County Clare & Manchester join forces for international Bob Dylan Festival

Ireland's 'Bobfest' which takes place on Saturday 3rd July in Co. Clare, has joined forces with the UK’s only Bob Dylan Festival weekend which takes place in Manchester during the UK’s August Bank holiday on Friday 27 August and Saturday 28 August.
It is being staged at the internationally famous m19 bar in Levenshulme village, which is just a short taxi ride away from Manchester Airport. The venue has staged the likes of Ireland’s Eleanor McEvoy, Tom Hingley from the chart topping Manchester band Inspiral Carpets and The Men they Couldn’t Hang.
The highly acclaimed Limerick singer songwriter Keith Forde who is headlining Ireland's BobFest has won a place to appear in the UK’s only Bob Dylan Festival in Manchester on Saturday 28 August.

When asked about how he felt about joining forces with the Manchester Festival Keith replied “I think it’s a great idea that BobFest has teamed up with the Manchester Festival. There are very good travel links between the two cities which will make both festivals accessible to fans. I am a big fan of Bob Dylan and I also help to organise BobFest in Co. Clare, so being able to link the two festivals together and playing at both of them will be a great opportunity. I love getting together with a group of like minded people and playing Dylan songs all night long.”
The Manchester festival kicks off on Friday 27 August with a showcase featuring artists paying tribute to Dylan’s Irish roots and his connections to the Clancy brothers and Tommy Makem. The Saturday night showcase features acts paying tribute to his ‘Blues’ roots. It takes place at Levenshulme’s M19 Bar in Manchester over the UK’s Bank holiday weekend.
The UK and Irish festival are one of only eight Bob Dylan Festivals in the world, the others are in Moville, which is also in Ireland, California and Michigan in America, Berlin in Germany, a village in North Italy and Melbourne in Australia.
Acousticfest - the organisers of the UK festival said about the weekend’s festival “Bob Dylan has always had a massive connection with Irish artists, he was heavily influenced by the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. It is well documented about how Dylan used to hang out in the Irish pub ‘The White Horse’ in New York, where the Clancy’s played he took the tunes of the Clancy songs which were old Irish songs and put in his own words. We had a lot of visitors from Ireland last year and are expecting even more this year.”
Keith is an accomplished musician who has had chart success and international media attention with his previous bands Sutras and Vesta Varro. He turned solo in 2009 and immediately won third place in the international songwrittting competition out of 15,000 entries for his song "Pop Them Pills". Since then four of his songs have been licensed to the major American TV network CBS. He is currently doing a degree in Music Technology & Production and is recording his debut album.

Tickets for the festival are just £4 in advance per night or £8 for a weekend pass and are available from m19 or from the website www.m19bar.com

The line up for the festival is
Friday 27 August
UK’s Bob Dylan Festival Irish Night with
Shimeon, Mary Lucey, Mickey the Hat, Matthew Ganley, Easy Dream, James Butler and Denise Morgan

Saturday 28 August
UK’s Bob Dylan Festival Blues night with
Keith Forde, Ged Wilson, Joanna Lyon, Glyn Bailey & the Splendid things, Oyster, John Ridyard, Becky Rose & Elisa Mansell

M19 Bar, 847 Stockport Road, Levenshulme, Manchester, M19 3pw
Tel 0161 224 8135 www.m19bar.com
www.myspace.com/dylanacts