One of the performers at the upcoming Cork Jazz Festival says it is 'moving, radical and a homecoming' in many ways.
Singer Denise Chaila will take to the stage at the first major event following the easing of restrictions on Friday.
The Guinness Cork Jazz Festival will be held across the bank holiday weekend, from October 22nd to 25th.
Organisers say it will bring much-loved performances, as well as emerging local talent, to the streets and venues of Cork.
Denise told Newstalk Breakfast she is looking forward to performing on Sunday.
"It's incredible - there's so much uncertainty that we've been facing for the last two years really, now.
"To have an opportunity to really meet together and discover what it's like to negotiate our vulnerability and enjoy music together and just be human is really, really just such a welcome thought."
Denise says as well as performing, she is looking forward to seeing others.
"It's a lot more than just a making a return, I'm just excited to see other people perform too.
"It's been a long time since I've been in a music-making environment, and there's something really electric about just seeing people enjoy their music and enjoy being able to do what they have put their efforts towards doing".
She says there is something extra special about it being a jazz event.
"I think it's very significant to me that it's jazz that we're celebrating, in respect to returning to something that we've been denied.
"Jazz was the voice of people who had been denied a lot - and it has its roots in so much of my traditional and cultural and emotional bedrock.
"This is the music that dared to hold us: it's spiritual, it's moving, it's radical, it's a homecoming in so many ways and it's happening in Cork".
And she says the event is open to all music lovers.
"Cork Jazz Festival is an opportunity for a lot of people to celebrate a genre which is widely discussed, but largely misunderstood.
"It's an opportunity to feel music in your body, it's an opportunity to meet with people who are in love with music.
"It's an opportunity to nerd out, and just being completely comfortable just being around people who are there to hold you in that space.
"There are all sorts of songs and all sorts of genres and music that are going to be played there that aren't necessarily jazz.
"So it's pretty accessible, you don't have to have a degree in musicology to find your way through".
