Ireland in the BU festival listings

The January 2016 issue of Bluegrass Unlimited magazine includes the annual register of bluegrass festivals - a twelve-page section, with US festivals taking up ten and a half. Of the festivals outside North America, Ireland again scores high with four events - Bunratty/Sixmilebridge (Jan.), Kilkenny, Wesport (sic), and Dunmore East - coming second to England, with six.

As always, this gives a completely unreal picture of the number of actual festivals in each country - for instance, only the Banjo Jamboree is listed for the Czech Republic - but it's good to see Ireland doing well...

Scotland is represented by the Moniaive Michaelmas Bluegrass Festival - in 2016 this will be held on 23-25 September, with a powerful lineup of bands of whom several have played, or will play, at major Irish festivals. Indeed, two of the performance videos of the headline acts were shot in Ireland. Intrigued? Full details are on the MMBF website.