Balla Bluegrass Festival 2020 CANCELLED

Sad news from the organisers of the Balla Bluegrass Festival in Co. Mayo:

With continued uncertainty regarding the reopening of the pubs and the general future of the live music industry, the organisers of the Balla Bluegrass Festival had no choice but to call off this year's festival which was due to take place on the October Bank Holiday [23-26 Oct. 2020].

Like everyone else, we are very much looking forward for the reopening of the pubs and music venues and the return of domestic and international live music. We are looking forward to seeing all our friends back in Mayo in 2021.

Dunmore East Festival obliged to postpone to 2021

Thanks and condolences to Mick Daly, organiser of the Dunmore East Bluegrass Festival, Co. Waterford, for the sad news that this year's festival, which it was hoped would be held this coming weekend (29-30 Aug.), has had to be cancelled after constant efforts by Mick and his team to make an event possible in one format or another. Mick writes:

You will understand that we had to pull the mini bluegrass festival because of the latest directives. Plan D was to have a 100-people event outdoors. I would like to thank all the acts that were to play and hung in there with all the changes over the summer. We had hoped that the situation would improve over the summer, but alas...

Roll on 27/ 28/ 29 August 2021, and a big thank you to all our Dunmore East supporters.

Two more major festivals postponed to 2021

The Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby, NC, announces with regret that the first Earl Scruggs Music Festival, scheduled for 4-5 Sept. 2020 with a very high-powered lineup (see the BIB for 28 Sept. 2019), will now be postponed to 3-4 Sept. 2021. More information is here.

On this side of the Atlantic and on the same weekend, the Didmarton Bluegrass Festival, one of the pivotal events in the calendar for bluegrass in Britain, has also been postponed to 2021.

49th Winfield Festival postponed to 2021

THE organisers of the Walnut Valley Festival (USA) have announced that after communicating with local public health and city officials, they have decided with regret to postpone the 49th Festival to September 2021. Tickets already bought for this year will be valid for next year. A series of virtual concerts and events, with an online songwriter's showcase, are being arranged for September 2020 under the tentative title 'WVF 48.5'.

The Festival is traditionally held on the third weekend of September in Winfield, Kansas. It centres on the championship contests: International Autoharp, International Fingerstyle Guitar, National Mountain Dulcimer, National Flat Pick Guitar, National Hammered Dulcimer, National Bluegrass Banjo, National Mandolin, and Walnut Valley Old Time Fiddle Championships.

In addition, 'Winfield' draws a crowd of 10,000-15,000 people to celebrate a blend of all kinds of acoustic music, including bluegrass, folk, Americana, cowboy, Celtic, blues, jazz, swing, and more.

Sacred Harp Singers of Dublin cancel 4 July all-day singing

Sacred Harp Singers of Dublin have just added the following announcement to their website and Facebook:

Friends, we are sorry to cancel our All-Day singing on 4th July due to COVID-19 and associated safety restrictions. However, we look forward to singing with you all again in the future.

The BIB assumes that the Sacred Harp groups in Cork, Belfast, and Galway are doing likewise.

La Roche 2020 cancelled

THE La Roche Bluegrass Festival at La Roche-sur-Foron, on the edge of the French Alps, is Europe's largest festival dedicated exclusively to bluegrass music. A month ago the organisers were still planning for a full festival this year (30 July-2 August), but were prepared if necessary to reduce size and content, depending on the state of coronavirus restrictions.

On 1 May the organisers and the La Roche town council issued a joint press release announcing with regret the cancellation of this year's festival. The full text of the release can be read on the Festival website and on the European Bluegrass Music Association (EBMA) Facebook.

As a small consolation - in place of the previous one-minute video teaser, the Festival website now features a new ten-minute (well, nine-and-a-quarter) film shot by Fred Glas last year, which powerfully conveys the setting, the size, and the community atmosphere of the La Roche Festival. Well worth watching! This film can also be seen on YouTube - look out for a glimpse of Co. Armagh's Cup O' Joe.

14th Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival CANCELLED

The organising team of the Westport Folk and Bluegrass Festival send this sad news:

It is with a heavy heart that we announce that we have made the difficult decision to cancel this year’s Westport Folk & Bluegrass Festival, due to take place 5-7 June 2020.

