So where will you be this time next week?

... asks the latest Dangem e-newsletter, drawing attention to the many attractions of the 21st Omagh Bluegrass Music Festival, with an outline of the concert schedule and other features. Read the whole release here.

This time next week, the evening concert will be underway; apologies to Dangem for not publishing this news yesterday when the release was received, but the BIB has in any case been carrying a good deal of news about the Festival and we didn't think any of our readers were likely to be taken by surprise.

One feature of the Festival that deserves more media attention is the annual McAuley Lecture; this year there will be only one (on Saturday) instead of the normal two, but that one should be a classic. Rodney McElrea, a genuine national treasure and a world-class collector of country music records and other memorabilia, will be speaking at 1.00 p.m. in the Library from his encyclopedic knowledge of compositions and recordings by country artists on the theme of the sinking of the Titanic a century ago.