Meet the Gardiner Brothers: The Viral Irish Dance Duo Returning to the Dublin Irish Festival

The world-renowned Gardiner Brothers know exactly why people keep showing up to see them: talent, tradition and showmanship. Lindsay and Bruce sit down with Matthew and Michael, five-time world champions in Irish dance and viral creators with more than 10 million followers and over a billion views. We ask them about their much-anticipated return to the Dublin Irish Festival this year! They break it all down: what makes this festival feel so big, so welcoming and so proudly Irish.

We dig into the creative choices that make the Gardiner Brothers stand out, from taking precise, traditional Irish step dance and pairing it with modern music people already love, whether it's the Bee Gees, Ed Sheeran or Taylor Swift. They explain how nostalgia pulls in new audiences, how they read the room on stage, and why their sets change throughout the weekend, giving festival-goers a different experience each time.

Then we go behind the curtain to learn how they maintain their health and wellness on the road: from ice baths to the fitness reality that "every day is leg day," and the pivot that happened when live touring paused and social media became the main stage. We also talk about the surprising third pillar of their brand: public speaking. They discuss how they teach innovation through rhythm with the mantra, "Act on beat. Think offbeat."

If you're into Irish culture, dance, live performance or building a creative career, subscribe and share this episode with a friend. Then make plans to see the Gardiner Brothers at the 2026 Dublin Irish Festival.

Transcript

Welcome And Festival Preview

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Well, hello, and welcome to Link Ahead. Every year we dedicate one episode to the Dublin Irish Festival. And this year, all due respect to all of the incredible artists and acts that we have at the festival. We had one at the very top of our list.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

That's right. Five-time world champion Irish dancers and viral sensations, the Gardner Brothers. Matthew Michael, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_03 0:28

Hey, thanks so much for having us. We're excited to be on. Absolutely awesome.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Thank you for being here. Now you're going to be at the Irish Festival performing all three days. So it's going to be awesome. Everyone is looking forward to it. And we're

Why Dublin Irish Fest Hooks Them

SPEAKER_00 0:40

excited to have you. But what we have to start off by saying, what keeps you coming back to Dublin?

SPEAKER_03 0:45

Well, I mean, Dublin Irish Fest, we got to go to Dublin Irish Fest uh last year. We were performing at it for the first time last year, and it was genuinely one of the best experiences that we've had as performers. Um, obviously, it's a celebration of all things Irish or All Things Ireland. Um, that's a huge part of what we do as the Gardner Brothers. You know, we love to showcase the Irish culture on our social media and you know, really push the boundaries. So to be a part of that, and that's obviously a big part of what Dublin Irish Fest does. I mean, I think it's physically the biggest Irish Fest, is that right, in the world?

SPEAKER_02 1:16

Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:16

Um, you know, it's it's it's phenomenal. And we're honored. You mentioned the other acts that are gonna be there. Like every single year, they just have these incredible acts that are just you know pushing Irish culture and promoting it and just everybody having fun. We're honored to be a part of that. It's a huge honor for us to be there.

Mixing Irish Dance With Pop Music

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Yeah, and I will speak from personal experience because I watched you a few times last year, and how did I find you? I just followed the massive crowds. So, um, you know, what is it that makes you guys a little different that really connects with audiences so much?

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Well, you know, we love to experiment with it, like Michael said, push the boundaries of what we do as Irish dancers. Um, and I think people are really drawn to the mix of Irish dancing with modern music. Yeah, and you know, that that music can be anything from the Bee Gees to Ed Sheeran to Taylor Swift. Um, and we just love experimenting with it. Um and yeah, just just pushing the Irish culture, you know. Yeah, and I think I think that marriage between those two things, two two unique things is what draws people to it.

SPEAKER_03 2:22

Um and yeah. Yeah, you're connecting different backgrounds there, you know. Like we always use the the example of like when we dance to MM, we always see a spike in our Detroit area falls.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

So funny.