As you all are aware, the world has a battle on its hands. We have been monitoring the ever-evolving Covid-19 situation, and while we always like to remain as optimistic as possible, it has become evident to us that this battle is going to take some time, and it is our duty to play our part, to ensure that life as we knew it will resume as soon as possible. With the cancellation of large public gatherings, the closure of pubs and venues, and the ban on unnecessary travel, we are left with no alternative. The health and safety of our musicians and our festival fans is of the utmost importance to us.

We had a great festival lined up for you, which we know you would have loved, and we would like to thank all our musicians for their willingness to attend in the first place, and now, for their understanding. We hope they will all make it to Westport next year, if not before!

If you had already purchased tickets for this year’s festival, we will contact you directly in relation to refunds.

Below is a list of the acts due to perform at our festival, so be sure to support them, buy their CDs, listen to them, share them!

• The Kody Norris Show
• Erynn Marshal & Carl Jones
• SLO County Stumblers
• Ye Vagabonds
• Cornmaiz String Band
• Johnny & the Yooahoos
• Pet Yeti
• The Jumper Cables
• Lunch Special
• Dave Kline & the Mountain Folk Band
• No Oil Paintings
• Darragh O'Dea
• The Rocky Top String Band
• Brendan Butler & Freda Hatton
• Tim Rogers

We hope to run some sort of a gathering once we get through all this, to mark our 14th year running, and we will keep you posted in due course. But for now, dear friends, please stay at home, stay safe, and keep listening to music online!

With much love and solidarity,

Uri, Tim, Sarah, and Freda

4th BAND Festival CANCELLED

Riona McGrath sends the following sad news from the organising team of the 4th BAND Festival, scheduled for 4-8 June 2020 at Dunfanaghy, Co. Donegal:

Unfortunately, we have made the difficult decision to cancel BAND 2020 due to the on-going Covid-19 crisis. Our thoughts are with all those affected at this time and those in the health service who are tirelessly looking after us all. Our thanks to you all for supporting us at the BAND Festival, and we hope to see you all in the not-too-distant, brighter future.

Until then, stay safe, stay home, and be sure to follow the musicians who are continuing to spread a little musical light in these darker days. Links to all musicians can be found on our Facebook page.

10 String Symphony (USA) tour postponed for 12 months (update)

Music Network announce with regret the postponement of their national tours for April and May 2020 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

This particularly affects BIB readers through the postponement to May 2021 of the tour by the award-winning US duo 10 String Symphony (Christian Sedelmyer and Rachel Baiman, left), which was previously scheduled for 6-17 May 2020.

Update 31 Mar.: A one-hour video of Rachel Baiman of 10 String Symphony playing informally with New Zealand musician George Jackson (featured recently on Oldtime Central) can be watched here. It was recorded as part of the Stay at Home Festival (see the BIB for 20 Mar.).

Bluegrass Omagh 2020 CANCELLED

More bad news, from nearer home: this announcement has been made on the Ulster American Folk Park Facebook:

After careful consideration and monitoring of the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) situation, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the upcoming Bluegrass Omagh music festival in May (22–24) as a precautionary measure to protect the health and well-being of our community.

If you have already purchased tickets for Bluegrass Omagh 2020, please check your e-mail inbox for further instruction, as well as junk and spam folders (just in case).

Rest assured plans for next year’s Bluegrass Omagh festival in May 2021 are already underway – and will be bigger and better than ever!

For more information regarding purchased Bluegrass Omagh 2020 tickets, visit nmni.com/BluegrassOmagh.

The BIB learns that all artists have been informed, and that next year's event is planned for 28-31 May 2021.

Kristy Cox tour of Europe POSTPONED to 2021

Sad news from the mygrassisblue.com team:

We guess it was inevitable. It is with the heaviest of heavy hearts that we announce the cancellation of our Kristy Cox May 2020 tour of Europe.

Suffice it to say, a month-long multi-country European jaunt is just not viable given the present and exceptional challenge we are all facing as a result of the horrid Covid-19 pandemic.

We would like to thank everyone who worked with us to help make this tour possible, local bluegrass enthusiasts, festivals and venues in countries all over Europe who share our vision of spreading the bluegrass sound. Again, thank you all so, so much.

And thank you to Kristy Cox herself. We love you and can't thank you enough for the faith you've put in us from day one. From before day one even. We'll get there, together. Thank you again. Truly.

