Westport Folk & Bluegrass Festival stronger than ever

The MacEvillys, with Tommy Lyons (banjo and harmonica)

Electric Cave Production reports on another successful festival last weekend in Westport, Co. Mayo. Links to the websites of all bands, artists, and venues mentioned are on the Festival website.

Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival is stronger than ever.

Last Friday (25 June) saw over 150 people arriving to Westport from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and every corner of Ireland for three days of celebration of quality music at Westport's 4th Folk & Bluegrass Festival. The town was washed with sunshine and sessions started to take place during the day. The official launch of the festival was around 9.45 in the Clew Bay Hotel with the much-loved MacEvillys from Westport, who once again brought the house down.

Around the same time, three more shows were taking place around the town: in Geraghty's pub (the home of the Electric Cave Production) we had John Taylor (left) from Scotland who brought travelling fans from home with him. In McGing's pub, Well Enough Alone (below) had the crowd in the palm of their hands listening to solid bluegrass.

The Jester pub was a first-timer at the festival and hosted the 'wild card' show of the festival with Wookalily from Co. Down. The girls of Wookalily played live on 'News talk' that morning and played another acoustic show on Saturday afternoon. All their shows were top-class, and they proved that it was the right decision to book them to the festival.

Saturday started with one of the highlights of the festival - the Molly Hicks (above) played, in front of a full house, a superb lunchtime gig. After Tim Rogers conducted another fiddle workshop, all the musicians and the music fans made their way back to McGing's pub for a four-hour session that involved around fourteen musicians.

The main event at the Mill Times Hotel saw three excellent shows on one stage. David Hope & the Henchmen (above) started with one hour of original folk and amazed those who saw them for the first time. The Broken String Band from Northern Ireland served the people with a good measure of solid Appalachian acoustic bluegrass. Last on the bill were the Coal Porters (below) from England; they answered all expectations with a top-range bluegrass show. The night finished with a long session that involved all of those who stayed awake.

Jim Byrne from Scotland played another lunchtime gig in the Clew Bay Hotel, and Tim Rogers returned to his old spot at Geraghty's pub for another four-hour session of old-time music.

The festival was held as a great success, and Uri Kohen, the festival producer, would like to thank all of those who travelled, performed, hosted, and supported the festival in any way. Looking forward to seeing you here on our fifth birthday - roll on June 2011!

Uri is not resting on his laurels after the Festival, and has a full programme of gigs coming up for the summer months, which will be posted on the BIB.