Since 2007 Moville has been hosting a highly successful annual festival of Bob Dylan music every August.
Dylan acts arrive there during Dylan weekend from all over Europe and Dylan fans come from all over the world. It takes place on the bank holiday weekend at the end of August and this year is on from August 23rd to 27th.
Now they have decided to spread out from their base in Moville to both sides of the Irish border. This year the DylanFest will also take place in both Derry and Culdaff as well as Moville.
Said organiser Gerry McLaughlin “We thought that it was time we spread the festival out to some other places. Derry was an obvious candidate with their great love for music and the musical talent there. They also run the highly successful Jazz Festival there and know how to put on a show and attract visitors to it.”
Said Mario Macari of the Gweedore Bar in Derry, who are putting DylanFest acts on, “In the first year the Jazz Festival, which takes place in 60 pubs in Derry now, was only on in tree pubs – and we were one of those original ones. So, we’re delighted to be in on the first year of the DylanFest in Derry. I fully expect the Dylan Festival to become as big as the Jazz Festival”.
The one in Moville is titled Stuck Inside of Moville, the DylanFest on the Lough after the title of a Dylan song (slightly changed). The Derry part of the festival will be called All Along the Watchtower, the DylanFest on the Foyle, as the pubs in the festival are mainly in the shadow of the Watchtower.
The different nights (and afternoons) will have different titles based on Dylan’s songs. The opening night on Thursday will be called Come gather Round People night. Friday’s will be Like a Rolling Stone night. Saturday will be Mr Tambourine Man Night and the last night, Sunday, will be No Direction Home night. There’s also Forever Young afternoon on Saturday and My Back pages afternoon on Sunday.
Said organiser Gerry “I saw from the festival’s Facebook Page DylanFest Moville, that former Mayor of Derry and SDLP leader Colm Eastwood was a Facebook Friend. I messaged him asking if Derry might be interested in the DylanFest.”
It turned out that Colm had been at the DylanFest in Moville the previous year and was keen to help bringing the festival to Derry too. So, he arranged a meeting with Derry City Council and it went from there. The festival was launched by Derry Mayor Maolíosa McHugh earlier this year.
The DylanFest is not only expanding to Derry this year. It is also expanding to Culdaff in Donegal, where music pub McGrory’s is putting it on. For further details about the DylanFest see www.DylanFest.com.
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