Sligo’s iconic mountain will provide a splendid backdrop to the first-ever Ben Bulben Country Music Festival, which will be staged at the Msgr Hynes GAA pitch in Grange on Sunday, 8 July.This is the part of Sligo that so enthralled William Butler Yeats, one of the great romantics who firmly believed that poetry should be “the true voice of feeling”.
Sligo’s iconic mountain will provide a splendid backdrop to the first-ever Ben Bulben Country Music Festival, which will be staged at the Msgr Hynes GAA pitch in Grange on Sunday, 8 July.
This is the part of Sligo that so enthralled William Butler Yeats, one of the great romantics who firmly believed that poetry should be “the true voice of feeling”.
Lough Gill and Ben Bulben fascinated him and touched his soul like no other place on earth.
This was an enchanted place to Yeats, the fountain of great thoughts and beautiful verse, the spring from which gushed forth the most tranquil words that continue to provide balm for the soul. His final resting place is in nearby Drumcliffe cemetery.
His love for Sligo shone through in so many of his classic poems, including The Lake Isle of Innisfree, Under Ben Bulben, Running to Paradise and The Fiddler of Dooney.
“When I play on my fiddle in Dooney
Folk dance like a wave of the sea;
My cousin is priest in Kilvarnet,
My brother in Mocharabuiee.”
Grange will echo fiddles, guitars and lots of good music on 8 July, as this small village on the main road halfway between Sligo and Bundoran goes country in style.
It promises to be a great afternoon in the company of Mike Denver, Patrick Feeney, Derek Ryan, Michael English, Jimmy Buckley and Cliona Hagan.
Recent additions to the bill are Gary Fitzpatrick, the 2018 Glór Tire winner, and Sligo’s Aoife McDonagh, winner of the 2017 Cowboys & Heroes Country Star competition at Drumcoura, Ballinamore, Co Leitrim.
The compere for the show is Paul Kelly from Ocean FM in Sligo-Donegal, who will also perform his latest single, Cut the Grass, which ties in with the silage and hay-making season.
The organisers will have a 3,000 sq ft dancefloor in place and there will also be full catering and bar facilities on-site.
Gates open at 11m and the show starts at 1pm. Early bird tickets are €20 + booking fee of €2.50 and are available from www.tickets.ie or from all Centra and Supervalu outlets nationwide. Tickets on the day are €25 and under 14s go free. You can also contact the festival via Facebook, Twitter and at www.benbulbencountrymusicfestival.com CL
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