Irish singer Dermot Kennedy’s special Aussie connection

Dermot Kennedy has revealed why he chose Sydney to be the home of his first festival to launch his St Patrick’s Day celebrations in 2025.

Irish singer-songwriter superstar Dermot Kennedy and his Aussie fans love a surprise.

He draws thousands to his pop-up busking gigs whenever he visits and sparked a frenetic chase around Sydney on Sunday as fans searched for hidden tickets to his Misneach festival (pronounced mish-nyach, meaning courage in Gaelic) here next March.

The Better Days artist, who sold out five solo shows and starred at the Spilt Milk festival in late 2023, chose to launch his global Irish music festival in Sydney and Boston around St Patrick’s Day.

Kennedy planted free double passes to the March 16 event around The Domain and Sydney Opera House, where he performed three sold-out shows on the Forecourt in December.

Irish singer Dermot Kennedy at The Domain in Sydney where he will be playing The Misneach global Irish music festival on March 2025. Picture: Richard Dobson

He watched from about 100 metres away as fans searched for the tickets, and sneakily gave another pair away to two fans who arrived just seconds after the last passes had been snapped up.

“We bumped into a few people who were running around trying to get them and it’s a weird interaction because they knew you have them,” he laughed.

“It’s been a thing I’ve been doing for years where I would leave lyrics around for people. I’m always trying to make that connection with people stronger.”

Fans flooded the Rocks when he staged a pop-up show at an Irish pub last year. Picture: NCA

Kennedy’s connection is strong; hits including Paradise, Power Over Me and Outnumbered have generated more than four billion streams.

He chose Sydney to be the home of his first festival because of the large Irish community in Australia and the special gigs he has played here which included Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl and Brisbane’s Riverstage last year.

“I’m not trying to be clever when I saw there’s a connection between Irish and Australian people, don’t take themselves too seriously, up for a good time, so it feels like it makes sense for the first year,” he said.

Kennedy singing at his pop-up show in Sydney last November. Picture: NCA

The 32-year-old star has strengthened that connection by taking back control over his “fan data” from labels, promoters and other music industry organisations.

Kennedy and English electronic star James Blake both posted last week on their social media channels about how they wanted to operate their fan mailing lists which were “previously owned by labels, promoters and basically everyone but me, which is crazy.”

The Irishman said it was important for artists to have control of their communications with artists via mailing lists and social media.

Kennedy has taken control of his fan mailing lists to maintain a direct connection with them. Picture: Richard Dobson

“It is wild. Fast forward to March next year and here’s 25,000 people here and I don’t have a notion who they are, why they’re there, what they like and everyone else has that info, that’s nuts to me,” he said.

“You’re trying to build a career and you can’t access your fanbase? What kind of business model is that?”

Kennedy will announce the other artists appearing at Misneach at the Domain (on March 16) later this week.

An exclusive presale for fans on the Dermot Kennedy newsletter and Frontier Members begins on October 9 with general tickets on sale on October 11 with all ticket details via frontiertouring.com.