The 12th City of Derry International Choir Festival returns this autumn from the 23rd to 27th of October and this year will see the largest ever number of participating choirs the festival has had since its inaugural year as part of the 2013 City of Culture programme.

91 musical groups will be bringing the world-famous City of Song to life across the five-day annual festival, which will feature, as ever, a superb programme of guest artist concerts, competitions for school, national and international choirs, as well as the audience favourites of pop-up choral trail performances and community concerts in venues across the city and northwest region.

Choirs will be travelling from Spain, Portugal, Iceland, Germany, England, Scotland, Wales and from across the island of Ireland to be part of this exciting and major event in the musical life of Northern Ireland. Last year’s festival saw 80 choirs take part in over 90 events in 44 venues, welcoming an audience of 20,500 people and bringing over 2,500 bed-nights to the city. The 2024 edition is already set to exceed these amazing visitor numbers as the festival continues to grow and become even more renowned across the world for its very special Derry welcome.

Artistic Director of the Festival, Dónal Doherty, commented, “Following the excitement of our 10th Anniversary festival in 2023, we were keen to see if the momentum could be maintained in 2024. The answer is a resounding yes! The response from choirs has been incredible, with nearly 100 groups already signed up to participate in this year’s programme. On October 23rd-27th, Derry will once again become the singing capital of the choral world, with 3,000 singers performing throughout the city and surrounding area during five glorious days of music. We look forward to announcing all the programme details over the coming months, so keep an eye on the usual information sources and put the dates in your diary now.”

In addition to the participating choirs, an impressive line-up of internationally-acclaimed choral directors, conductors and experts has been assembled to adjudicate the competitive elements of the festival, including the prestigious Oak Tree of Derry International Competition. The distinguished team will include Georg Grün (Germany), Øystein Fevang (Norway), Orla Flanagan (Ireland), Hermia Schlichtmann (Germany) and Borbala Sziranyi (Hungary), all of whom are looking forward to visiting the city to take part in this year’s festival.

The City of Derry International Choir Festival will run from 23rd-27th October 2024 in Millennium Forum, Guildhall and multiple venues across the northwest.