SPEAKER_03 2:33

Which is you know, which is amazing. But we get to connect people from Detroit with an Irish culture that they may never have seen before. Um, and it's just you know, you're reminding people of their, you know, uh like a nostalgic memory of you know listening to the Bee Gees, and now all of a sudden you're seeing it, and you know, the Gardner brothers are dancing to it. So it's a nice kind of combination there. We've um we we've enjoyed just you know connecting people that way so much.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

That is

From World Titles To Viral Growth

SPEAKER_00 2:57

awesome. So you built an incredible career, five-time world champions, more than 10 million followers, and over a billion views on social.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

I mean, that is that's that's about what Link Ahead gets, right? Yes, we're real close.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Well, it's all right. At what point did you uh hit that you that you become something more than just competition? You know, how did this success and this building this did it build pressure or does it like naturally keep escalating?

SPEAKER_03 3:26

That's a great question. I think you know, obviously we we were so fortunate to, you know, with with all of our hard work, there there comes a lot of luck as well. And you know, our dance teachers used to always say, you know, you have to be ready for when your luck is in. So we were fortunate enough to win those world titles, and we got to tour with the world with River Dance. And then obviously during the pandemic, you know, everything was shut down. So we just started our social media as like we had it, you know, before pre-pandemic, but we posted like twice a year. Um, and now we started, you know, we got to the point where we were posting twice a day then. Um, it it it really became I think when it when it really changed for us was when we started seeing people commenting with us, you know, saying how much joy we're bringing, how much you know you need to keep doing this. And I guess I wouldn't say that there's ever pressure on us. I think it's more I don't think so. Um we see it as an opportunity, like we get to do this, like it's it's unbelievable. We get to, you know, our we both qualified.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

Matthew qualified as an engineer, I qualified as an architect, and we would both happily do that, but we get to dance for a living and we get to speak and we get to h we do hire engineers and architects here in the city of Dublin if you're ever interested, you know. Hey, well, we never know. Ever say never.

SPEAKER_03 4:36

Ever say never. We actually joke sometimes with our audiences that uh, you know, we can uh a nice business model in the future would be that we could design, you know, we could dance at your wedding and then design your house.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Well, that's it. So we had uh Jack Nicholas on the Link Ahead earlier this year, and you know he he played major golf tournaments. He also designs golf courses. So I could see you parlaying that into something.

SPEAKER_03 5:00

Definitely. That's it. Yeah, that's we'll have to hook up with Jack Nicholas. Can you can you connect us and we'll yeah, that's good career advice, Bruce.

Training Recovery And Show Prep

SPEAKER_01 5:09

Uh so sticking with the dance, I know summer is kind of touring and performance season for you and so many others. How do you prepare your show and yourselves for the pace that you guys are doing this time of year?

SPEAKER_02 5:22

Well, we're always like to start off, we're always taking care of our bodies as much as possible. Obviously, we use our legs a lot. So every day is leg day. Yeah. Every day is leg day. We're whenever we do go to the gym, we're trying to, you know, balance that out with upper body. And then like, so we're we're actually leaving for the Calgary Stampede, we're performing at the Stampede at the end of the week. Um, but just like that, coming up to Dublin Irish Fest, we'll be you know, we're gonna be in the ice baths all this week, every day. Ah, making sure our body is is is right for the for the festival, yeah. Um, and then apart from that, we're gonna have some amazing special guests joining us, some world-class dancers. So some of the best of the best. We'll be hopping on Zoom with them, making sure everything is uh, you know, rehearsed and everything. And we're gonna be bringing some new things as well to the festival this year that people wouldn't have seen last year. So that's all exciting. And you know, just um it's trying to keep that standard up and exactly.

SPEAKER_03 6:21

Like it's it's very physical. What we do is is very physical and it and it definitely keeps us fit, but it we also realize every day that we have to remain fit. You know, it's like any of those, uh any anybody that uses their body for their work, you know, like a a sports star or anything, you're not you have to keep it there, and there's a responsibility to, you know, make sure that you're keeping it in tip-top shape.

