Outlaws at Dunmore East Festival

Press release

DUNMORE EAST, August 2006 – Ireland's biggest bluegrass festival, with over fifty gigs, is also free. The 12th Guinness Dunmore East International Bluegrass Festival promises four days of music from August 24 to the 27th.

Outlaws and country music have long been agreeable bedfellows, and headlining this year's festival are the Boxcar Preachers, an old-time-outlaw country band from Austin, Texas. Bruce Gardner, co-founder of the band, says he's related to late-nineteenth-century outlaw Black Jack Ketchum. Fellow band member Craig High says he's kin to the Younger Brothers, who were part of the Hole in the Wall Gang. When both men got together about four years ago, they realised they came from similar stock and formed a new gang – or rather, an outlaw band. The music they play is perhaps more reminiscent of the era of Bonnie and Clyde or John Dillinger, but their outlaw connection goes back to the romantic days of the Wild West when train robberies began to spread like an epidemic.

Dunmore East, one of the most romantic villages in Ireland, looks across the deep blue bay to the Hook Lighthouse. Its breathtaking views and sunny south-eastern location is the perfect setting for a music festival. Once a year music pilgrims come from all over the world to listen to authentic bluegrass music. Bands play to ecstatic crowds, spread out comfortably at six venues, both indoors and outdoors. There's also fine dining, sunbathing, swimming, dancing, and jamming all day and night – a bluegrass picker's paradise.

This year's international line-up features top acts from the US, France, Holland, UK, and Ireland. The festival is organised by Mick Daly, a promoter with an eclectic vision – mixing old-time country, bluegrass, and futuristic newgrass acts, and some acts that defy category. Since 1995 the Dunmore East festival has evolved to meet the tastes of roots music fans.

The 12th Guinness Dunmore East International Bluegrass Festival features the Boxcar Preachers (Austin, USA), King Brothers (Philadelphia, USA), Tennessee Hob (USA/Ireland), Blue Grass Boogiemen (Holland), Blue Railroad Train (France), Jack Danielle's String Band (France), Kevin and Geraldine Gill Band (Ireland), Hog's Rose Bluegrass Band (Ireland), Mean Eyed Cats (Northern Ireland), and Clarksville Mountain Band (UK).

For more information visit the Festival website. Contact Mick Daly, +353 (0)51 87 8832.