For some reason a number of bands have changed from the original programme on Thursday. All for the most unavoidable personal circumstances which could not have been anticipated. So briefly:
Rainy Boy Sleep is at Cafe Nervosa, and not Furlo; Paula McAleese is still performing, at Claudes and not as Louis’s in the programme; Michael E Thomas replaces Teg Magee at the Boston Tea Party in the Craft Village;
and poorly Paul Corrigan is unable to be at Java and, stepping in at short notice, Joan McEldowney is there instead.
All Culture Bite venues are 12.30-2.30pm. Up to date details on our website’s Thursday page.
No changes for Friday at this point and only one or two earlier. No idea what Thursday has done to deserve this amount of disruption – though you’ll hardly notice with the excellent range of talent that has been brought in.
On an entirely plus point, and nothing to do with cafe performances, we have added an extra exhibition to tie in with the Somme 95th Anniversary Tribute concert (SOLD OUT). Ulster at War: an exhibition of Ulster engagement in the Great War with a range of period memorabilia in the Memorial Hall’s Black Room – 10am-5pm.
We have a few last minute changes to the published schedule. Check www.maidencityfestival.com for daily schedules which we are keeping up to date.
The Bluegrass on the Walls line-up has changed a little, with the addition of David Hope & The Henchmen. And the Bluestack Mountain Boys are in fact the Blackstack Mountain Boys.
Monday lunchtime at the Cafe Nervosa on Magazine Street, our Culture Bite will not be Eoin O’Callaghan and will instead be local band Intermission – again full details on the Maiden City Festival website.
On Wednesday Janet Dowd will be at the Boston Tea Party in the Craft Village. Originally it was to have been Mons Wheeler.
And on Wednesday evening the inside spread of our printed programme says the Crimson Players will be at the Verbal Arts Centre on Wednesday when they will of course be at the Memorial Hall at 8pm-10pm with their annual Variety Show.
Other than those very small changes in a very large programme everything is up to date. Double check the website listing for each day to be sure.
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.
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.
While Spike is joined by the rest of the Siege Story cast on YouTube we present the very lovely distraction of Eilidh Patterson. Eilidh performed beautifully as part of our Culture Bite lunchtime menu of artists within and around the Walls of historic Londonderry during the Festival.
Here she is with one of her own compositions ‘That Leaves Me’ which is on her new CD available from all good record stores in Northern Ireland. I bought mine in HMV, though I had to go to the back and find it in the ‘Irish Section’ – surely this music deserves to be front of house HMV! A wonderful collection of songs from a very talented singer/songwriter. We’ll let you know when the album appears online.
It’s slow uploading with the rural broadband not coping well. Heading for Belfast and cable service. For now one of the best lunchtime Culture Bites, Skruff at the Cafe Nervosa. Arrived for the last half hour or so and persuaded the guys to do a special performance of one of their own compositions on the Walls. Here it is. Skruff and All of the Rest.
Although the last full day of the Festival, there is such a backlog of uploads and pictures to be published that the Festival will continue on line for a few weeks yet. We have also been recording some of the events through the week and will be creating a few small micro-websites as resource to complement the Festival and set down the foundation for work in future years.
Yesterday was a Dylan sort of day to start, by song or style. Siobhan Skates and Dolbro Dan seemed to be along the same musical road for a short time.
It would be hard to say what was the best music off today’s Culture Bite menu, but there’s an outstanding original composition performed by Skruff that will be uploaded over the weekend and is well worth waiting for.
The real time final day of the Festival is here. Looking forward to the short drama pieces based on the book “Three Cheers for The Derrys” at the Playhouse Theatre at 1pm. Will probably just make the end of Balkan Alien Sound at the Verbal Arts Theatre. Of course there are those other Culture Bite sessions at the other lunchtime venues. Afternoon feet up at the Memorial Hall for an afternoon of light entertainment. Wish.
Remember, after the Festival week is over we will continue to upload pictures and videos and update here on the Weblog.
Natty Wailer arrived. Not when it said on the programme, but adding together Jamacian Time and Londonderry Time he was probably right on the button two and a half hours late. Not that anyone seemed to mind as they had the lovely Henry Girls to entertain them until Natty appeared, and it was well worth the wait. Video posts later.
There were other great performances around the Culture Bite trail and more of those once the videos are posted. Don’t forget there is one more day of great lunchtime music around the Walled City. The 13 Rounds is not having a Culture Bite tomorrow, but there is an afternoon of light music from 2pm. Today was also the last of the Tea Dances at the Memorial Hall. For tomorrow there is the fantastic Balkan Alien Sound at Bloom’s Cafe, Skruff at the Cafe Nervosa, Magazine Street, Rodney Cordner at the Cafe Artisan, London Street, and The Flamingo Brothers at Louis’s Cafe, Shipquay Street. It was only today I noticed that the official name of the cafe is CafeLouis, but I have never heard it called anything but Louis’s.
Anyway, following the Culture Bites at lunchtime, there was the unveiling of a plaque in the Fountain to the late William Love. William Love was a composer of music for marching bands: though we have learned he also wrote music for hymns, waltzes for dances and jigs for fun. We were delighted that the Blackskull Flute Band from Glasgow was able to join in our tribute. The plaque is at a location at the top of Wapping Lane that would be roughly where William Love’s home would have been – long since demolished for development. His house would have faced onto Wapping Lane, onto which he would have stepped from his front door.
Music from this afternoon will be posted later on a webspace dedicated to William Love. Also included on that site will be excerpts from a concert by the Blackskull Corps of Fifes and Drums, which I hear in the main hall above me as I type. The Blackskull has long appreciated the music of William Love and has a CD dedicated to his music. In future years the Festival hopes to be able to build on this year’s small appreciation of William Love.
