Winter music set for the ’Bridge

PREPARATIONS are almost complete for the Shannonside Winter Music Weekend, which runs from January 17 to 20.
Things will kick off with a concert at Sixmilebridge Courthouse on Thursday, January 17 by Sixmilebridge’s own Kieran O’Loughlin and Brendan Walsh. They will be playing classical, folk and traditional music. O’Loughlin his now based in Sweden where he has forged out a career in music.
Friday will see performances from the Sixmilebridge Folk Club and Friends, the Fake McCoys, the Voice Squad and Lilly of the West, Members of Diversus, the Phelan Family, the Banjaxed Bluegrass band, John Nyhan and friends, the Gypsy Rebel Rabble and Two Time Polka.
There are a huge number of performances on Saturday, both in Sixmilebridge and Bunratty, including the likes of Special Consensus, the Diversus Guitar Orchestra and the Shaskeen Full Band in Bunratty Folk Park and the Fake McCoys, the Alan Kelly Gang and Bending the Strings in Sixmilebridge.
On Sunday, there will be festival mass in the morning while there will be a range of events on during the day. These will include performances from many of those who also played on the Thursday, Friday or Saturday.
The Shannonside Winter Music Weekend grew out of the Sixmilebridge Winter Music Weekend and this is the 14th year of the festival.
Brendan Walsh, a founder member, is the current festival director. He is expecting a big turnout h. “The hotel in Bunratty is completely booked out for the Saturday night, that’s the first time it’s happened so it looks like there will be a lot of people coming.”
He feels Saturday at Bunratty will be the highlight of this year’s festival. “There are five stages and there are 20 concerts on during the day. Shaskeen would be the big draw there and the Voice Squad. We don’t do a whole pile of well-known names but we’ve built up a reputation for providing good-quality bands that mightn’t be that well known.”
There are international performers taking part, he added. “From the States, we have a bluegrass group who have been nominated for a Grammy award this year, Special Consensus. Also from Bulgaria we have Lilly of the West, who are a four-piece bluegrass band.”
The scale of the event has grown dramatically since it was first established. “The first year we had a budget of IR£500. It’s more like €50,000 now so it has come a long way. It’s still giving good value for money too.”
He feels the eclectic nature of the festival has been important in its growth. “The big thing is that we cover a huge genre of music, I think that’s one of the factors that has helped its growth.”
Throughout the whole weekend there will be about 70 acoustic music events at more than 15 venues.