Clonakilty International Guitar Festival makes the jump online
Greenshine: Cork family folk band are among the digital headliners at CIGF.
While 2020 has been a slog for Irish festivals owing to prevailing circumstances, the long and slow crawl onward continues apace for many, the continuation of a labour of love.
Joining the ranks of annual events offering streaming alternatives, including Other Voices, All Together Now and the Community Skratch Games, the sixteenth instalment of the irrepressible Clonakilty International Guitar Festival has made the jump online, kicking off last night and going for the rest of the week.
Headliners, including Dundalk iconoclast Jinx Lennon, Cork folk trio Greenshine, and Galway singer-songwriter Maija Sofia, are streaming sets live from DeBarra's Folk Club, the town's long-running folk outpost.
Elsewhere, the festival's lineup includes pre-recorded sets from the town's regular venues, including Clonakilty singer-songwriters Eve Clague and Míde Houlihan, Dublin math-rock duo Bicurious, and Belfast garage-rock project Sister Ghost.
Ray Blackwell, one of the organisers of the festival, has said it's been emotional to see live music being played in DeBarra's again. He told The Point of Everything podcast:
"Definitely it's been great having the music in here and having that life breathed through the place again. I think it's been just rewarding for everyone involved, really - and not even just here in DeBarra's; in the other pre-records that we did around town, certainly the reaction from the artists, they were just so happy to be out and to be playing to somebody else other than their cat."
The festival will also digitally premiere other attractions, including a conversation between folk musician & poet Roy Harper and award-winning author David Mitchell.
The festival's online concerts have been prepared in compliance with health and safety measures, while tomorrow night's livestream at 6.30pm, #ThisIsWhoWeAre, is a special presentation on the issues facing live tech crews as the crisis continues, which sees the empty stage at DeBarra's lit up red in solidarity with event staff.
