festival is a national traditional music festival and draws in crowds of around 300,000 to listen to the traditional music.

Electric Picnic

August 29th to 31st – Stradbally Estate: This festival is invite only for musicians and Thomas Cosby picks the best to invite. He allows the public to pay for the event and they can come and enjoy the musicians on his lawn in County Laois. A great way to take in a beautiful estate and fantastic music.

Harvest Time Blues

September 5th to 7th – Monaghan Town: This small county town loves to showcase great blues music while the tractors harvest the food. The old Market house is a marquee is the centre of the festival just for this event. The blues actually winds its way through the entire town, but some of the best are in the Old Market house.

New Ross Piano Festival

September 25th to 28th – New Ross: If you love the piano this is the festival for you. Not only do you get the classic sounds of piano, but they wave the sweet sound of wings in as well , the Cassiopeia Winds Quintet from Dublin plays and Mozart and Beethoven feature as composers and will be in attendance for 2014.

Airtricity Dublin Docklands Festival

December 12th to 23rd – Dublin Docklands: This is the perfect Christmas festival while it is an all around market with Season treats and events of Victorian nature it also has some great music. There are choirs and a-cappella ensembles during the day and more modern fare at night.

Out to Lunch

January 2nd to 26th – Belfast: This festival may have already passed for 2014 but it will be back in 2015 and offers a variety of music, spoken word and comedy to start the year right. When you are in Belfast for the festival you can also consider staying at the La Mon hotel to make the perfect getaway of it.

This summer’s festivals are spread out throughout the island, with more in the south than north. If you are planning on spending a day north of the border for Out to Lunch in Belfast, make a trip of it and stay overnight. You could treat yourself to a night at La Mon on the city outskirts and take in a few of the sights and sounds of this emerging city, or perhaps stay on the coast at one of the many B&Bs dotted along the spectacular Causeway Coast.

Accomodation in the south is plentiful, particularly, as you would expect, in the major cities (Dublin, Cork, Galway, etc.). Prices do vary: 5 star in Dublin will set you back around €250 per night, but there’s plenty of others to choose from.