Guest Dancers And Two Unique Sets

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Well, you mentioned some of those uh guest dancers that you have, and we wanted to mention one of them, Courtney D'Angelo, um, you know, born and raised here in Dublin, and then maybe some of your river dance colleagues. Um talk a little bit more about that and how you choose who you're gonna have perform with you.

SPEAKER_03 6:59

Well, yeah, first of all, we get to we get the opportunity to have Courtney D'Angelo. Obviously, she's a local celebrity um from Dublin, Ohio, or from Columbus. Uh, we've known each other for about 10 or 15 years now. Uh we toured the world with River Dance and we work together with different companies, and she actually performed in our show as well. And so this is going to be an amazing time to you know have her on stage with us. But then we also have these incredible other or some other incredible dancers. You know, we've got Morgan Bullock joining us as well. We've got uh Shannon Carney all the way from Chicago, and then we've got Kiva Cardi as well, who also happens to be my girlfriend. So I'm very lucky to have her up here up.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Well, that works out well.

SPEAKER_03 7:38

Um I might have a slight bias as who my favorite one is, but so when you're Oh, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Sorry.

SPEAKER_03 7:46

Sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

No, when you're performing at a three-day festival and every day of it, do you like to be consistent for your audience, or is there something you're gonna throw in one of the days that you're only gonna see on one?

SPEAKER_03 7:58

Well, we like to do we like to change it up a little bit. So, like, you know, our the a cappella that we do, the dance off that Matthew and I always do, it's always different because we like to just have each have fun with each other on stage.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Yeah, in that one, like we we love to interact with the audience and and almost like read the room. Yeah, you know, um so we're always messing with each other, messing with the audience, seeing where it goes, like reading their energy. Um, and then yeah, we're we're gonna have some different songs that we dance to like from performance, even inside just Dublin Irish Fest.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

Yeah, we have two two different sets this year, so make sure you you don't have to just come once, like you can come see us twice because it's gonna be two different sets. So we're uh we're excited for it. We have a really special one that's coming uh this year, just to give you guys a little hint. Um, it's like we're we call it Clockwork Jams, and it's uh it's a 10-minute number, and that's all we'll say.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

All right, all right, all right.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

So, anyone out there that's on the fence about buying a ticket for all three days, they should buy a ticket for all three days.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

Oh, they should buy a ticket for all three days. It's just incredible, and not even just for Gardner Brothers. We got the opportunity to go and just see the whole festival last year. There is you don't even have to have any connection to Ireland, but by the end of the weekend, you're gonna be Irish. It's phenomenal. You need to just make sure you're there, it's phenomenal. That's all well.

SPEAKER_01 9:19

Bruce knows I'm gonna ask this, but with these dance-offs, who usually wins? Who usually comes out on top there? Uh oh.

SPEAKER_03 9:26

Well, that's actually that's actually a highly contested question. We guess also we uh we actually so something that we do is we we have we are lucky. You said we have five world titles between us, but that means one of us has three and one of us has two. So we actually, by the end of the a cappella, by the end of the dance off, we get the audience to choose which brother is better. So that really makes us keeps us on our toes. Yeah, literally personal.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Literally keeps showing you toes.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

We know you're bringing it every day, then um every

How They Started Irish Dancing

SPEAKER_01 9:54

day. All right, let's uh fire up the time machine just a little bit, go back in time. You were both born in Denver, Michael. You're the oldest. Does that make you the wisest, also? And Matthew, feel free to weigh in.

SPEAKER_03 10:07

I don't know if that makes me the wisest. I think maybe some days I think it does, but it uh we definitely have a great relationship where Matthew can certainly tell me that I'm just being ridiculous some days.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

If he's the wisest, then if he's the wisest, I'm the fittest. There we go. That's how it works, right?

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Balancing that. So you started Irish dancing in 2003. What what was that spark that made you want to continue dancing?

