Although the Festival is one week in August, we have managed to stretch it out through the use of social media. So you can check out some of the Maiden City Festival 2010 memories (and from other years) on Flickr, YouTube and keep up to date on Facebook. Links to all are on our website www.maidencityfestival.com
Enjoy, and keep on enjoying favourite moments from the Maiden City Festival.
Tonight’s Imperial Corps of Drums ‘Tribute to Liverpool’ followed by THEM BEATLES is sold out. Ticket only.
If you are too late and still want to hear the Imperial Corps of Drums you are able to do that by connecting just before 8pm to the Apprentice Boys website and navigating to www2.apprenticeboys.co.uk/features/webcast
So if you have forgetten to get your ticket early, at least you have an alternative.
For all those who were unable to join us at the Maiden City Festival in person for whatever reason, we hope our webcasts have been welcome and any feedback on reception would be appreciated. We would like to expand this in the future, so comment is beneficial in our first foray into this field.
Some young people have been working at the Verbal Arts Centre over the past few days. They have been exploring Protestant culture and traditions from a starting point of knowing very little. Their experience will be broadcast on Isishowen Community Radio 105+107.6FM on Wednesday 11th August 10am-11am and repeated 8pm-9pm, or online at www.pcrfm.ie
Entrance to the Apprentice Boys Memorial Hall and Siege Museum is FREE throughout Festival week – £2 per person throughout the rest of the summer.
This year there is a small range of merchandise available at the Hall. Including these Apprentice Bears of Derry taking a brief break off the shelf to enjoy some of the afternoon entertainment around the historic Walls of Londonderry. There’s lots to see in the Hall and on the Walls throughout Festival week, promising a great day out in Londonderry.
Apprentice Bears of Derry enjoying the historic Walls of Londonderry.
As usual, the way funding works, it is uphill from April until now just getting the applications and questionnaires and paperwork sorted. Then there is the programme to build based on success or otherwise.
At this point we are pleased to say we have a full programme, and just still waiting on some final news that will enable us to announce the full programme early next week.
In the meantime we are able to confirm that we are building on our living history presentations around the walls. Not only do we once again have The Siege Story in St Columbs Cathedral, we also have a new series of Siege Tales from seven characters around the Walls. Our hugely successful lunchtime Culture Bite menu of lunchtime perfomances from singer/songwriters and solo/duo artists is expanding to three new venues. There are lots of last year’s performances on our Maiden City Festival YouTube Channel.
Enjoy a lunchtime Culture Bite at venues within and around the historic Walls.
Our Line Dance Extravaganza looks on its way to be another extraordinary success on the opening Saturday night. Also on the Saturday night, following an afternoon of Bluegrass around the Walls, we have an all female concert lineup of Bluegrass inspired performances in The Junction on Bishop Street.
Thursday night is band night, with the Imperial Corps of Drums from Liverpool bringing the Mersey to the Foyle, and Them Beatles finishing a night of tribute to the sounds of Liverpool.
There is lot more, but we have to wait another day or so to complete the programme. So for full details, watch this blog or follow us on Facebook. If you can’t wait go to www.maidencityfestival.com and connect to lots of our micro sites and webspaces created from previous events.
This is a first step as we slowly pull together our focus on the ballads of the Appalachians, which is our first project for the Fowk Foundation which we hope to launch before the start of the 2010 year’s Festival.
At the 2009 Festival we launched the week in our usual Bluegrass way, with a day of Bluegrass around the historic Walls of Londonderry – though rain pushed most indoors. Already in the comfort of the Verbal Arts Centre was Josh Goforth, from Madison County, deep in the Appalachian Mountains of western North Carolina.
Josh is an outstanding musician, but also holds a passion for the heritage and culture of the mountains and in particular the ballads that were held for generations in a remoteness from modernity that was once afforded by the mountains. We asked Josh to open the Festival weekend with ‘a conversation on Mountain Life and Music’. We are delighted to offer this podcast (free to download) of that afternoon’s presentation.
There are a number of videos from this afternoon session which will be on YouTube in due course. One tune not featured on the podcast was Josh’s final piece before he completed his presentation, taking him back to the beginning of his musical journey, at his Grandfather’s knee:
There are also examples of some of the music Josh talks about in different styles, to be found on the Maiden City Festival YouTube Channel, including this one taken from the evening concert at The Junction.
The Festival’s Tribute to William Love is available at www.maidencityfestival.com/williamlove/ performed by the outstanding Blackskull Corps of Fife & Drums. In addition to the William Love tunes the Festival is delighted to be able to add to its YouTube Channel more of that evenings excellent musicianship with the addition of other arrangements and tunes, not by William Love.
We’ve uploaded some of the pictures taken at our Review night which took place in Londonderry’s Guildhall on Friday 5th February. This brought the best of many of the performances from the Festival 2009 to one place on one night. The Review/Revue provided an opportunity for those not around in the first week of August to see the full variety and diversity of the Festival’s programme. You can go to FLICKR here.
Pictured here are the Victoria Line Dancers getting ready for their exhibition. This and other videos from the night are available on our YouTube Channel. All links are available on the right hand side of this page.
The Maiden City Festival held a review eveing on 5 February 2009. It was an event were we could showcase the variety and diversity of the Festival to many from the community or business sectors who would not be around in August: August is the traditional holiday period in Londonderry much as the first two weeks of July are in Belfast. It was a great night of drama, music and dance.
It is not fair to pick one of the performances for special attention, but as editor I will anyway. The Henry Girls have been a long-standing feature of our lunchtime events at the Verbal Arts Centre each August and they were more than happy to be available for our review night. There are two songs from them up on YouTube from the night. This one silenced Londonderry’s Guildhall. It is available on their latest CD called DAWN, which can be found on their website www.thehenrygirls.com
There are a number of other videos on the website including dance from the Sollus Highland Dancers from Bready and the Victoria Line Dancers. Apologies for the video as the digital struggled to cope with the changing lights: though the result has an impact of its own. More photos of the night on Flickr very soon.