Despite the hard-hitting graphic, the tour is postponed, not cancelled, and we’re already working to make it a reality for May 2021. One more year of planning to make it even better than it would have been this year.

In the meantime, let’s hope that we return to some semblance of normality sooner rather than later. That’s what we’re all hoping for, particularly the artists who are being hit especially hard by this crisis. Buy their music, buy their merch, engage in online lessons, donate to virtual tip jar. It all helps.

Keep your grass blue, keep your chin up, and, most importantly, keep safe and healthy.

Regards, The mygrassisblue.com Team

Smithwicks Kilkenny Roots Festival 2020 CANCELLED (update)

John Cleere, director of the Smithwicks Kilkenny Roots Festival, announces on the Festival website:

We regret that, following discussions between organisers and sponsors, we have had to cancel Smithwick’s Kilkenny Roots Festival 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic is still far from reaching its peak and we feel that to safeguard audiences, venue workers, technical crews, volunteers, and artists, this is the only option open to us. Keep safe.

The act most likely to have attracted BIB readers in this year's lineup was North Carolina's Chatham County Line. The Festival Facebook announces that refunds will be given for tickets, but that this may take time. Several responses to this news favour the idea (as proposed by the Baltimore Fiddle Fair) of passing the money on to the artists.

Update: Chatham County Line announce on their online tour schedule:

We're presently observing some social distancing folks. We hope to return to the stage as soon as we can but in the meantime please keep your eyes on our Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook feeds for information on live streams and other hopefully good news.

The schedule now shows no dates before the beginning of June - except that their Facebook displays their gig at the Bühl Bluegrass Festival in Germany in mid-May, and Bühl's Facebook at present gives no indication of any change in plans.

Update 23 Mar.: It has now been officially announced that the 18th Bühl Bluegrass Festival has been postponed to 14-15 May 2021.

Cahersiveen Mountain Roots Music and Baltimore Fiddle Fair 2020 CANCELLED

The BIB learns with great regret that the organising team of the Cahersiveen Mountain Roots Music festival in Co. Kerry, acting on advice received, have been obliged to cancel this year's event, which was scheduled to take place on the weekend 1-3 May. The team reports:

COVID 19 has really meant we cannot go ahead. It’s awful but we have no choice; all we can do is focus on Roots 21.

*

The Baltimore Fiddle Fair in Co. Cork has also announced on its website the cancellation of this year's event, scheduled for 7-10 May, coupling this with an announcement of next year's programme (featuring substantially the same lineup planned for this year), to be held on 6-9 May 2021. The Fair's Facebook announced earlier this week:

Hey folks. With a heavy heart we are sad to announce that Fiddle Fair will not take place this year. In the current climate we really have no other choice. We have asked all of our amazing lineup to put the dates in their diary for next year and hopefully we will all be back to celebrate what will be the best festival ever.

We will be in touch in the coming days regarding refunds but we ask, that those of you who are able, may consider donating some or all of your ticket price towards a fund that we will set up to pass on to our artists. We know it won't be a lot but every little will help as they are all facing a long time ahead with no income.

While this is sad news for all of us, we realise that a postponement is not the end of the world and many people will be facing much more difficult situations in the coming weeks so above all we ask that all of you stay safe, look after your loved ones and keep the faith. We will get through this. See you in 2021.

Stillhouse Junkies (USA): tour CANCELLED

Stillhouse Junkies: (l-r) Alissa Wolf, Fred Kosak (seated), Cody Tinnin

Uri Kohen announces with regret another casualty of the corona virus (COVID-19) crisis. The first ever Irish tour of the Colorado trio Stillhouse Junkies, scheduled for 7-12 April (see the BIB for 2 Feb. 2020) has had to be cancelled due to a combination of factors: a ban on travel, the closure of venues, and the cancellation of a short tour in the UK which was to have preceded their coming to Ireland.

Old-time news from Britain

The FOAOTMAD news blog announces cancellations of old-time sessions in Britain. The organisers of the fourth annual Richmond Old Time Music Gathering in the London area, scheduled for 10-11 April with the Dirk Powell (USA) Trio as headliners, announced three days ago:

Easter is four weeks away and a lot could happen in that time. We would like to hope we could still go ahead with the Gathering [...] but we also accept that it may not be possible, or wise, to do so. We’ll maintain contact with our venues and participants and keep you posted with any news. At best, it looks like we’ll be scaling down this year and we won’t sell advance tickets.