SPEAKER_03 10:32

Well, yeah, I I was the first into actually that's a lie. Our sister was the first into dance a dance class. She's our older sister Anna, she gets all the credit for getting us into dancing. Our parents wanted us to have some of that Irish culture growing up, and so they put Anna in, and then I kind of loved the class, and there just happened to be an Irish dancing class with a lot of boys in it. So that like we just ended up messing all the time, so that was great. Um, and then Matthew just thought it was part of everyday life.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Yeah, I I didn't uh you know, I didn't see it as a change. Uh I just honestly thought it was part of you know the Gardner family household um as a young lad. So we just we loved the the intricate rhythms and the musicality. I and that must make you know, maybe that's in our DNA, who knows? But we just fell in love with that, and we fell in love with the friends that we were making and the lessons that we learned, and honestly, that just kind of kept snowballing. And then when we moved to Ireland in 2006, I think it was a real foundation for the whole family. You know, we were leaving a lot of family and friends in America too, and to have this Irish dancing to hold on to was was great and a new uh a way to meet new friends, and and uh obviously, you know, we had our family in Ireland as well.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Yeah, yeah, we were honored to interview the step crew last year before the Irish festival. I have to imagine you're familiar with their uh their dancing, and that's kind of a family affair as well.

SPEAKER_03 11:56

So absolutely, and the Pulatski brothers, we're just we're obsessed with those guys, they're so good, they're so much fun, so so much energy, so much energy. We love it.

SPEAKER_01 12:05

Right. Uh, my brothers and I also dance, but not not quite that well. I thought you could tell me you were an Irish dan at weddings. I wish. We we do have some Irish dancers um on our team here, though. We did, absolutely uh Shirley on our meetup with them when we're in Dublin. Absolutely. Uh yeah, we've seen some of those early trophies that were taller than you guys. What do you remember just about those early wins and dance performances?

SPEAKER_03 12:31

Well, I think it was extremely uh it was obviously so exciting, you know. I think you don't realize what you're that you're learning a lot as you're you know, winning and losing. You know, Irish dancing taught us a lot about how to win, but it also taught us how to lose. And so, you know, you saw these amazing trophies, and that was obviously, you know, I think the first year I won one of these trophies, I think Matthew got it got to see it before he even started dancing. And he was like, Well, I want one of those. And so sure enough, the next year he went back and he won one of course. But I think it's you know, it's incredibly exciting, and it's something that like I suppose grounded us as well in something like realizing you know how to set goals and then how to you know achieve those goals. And it was, you know, even as young lads, it was it was teaching us lessons that we didn't really realize they were it was teaching us.

Broncos Fandom And Moving To Nashville

SPEAKER_00 13:20

You've performed for Pope Francis, partnered with global companies like uh Dubai, visit Dubai, and even taking stage at a Denver Broncos football game. All right, so as big uh Broncos fans, who's your favorite of all time?

SPEAKER_03 13:35

Oh, I think uh Champ Bailey for me. Champ Bailey, yeah. I think you know I'm I I'm a offensive guy. I think I'll have to go Peyton Manning.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Wow! I did not see Peyton Manning coming. Okay. Yeah, but you know what?

SPEAKER_03 13:49

We're we're big, uh we're big on on Bo Nicks this year. I we're we're excited about him. He he had an unfortunate angle injury last year, but he'll be back better than ever.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Um, we mentioned earlier.

SPEAKER_03 14:02

Devastating. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

We mentioned earlier that now you're in Nashville, so what was behind that move?

SPEAKER_03 14:08

Well, the two of us always wanted to, you know, try out living in America again. Um, you know, we we we absolutely love Ireland, but whether we were architects and engineers or content creators and performers, we we always thought that you know we might come back to America. And so we had the opportunity to tour America with River Dance for about 10 years, and we got the opportunity to see basically every city in America. And so I think you know, obviously we had the likes of New York, Chicago, LA, they were on the list. Um, Denver was on the list, but Nashville was always just so much fun. It was full of music, full of culture, full of just you know, friendly, yeah, friendly people, and and they don't mind us dancing on Broadway every day. So uh that's obviously a plus.

