9th Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival, 21-23 June 2019: updates

The organising team of the 9th Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival 2019 in the Netherlands ('Three days of kickass music') announce that the lineup for this year's event, two months from now, is complete. The US headliners will be the Po' Ramblin' Boys from Tennessee,* and the Hackensaw Boys from Virginia.

The latest additions include the Often Herd (GB), who toured Ireland in 2015 as the Kentucky Cow Tippers; and Broke & Dusty (USA), a band from East Tennessee State University led by Owen Schinkel, a young Dutch dobroist studying at ETSU (see the BIB for 14 July 2017). Joost van Es, well known in Ireland as fiddler of the outstanding 4 Wheel Drive, will be appearing with Cousin Hatfield (NL). The full festival lineup, showing twenty-three acts, can be seen here.

The Rotterdam Bluegrass Festival (also on Facebook) is a free three-day international music festival held at the historic Pijnackerplein in the ‘Het Oude Noorden’ neighbourhood of Rotterdam. Last year it drew 14,000 visitors. The festival's official press release announces:

Besides classic bluegrass from both the US and all corners of the world there is also old-time, roots, blues and Americana music, workshops, art, comics, and cross-over performances. It’s the perfect spot for both bluegrass fans end newcomers to the genre. Expect the unexpected!

A feature on the festival by John Lawless appeared last Thursday (18 Apr.) on Bluegrass Today.

*Regrettably, there is no sign on the Po' Ramblin' Boys' online tour schedule of a visit to Ireland this year.

Update 26 Apr.: A feature by Lee Zimmerman on Owen Schinkel and his experiences at ETSU appears on Bluegrass Today.