Character Fleadh

Character Fleadh plays Irish and Scottish traditional music - jigs, reels, hornpipes, airs, polkas, strathspeys, drinking/rebel songs, and more. The instrumentation is fiddle, flute, bodhran/drums/percussion, guitar, tenor banjo, mandolin, bass, and multiple vocals. The band is exceedingly professional, adaptable, and well-versed in various kinds of events. We can scale our line-up to suit the space/budget. The band can bring its own amplification, work with house set-ups, and/or perform completely acoustically as suits the event/venue.

If you're looking for great Irish/Scottish/Celtic music for your event/venue, Character Fleadh is the band you want. You'll love us. Just ask newlyweds Kris and Jason, who raved:

"Thank you for making our wedding day a blast!"

Since 2008, Character Fleadh has honored Irish and Scottish traditions while forging its own path. The band’s spirited approach to traditional Irish and Scottish folk music is exuberant, sophisticated, and full of… character.

Founding guitarist/vocalist Ethan Sellers has guided Character Fleadh through various line-up changes while maintaining a top-quality ensemble comprised of some of the Chicago area's finest Irish and Scottish musicians. Starting as an exclusively-instrumental fiddle/guitar duo, Character Fleadh gradually expanded its line-up and learned hours and hours of traditional instrumental and vocal repertoire, playing regional festivals, concert series, and private events.

We're available for public and private events in configurations of 1-6 players, depending on the venue, budget, event type/length, and player availability. At full strength, the band comprises fiddle, flute, guitar, bodhran/drums, bass, tenor banjo, mandolin, and vocals. Concertina/accordion, piano, and bagpipes (Uilleann or Highland) are available as add-ons.

In 2023, we released a pair of albums - the rocked-out Celtic album _Logical Fleadh_ and the more traditional _Acoustic Mixes_ - which received strong critical notices and airplay on Celtic/Irish/Scottish specialty radio stations throughout the US, Canada, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand.

A partial accounting of our past performances includes festivals (Bartlett Heritage Days, Crown Point Irish Parade, Peoria Irish Fest, Chicago Scottish Highland Games, Illinois State Fair, Shamrock and Roll, Guinness Oyster Fest), museums (Adler Planetarium, Lombard Historical Society, Cantigny), public libraries (Barrington, Itasca, Lansing, Lincolnwood, Mount Prospect, Oak Lawn, Park Ridge, Skokie, Orland Park), colleges and universities (College of Lake County, Kalamazoo College, Lewis University, Notre Dame, Loyola), concert series (Allerton, Bucktown Garden Walk, Chicago Riverwalk, Oak Park Thursday Nights Out, Des Plaines, Geneva), park districts (Chicago - Nichols Park, Bartlett, Veteran’s, Oswego), cultural organizations (Beverly Art Center, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Wilmette Center for the Arts), bars and restaurants (Duke’s Alehouse, Durty Nellie’s, Fiddlers Hearth, Hailstorm, Horse Thief Hollow, House of Blues, Imperial Oak, Kaiser Tiger, Kerry Piper, Mrs Murphy and Sons Irish Bistro, Milk Money Brewing, Molly Malones, Nevin’s, Nine Irish Brothers, Goose Island, Palmer Place, Sister Lakes Brewing, Timothy O’Tooles, Irish Patriot), churches (Holy Nativity, Old St. Pat’s, Saint Athanasius, Saint Zachary, Saint PHilip Neri, Southminster Presbyterian, Wesley United Methodist, Saint Cornelius), retirement/senior events (Alto Wheaton, Autumn Green, Bridgeview, Covenant Living, Bartlett Township, Lincolnwood, Monarch Landing, Park Place Elmhurst, Saint John’s on the Lake, Rolling Meadows), non-profit clients (Barrington Area Community Trust, Bishop McNamara school, Glen Ellyn Lions, Chicago Scots), corporate clients (Tullamore Dew, Aberdeen Investments, Ball Horticultural, Edward Jones, Glenlivet, Metropolitan Capital, University of Glasgow, Whole Foods), and countless private and wedding events.

We're very easy to work with. We bring our own amplification, use yours, or perform completely acoustic as needed. We keep the volume reasonable and the fuss to a minimum.