Speaking On Innovation Through Rhythm

SPEAKER_00 14:53

So on the social side, you've built an incredible following that we've kind of talked about. But your email signature kind of struck us as it says content creators, speakers, performers, and it's in that order. Is that deliberate? And how do you prioritize your career?

SPEAKER_02 15:08

Yeah, well, that's a great question. Um, those are kind of the three main pillars, I guess, of what we do. Um, obviously the content creation and the performing. And the speaking is almost a little bit uh more surprising when people see that. Um, and that that's kind of a door that's opened for us in the last three or four years that we didn't really see ourselves going into. Um, but we really, really enjoy that as well. Um, in terms of prioritizing our career, I think we look at all three as like equal third parts.

SPEAKER_03 15:39

Yeah, I think it's and and that's what keeps us like so fresh all the time. There's there's parts of the year that are more focused on content creation, parts of the year like the summer that's more focused on performing, and then obviously there's parts of the year that are focused on speaking. But I think in terms of like what order we put it in, I think um it's it's a little bit more obvious that we're content creators and performers, so I think we put speakers in there to just be a bit of a disruptor. But um, we love all three just as just as equal.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Um tell us a little bit more about your speaking engagements. You know, what are what are some things that you're what places you're going and things you're talking about? What's that look like?

SPEAKER_03 16:17

Yeah, well, I mean, it the speaking career for us really kind of happened. I I don't want to say like by accident, but it was one of these things where we were starting to be asked to perform at corporate events for 45 to 60 minutes. And so Matthew and I just thought, well, we should say yes to some of these things, but how are we gonna fill 45 to 60 minutes?

SPEAKER_01 16:37

You'll take a dance for that one.

SPEAKER_03 16:40

We just started, you know, telling our story. So the first couple of times it was more so like telling a little bit of our story and some of the things that we've learned. But then we realized that people were really taking impact from what we were talking about, and they were coming up to us afterwards saying, Hey, that was you know, that what you were talking about there, you know, I really took that, that's gonna come home with me. And we thought, God, there must be something wrong with the dancing if they're listening more to the speaking. But we realized all of a sudden that we did have a lot of these, you know, lessons and these kind of teachings that we that we could have impact with with people and we could, you know, help people. So now we get to go to you know corporate events where we were speaking at the you know Society of American Military Engineers about innovation uh a couple of weeks ago, and that was just incredible. We and what we do in that case is we were speaking about innovation through the lens of rhythm. So, you know, as Irish dancers, we've always had to be innovators, and you know, even just kind of coming up with a uh a special rhythm or a dance routine, and we talk about acting on beat, thinking offbeat. So that's kind of our our way of helping others realize that you know innovation isn't just for the chosen few, it's actually inside of everybody, but not everybody has been given the tools. We were given the tools as dancers, so we want to be able to help others uh, you know, really access those tools themselves.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Wow, we have to get you guys uh staged to do some speaking at the Dublin Irish Festival. We have storyteller stages and things like that. So we'll talk to Allison and see if we can make that for 2027.

SPEAKER_03 18:09

Let's go, let's do it. We're all ears.

What First-Timers Miss At The Fest

SPEAKER_01 18:11

All right, we talked a little bit about the Dublin Irish Festival earlier today, but uh you guys were here last year for your first time. For someone who's never been, what would you tell them they're missing?

SPEAKER_02 18:23

I think they're missing the whole spectrum of of Ireland.

SPEAKER_03 18:28

Yeah. If you've ever if you if you have any sort of connection to Ireland, if you've ever wanted to go to Ireland, do you know what? Even if you're just looking for a good time, it's full of music, it's full of amazing food, it's full of amazing people, everybody's just there to have a great time. It's it's I don't want to jinx it now, but it was amazing weather last year.

SPEAKER_01 18:48

Oh, that was the best weather ever.

SPEAKER_03 18:49

It's great.

SPEAKER_01 18:50

Well, you guys are our lucky charms, so exactly the luck of the Irish.

