Even though last year’s inaugural festival was put together incredibly quickly - it was just six weeks in the making - the idea really caught on, spreading like wildfire in the weeks approaching the big event.

Said event organiser Gerry McLaughlin: “One guy from San Francisco said that he had come over just for Moville's DylanFest. A Canadian couple, who were driving about Ireland, heard about it on the Dave Fanning Show, turned their car around and headed straight up to Moville.”

Gerry continued: “There are only seven festivals of Bob Dylan music in the world. There is the one in upstate New York, one in Los Angeles, one in Detroit, the one in Manchester in August, the Maggie's Farm Festival in Northern Italy, the BobBash in Berlin – and the DylanFest on the Lough in Moville. It seems that Dylan, himself, attended one of the DylanFests in the US anonymously one year.”

One of the Biggest

Although only in its second year, it looks as if Moville's DylanFest could turn out to be one of the biggest. For instance, the one in Detroit takes place in a pub called The Blind Pig and most others are indoors in single locations, either pubs or halls whereas the Moville DylanFest is multi-event and multi-venue.

The 2008 Moville DylanFest will take place over 4 days, from Thursday July 3rd to Sunday July 6th. There will be music in at least 7 pubs for the 4 days. There will also be outdoor music in the streets of Moville. The pubs involved will be Caiseal Mara, Rosatos, Rawdons, Maguires, Town Clock, Foyle Hotel, Bar-A-Cuda and The Waterfront.

The Phantom Engineers

The 8-piece The Phantom Engineers, Ireland's top Dylan band, who headlined in the Malin Road last year, are booked to appear again. They played to great reviews, not least from Michael Gray, the world's top Dylanologist, who wrote the definitive Dylan Dictionary, and who was in the audience.

Said John Carragher of The Phantom Engineers “Every gig we've played since the DylanFest in Moville, people have come up to us afterwards and asked us if it was going to be on again in 2008 – and that was mostly from people who had heard about the first one too late. This year's DylanFest is going to be huge. Moville's a great location for it with its salmon fishing sea lough, its countryside and the fact that all the pubs and restaurants are either on or just off the main square.