Into The Great Wide Open
There's little talk of festival fatigue in Belfast where the Open House fest enters its tenth year with perhaps its strongest line-up yet.
Greg McAteer, 25 Aug 2008
It’s back and it’s pissed off! Actually that’s a complete lie. It’s back and in great form. I’m talking about Belfast’s Open House Festival, which has announced the full line-up for this year’s mayhem, which once again takes place in the city’s Cathedral Quarter between Wednesday September 24 and Sunday September 28.
The event is now in its tenth year and while any other festival would be shouting the merits of its big anniversary programme from the rooftops, the Open House doesn’t really have to as it has never fallen below a plateau of invigorating excellence. There are a few return visitors from last year’s festival but as usual there’s a flood of fresh names and sounds, many of whom have never been to Europe before let alone tread the balmy (maybe that should be barmy) streets of late September Belfast.
On the other hand the festival tends to do a rabbit from the hat trick with local Irish musicians who often surface unexpectedly, and in loose affiliations you mightn’t have anticipated, to play surprise shows before sloping off into the shadows. As ever there’s a beautifully produced brochure/guide book to the festival.
The hard part is deciding where you are going to plant yourself at any given minute. From the word go you have to make a choice between the Gitano Collective in the Black Box and Pigeon Top in the John Hewitt as the festival gets a head of steam up on the evening of Wednesday September 24.
Friday night is even more of a toss-up. I, for one, won’t want to miss the chance to catch the wonderful Southern Tenant Folk Union but they go head to head with Bob Log III and The Bonnevilles and David Holmes on his home turf, spinning the dirtiest blues stompers he can get onto his decks.
As if that wasn’t conundrum enough, getting to either will mean you’ve had to take your leave early from one of the year's hottest trad tickets when Brid Harper, Martin Meehan and P.J. McDonald play the Duke of York.
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