Shantalliv Tap Festival 2025!

What a fantastic weekend at Shantalliv Tap Festival in Kerry, with my friends from Kerry Tap Ensemble, Team Ireland, and Kildare Tap, among other tap fam colleagues from all over Ireland and internationally. Organised by KTE Director Dr Trish Melton, with the help of the amazing interns Mia Keane and Katarina Roberts, it's billed as the "most rural tap festival in the world" No lie there! Based in and around beautiful Castlegregory, Co Kerry, and in the famous Cowshed in Shantalliv, we were lucky enough to take classes with a stellar faculty.

Dante Lara, Dr Tap (Igor Bezdieniezhnykh), Clara Martinzez, and Elizabeth Burke. 13 classes over 3 days, and by the last class, I was dancing my heart out in my pink crocs. Not even in sport mode....

This festival is genuinely not to be missed in 2026, there's an Advanced Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced track, so there really is something for everyone.

Be prepared to see some of the gorgeous exercises and fantastic music choices make appearances in Kildare Tap classes over the next few months, and maybe even little bits of the fun choreo and tricks we picked up.

Thanks Shantalliv, I will 100% be back next year, and there may be a larger Kildare Tap crew this time!

Saragh