Sarah Hughes and Caolan Cunningham of Fresh As Folk Sarah Hughes and Caolan Cunningham of Fresh As Folk When Co Armagh musician Caolan Cunningham was starting out in his own musical career at the end of his teenage years, his father told him: “Play Irish music, because it will take you all over the world.” A decade later, Caolan (30) is now living in Dubai with his girlfriend, Sarah Hughes (26), who is also the second half of their two-piece Irish folk band — Fresh As Folk. So, not only was his father right, but now that Irish music is taking them back home to the Emerald Isle, as Sarah and Caolan have been given the chance to play at Ireland’s largest music and arts festival.
The duo — who are also both solicitors — have been a couple for just over two years, and around six months into their relationship, Caolan and Stewartstown native Sarah decided to pair up musically too. They left their legal careers in Northern Ireland back in November to pursue newfound melodies in the United Arab Emirates, and now find themselves playing nearly six nights a week in Irish bars across Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Fresh as Folk then won a competition with Murphy’s Stout and Irish comedy duo The 2 Johnnies, which has awarded them the opportunity to play at Electric Picnic’s Stradbally Inn this Saturday night - the same night superstar DJ Calvin Harris is headlining.
We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. “Calvin Harris is our support act,” Caolan said jokingly.
“I was saying to Sarah that after our gig, we should just try to walk everywhere with our guitar and fiddle on our backs, and try to get into all the VIP areas.” Saturday will also see huge names in music such as Kodaline, Kasabian, The Saw Doctors and The Mary Wallopers take to the main stage at the Co Laois festival, which entertains around 75,000 attendees annually. Other acts including Belfast rappers Kneecap and Belfast rising star Jordan Adetunji will be playing on other stages throughout the event on Saturday night as well.
Caolan added: “It’s nearly one of those things; until I’m there and standing on the stage on Saturday, I’ll still think: ‘Is this actually happening?’” Sarah Hughes and Caolan Cunningham of Fresh As Folk The Clonmore man has always had musical roots. His dad is Gerry Cunningham - lead singer of the Celtic rock band, More Power To Your Elbow, and writer of acclaimed musical drama, Blood Upon The Rose. “I was never pushed into being in a band,” said Caolan.
“I remember whenever I was younger, we took piano lessons and drum lessons. I never caught onto it, and I never studied music at school or anything. But then I just started picking up the guitar by myself at home, and I suppose it was always in our family.
“My brother and daddy both play the guitar, and you always had that encouragement if you ever wanted to do something or needed help with it. “I’ll never forget, daddy always said: ‘Caolan, play Irish music because it will take you all over the world’ “He genuinely said that to me the first time I joined a band, and here I am 10 years later sitting in Dubai. Having that Irish folk link seems to be popular and trendy at the minute too.
It’s a good time to be at it.” This won’t be Fresh As Folk’s first brush with stardom either. Back in April, whilst playing at McCafferty's Pub in Dubai, former Westlife star Brian McFadden joined Sarah and Caolan on stage — oddly enough, not to sing one of his own band’s songs, but instead, a rendition of Ronan Keating’s ‘When You Say Nothing At All’.
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