Update 29 Mar.: The organisers have confirmed on Facebook that Richmond Old Time Music Gathering will not be taking place at Easter,

but we'll see if we can come up with any alternative plans. We'll post any news here, on Instagram and our e-mail newsletter.

Baltimore Fiddle Fair, 7-10 May 2020

This year's Baltimore Fiddle Fair (7-10 May 2020) has several acts of special interest to BIB readers. 10 String Symphony (USA) will be performing on Friday 8 May; Skillet Licorice (USA) on Saturday 9 May; Dublin's I Draw Slow on Sunday 10 May; and Nadine Landry and Sammy Lind (CAN/USA), members of the celebrated Foghorn Stringband from Portland, OR, also on 10 May.

Dates for 10 String Symphony's complete tour schedule in Ireland are already on the BIB calendar, and we hope to add tour dates for the other acts, where applicable, in the very near future.

Update 17 Mar.: This year's Fair is now cancelled as a result of the health crisis, but the same artists are expected to appear next year.

Kaufman Kamp news (UPDATE)

This is not the ideal time for planning trips abroad, but we know that at least one member of the bluegrass community in Ireland means to attend one of Steve Kaufman's Acoustic Kamps in the USA this year, and applications should be made now.

The first (Old Time and Traditional Week) begins on 14 June 2020, and Bluegrass Week on 21 June. Full colour brochures and application forms can be downloaded from the Kamp website. Printed brochures are also available; scholarships to attend a Kamp may be granted; and there's a prize for the best T-shirt design.

Steve (also on Facebook) will be conducting his fifth Photo Safari in South Africa in mid November 2020: details are here.

Update 6 Apr.: In view of the COVID-19 crisis, the Kamps have been postponed for a year: the Old Time and Traditional Week to 13-19 June 2021, and the Bluegrass Week to 20-27 June 2021. Prepaid registrations for 2020 can be held over for next year, or payments refunded less an administration charge. Steve adds:

I don't think anything will change for us all in the next month or two, but if a miracle occurs, we will be right back in touch.

Kristy Cox (AUS) back in Ireland, 21-28 May 2020

Thanks to Dave Byrne jr and the team of mygrassisblue.com for this poster image and information on May 2020's European tour by Kristy Cox, who recently won another Golden Guitar award in Australia (see the BIB for 27 Jan.). The mygrassisblue.com tour page gives full details, including Kristy's biography, discography, career highlights, reviews, and videos; it begins:

Golden girl Kristy Cox, no stranger to a European stage and following on from an inaugural tour of Ireland in May of 2019, is excited to be returning to Europe in May 2020. Proudly presented by mygrassisblue.com, the extensive three-week-plus, 21-date, multi-country tour kicks off on 7 May and runs until 31 May.

The tour will take in England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, and the Czech Republic, together with six engagements in Ireland, as follows:

Thurs. 21st: St John’s Theatre, Listowel, Co. Kerry
Fri. 22nd-Sun. 24th: Bluegrass Omagh 2020, Ulster American Folk Park, Castletown, Omagh, Co. Tyrone
Mon. 25th: Balor Arts Centre, Ballybofey, Co. Donegal
Tues. 26th: St James’ Church, Dingle, Co. Kerry
Wed. 27th: Clonmel Folk Club/The Coachman, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary
Thurs. 28th: Nun’s Cross Church, Ashford, Co. Wicklow

Dave adds:

This is a new and exciting adventure for us as we look to extend an offering to visiting artists that goes beyond Ireland. [...] Kristy was always going to come back to Ireland, and was always going to come back to Kerry – two of the five shows on the island of Ireland, either side of a weekend commitment at the Bluegrass Omagh 2020, will be in the Kingdom with the show on 26 May in St James’ Church, Dingle, being run in conjunction with the ‘Friends of St James, Dingle’ organisation in a bid to raise some much-needed funds for the church restoration fund.

Watch out for more news (especially once the tour starts) on the mygrassisblue.com Facebook.

Update 21 Mar.: In view of the current health crisis the tour is postponed to 2021.