SPEAKER_03 18:53

Yeah, but it's it's a real celebration of just community, uh, music, dance, storytelling.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Yeah, there's something, there really is something there for everyone. Um within the booths and the stages, like storytelling, arts and crafts, arts and crafts, you know, Irish heritage, you know, all of that stuff.

SPEAKER_03 19:12

So as an Irish person, it makes me incredibly proud, genuinely so proud to just to just observe it. Never mind, just be a part of it, but to observe it, to have a group of people celebrating our culture, the Irish culture, as as much as that, it's just really phenomenal. And you'll leave there, like we said, you'll leave there with a little taste of Ireland. It's really phenomenal. Um, you'll you'll be a little bit Irish, you'll be a little bit more Irish after the weekend.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

I think you've thrown out three taglines for us now that we're gonna use next year. So thank you. That helps our

Rapid Fire Tour Life Favorites

SPEAKER_00 19:46

that's great.

SPEAKER_01 19:46

Okay, well, uh, we're just so excited to see you this year. But before we let you go, we end all of our episodes with rapid fire questions. So this is always fun when we have two guests. So I guess just figure out who wants to go first. And these questions are for both of you. Yeah. Uh so I'll I'll go first. So, what is the best part of touring?

SPEAKER_02 20:07

Um New City every day. New city every day. Um fun with your friends every day.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Most challenging part of touring.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

Living out of a suitcase.

SPEAKER_03 20:20

Yeah. Upkeep of your body. Just you know, it can be tiring as well.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

On that note, uh, must have food on the road.

SPEAKER_03 20:30

Um I don't mind. In an outburger. I was gonna say a carbonara, a little bit more healthy, but okay. Oh wow, uh a vegetable you won't eat. Um like a turnip, onions. Actually, most of them. Matthew would say I don't eat any vegetables.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

All right, how about coffee? Essential or optional?

SPEAKER_03 20:55

Essential.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Essential.

unknown 20:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

After a performance, a celebratory drink or straight to water?

SPEAKER_02 21:03

Straight to water, and then maybe a celebratory drink. Well, what he said. Okay.

unknown 21:09

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Okay, an audience you would still love to perform for.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

Oh, uh World Cup final.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

That's a good one. Uh, an artist you'd love to co collaborate with.

SPEAKER_02 21:24

Oh my god, that's a hard one. I actually the first three that came into my head are are actually all passed away, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 21:30

But let's go with Pastor Present.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

Pastor Present. Uh well then Michael Jackson, Queen, who was but maybe I'll go with Ed Sheeran. And then I'll say Shakira. All right.

SPEAKER_01 21:43

Wait, do your hips lie?

SPEAKER_03 21:46

Never.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

Never. All right. If the Tennessee Titans invited you to perform, could you wear the jersey even as diehard Broncos fans?

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Oh. I think so. I mean, they're not the biggest rivals because they're actually not that good. You know what?

SPEAKER_03 22:03

I wear the jersey and I wear Broncos underneath. That's a good move.

Final Pitch To See Them Live

SPEAKER_00 22:09

All right, you've already kind of said this earlier, but uh give our listeners the best pitch to come out and see you at the 2026 Delman Irish Festival.

SPEAKER_02 22:20

Well, it's gonna start off with some Irish. Yeah. First of all, some Irish music, pure Irish dancing. Then we're gonna bring you on a little bit of a journey through time with what Michael said was called Clockwork Jams. And that's a 10-minute piece. There's gonna be some maybe some comedy in there, yeah. Some of our biggest hits on social media. Um, and then we're gonna be joined by four incredible dancers as well who tour the world as well with companies like River Dance.

SPEAKER_03 22:49

And if um if you love to sing along while people are performing, this is the one for you. We want you guys to be singing along with us while we're dancing, and that's just a hint. The energy's gonna be there, so you need to be there. Alright.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Awesome. All right, Matthew, Michael, Gardner, thank you so much for joining us on Linkhead, and we will see you very soon in Dublin.

SPEAKER_03 23:08

Hey, thank you very much for having us. We're really excited for it.