Doolin Craft Beer and Roots Festival, 26-8 Aug. 2016

Thanks to Raquel Noboa of the Hotel Doolin at Doolin, Co. Clare, for news of the 4th Doolin Craft Beer and Roots Festival, to be held six weeks from now (Friday 26 Aug.-Sunday 28 Aug.). The Festival is the largest event of its kind outside Dublin, with a marquee on the grounds of Hotel Doolin as its HQ. Over fifty different beers from micro-breweries in Ireland will be featured this year, including Dooliner Beer, an Irish red ale brewed for the hotel by the Clare craft brewery Western Herd.

Donal Minihane, the festival organiser, points out that craft brewing has grown threefold since 2011; microbreweries are increasing in size and number; and the industry is seen as having the potential to grow to 10 per cent of the overall beer market in Ireland. 'Our festival is an ideal opportunity for these businesses to showcase their products in one of the most scenic and fun settings in the entire country, a setting too that is renowned for its rich musical heritage.'

Live music will be provided over the three days by 'an eclectic mix of bluegrass and roots music', with the full lineup shown on the Festival home page and stage times shown here. Most directly interesting to BIB readers are I Draw Slow, the Whileaways, and the Tom Portman Trio (multi-instrumentalist Tom also plays dobro with Gone to Grass).

Day tickets are €10-€15, and a weekend ticket €25, available from www.tickets.ie. The Festival (also on Facebook) is announced as 'ideally timed for people who want one last blast of fun before they head into the dark evenings of the late autumn and winter'. The BIB has to point out that for bluegrass enthusiasts there is yet another chance of a blast of their kind of fun, and without even leaving the Banner County - look out for our coming post on the Bunratty Bluegrass Festival (21-3 Oct. 2016).