Sore Fingers and live music in Britain

Back in June 2021 the BIB published the hopeful news that the UK's Sore Fingers Summer School (Europe's premier bluegrass and old-time music instruction institution, from which many pickers from Ireland have benefited) would hold its main week-long event in October. As BIB readers who took an active interest will be aware, the organisers, John and Moira Wirtz, decided in view of the developing COVID situation to reschedule the event to the week before Easter this year - Mon. 11 Apr.-Fri. 15 Apr. 2022.

Full details of courses, with advice for prospective attenders and (as usual) a distinguished list of instructors from the US and UK, can be seen here. A positive assessment of the prospects for live music events in Britain in 2022, based on experience in 2021, appeared on the SFSS website just before Christmas. John and Moira add this message to all who have supported and benefited from the SFSS:

Thanks to all of you, Sore Fingers Week is firmly implanted in the Annual Calendar of Acoustic Music Camps. This is an achievement we can all be proud of. At the outset the original aim was to offer a music camp worthy of its name on this side of the Atlantic to facilitate the bluegrass and old time followings in Britain and Europe. We had little idea that we could eventually run an event good enough to rival some of the best camps held in North America.

© Richard Hawkins