Ever sat with a guitar and thought “this could actually be a song”?

If the answer is yes, a new festival in Cork might be exactly your kind of day out.

The East Cork Songwriting Festival is landing in Cobh on April 11th, offering aspiring lyricists, bedroom producers and quietly ambitious music fans the chance to spend a day learning the craft — and maybe even stepping onto a stage themselves.

Taking place at the beautiful Sirius Arts Centre, the one-day, volunteer-run festival is designed as a welcoming space for musicians of all levels — whether you’ve written dozens of songs or are just starting to figure out how to turn a half-finished lyric into something real.

Learn the tricks of the trade

For €40 a ticket, attendees will take part in two hands-on workshops led by established Irish songwriters who know a thing or two about getting ideas out of your head and into a finished track.

 

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Among the mentors leading sessions on the day are Cormac O’Caoimh, Lynda Cullen and Nicole Maguire.

Workshops will cover everything from songwriting techniques and finding your voice, to tackling the dreaded writer’s block, and even exploring how songs can grow through collaboration. In other words: if you’ve ever stared at a blank page wondering how artists turn a single idea into a full track, this is your chance to learn how it actually works.

But the festival isn’t just about theory. Participants will also take part in co-writing sessions, forming small groups to create brand new songs together over the course of the day.

Those songs won’t stay in the rehearsal room either — the event culminates in a live performance on a professional stage, giving participants the chance to debut what they’ve written in front of an audience.

And who knows? Every chart-topping songwriter started somewhere. Get your ticket over here.