Bending the Strings at Dunmore East

Thanks to Vinny Baker (eating the mandolin headstock in the above photo), who reports:

Bending the Strings got back from Dunmore East Bluegrass Festival, very tired and sore fingers all round, but what an enjoyable festival it was. Huge crowds attended all gigs and the town was heaving with people throughout the weekend.

I managed to catch Woodbine at the Strand on the Saturday and a large and appreciative crowd attended, despite the cold sea breeze which eventually forced us to move on.

Our first gig was in Powers Bar on Saturday night, and a large number of our usual followers were in attendance; next we played the Spinnaker bar and marquee at 3.30 p.m. on Sunday, and again a large crowd attended. Finally we played the Ocean Hotel on Sunday night, and a huge crowd attended and proved to be a great windup to Bending the Strings' stint in Dunmore East.

On Sunday, previous to our gig in the Ocean we had a visit from Hugh and John from the Well Enough Alone band and we had a short picking session with John on mandolin, Hugh on guitar, Martin on banjo, and myself on Hugh's lovely Martin D-16. The only problem was lack of time. Meanwhile Gerry Madden arrived back from a fishing expedition down on the rocks, with a bag of fresh mackerel, so we dined on the cheap that night.

We would like to extend our sincere and grateful thanks to Mick Daly and all the organisers of the Dunmore East festival; we wish the festival continued success; and Bending the Strings would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who travelled long journeys to come and see us at our gigs and all our good friends who we met at the festival.

From Bending the Strings - Moyra, Martin, Gerry and Vinny - a big 'thank you' to you all.