All things Dylan at Moville
Moville is abuzz with excitement as it awaits the third coming of Ireland's only annual festival of Bob Dylan music, all happening this weekend, from Thursday 2nd July to Sunday 5th.
Organiser Gerry McLaughlin told the Journal: “The first two years were highly successful and local restaurants and pubs broke all time records for takings during those two weekends. Local hotels, bed and breakfasts and self-catering places were full to the brim with visitors, and that provided a good boost to the local economy. The local hostel was filled to the seams too for the weekend and owner Seamus Canavan told me he hadn’t seen so many tents since Geronimo was in his prime!”
This year, there will be music all weekend in four pubs in the town - Rosatos, the Town Clock, Rawdons and Maguires - with festival licence extensions in place. There will also be an unplugged session in the picturesque grounds of the hostel attached to Gulladuff House, which is the oldest continuously-inhabited house in Moville and home of the oldest bridge in Ireland, which dates from the 6th century and was reputed to have been built by St. Patrick.
Also added this year is a session in Moville’s scenic Shore Green area at the new Putting Green Cafe which will include a Dylan Table Quiz. This will take place on both the Saturday afternoon and the Sunday afternoon and bring Bob Dylan music to a family audience in a fantastic setting overlooking the magnificent Lough Foyle.
Cafe owner, local actress and drama teacher, Movania Parkinson, said: “We are delighted to be able to be a part of what has been a highly-successful festival and to put on some entertainment of our own. With the view over Lough Foyle, it should be a magnificent spot to listen to the music of perhaps the greatest songwriter of the 20th century.”
The festival will start in Rosatos restaurant/bar on the Thursday night, with the highly popular Steph Buhe coming over from France for the third time. On Friday and Saturday nights, there will be Dylan music in all four pubs. This year’s top acts include Nadia Lowe, who played the Manchester DylanFest last year and sang a very well-received reggae version of All Along the Watchtower. She will be returning from a tour of Trinidad to play the festival.
On the Saturday, there will also a number of gigs in the afternoon, and the Gulladuff House event in the early evening.
At some point during the festival the organisers are hoping to schedule a talk on the Irish Influences on Bob Dylan’s music. When Bob Dylan first came to New York’s Greenwich Village, the Clancy Brothers (and especially Liam) took him under their wing and he used to go and regularly watch them play. Indeed one of Dylan’s songs uses a traditional Irish tune that he learned from the Clancy Brothers. This is likely to be either scheduled at the afternoon or early evening outdoor gigs on the Saturday.
It all finishes up with the Sunday night farewell gigs, which end with Open Mics to give everyone a chance to sing a Dylan song before they depart for home.
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Weather for Derry
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 5 C to 8 C
Wind Speed: 6 mph
Wind direction: West
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Cloudy
Temperature: 6 C to 9 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North west
