The Bluegrass Event of the Year is Shaping up to be a Classic!

The “Bluegrass event of the year”, the 2010 Didmarton Bluegrass Festival is coming together nicely now and a number of bands have now been confirmed with others to follow. It is very likely we will be accommodating around 35 bands by the time we’ve finished! That is now possible by running concerts on two well appointed stages from Friday afternoon through to Sunday! That’s an amazing total of nine scheduled concerts.
And it doesn’t stop there. We are also running a Thursday night special concert with Folk Superstars “Show of Hands” on the main stage this year! Please note there will be a separate charge for this concert. There will be more information about this concert in due course.
Exciting stuff! The idea is to raise the profile of this event and attract a wider audience who will discover Bluegrass and associated music presented professionally at a real music lovers festival.
Peter Rowan is bringing his highly acclaimed Bluegrass Band to headline the festival and we have also got The Claire Lynch Band performing on Friday which is rapidly becoming a whole day’s worth of entertainment in its own right. Jack Lawrence and Richard Plank will add a nice relaxed touch to the proceedings with some lovely guitar and singing too. With a programme that includes the likes of A Band Like Alice, The Thunderbridge Bluegrass Boys, The New Essex Bluegrass and many others, it’s going to be a blast! Just turn to the band page and have a look at the growing list.
We are repeating the Didmarton Raffle and we have been very kindly sponsored by two highly respected luthiers, Tom Nechville for the USA and Phil Davidson of the UK whom have donated a “Midnight Hunt” Model Phantom banjo and an Ashville Deluxe Mandolin respectively as prizes. The proceeds will go to helping young musicians to attend Sore Fingers Week. Both Tom and Phill will have stalls in the traders area and will be running displays and workshops.
The festival will have all the usual attractions, concerts, dance displays, instrumental seminars, the tuition tent and a wide range of traders, all contributing to the biggest programme of the 2010 Bluegrass festival season.
Our hosts the OGRI MCC are totally committed to helping us run a successful event and will continue to serve drinks at rock bottom prices for extended hours during the festival and we can look forward to more nightly entertainment around the now traditional midnight bonfire! The site facilities improved last year by the addition of showers is always under review and we are looking at a revised site layout to bring about improvements to make the experience more comfortable. This year, there will be two shower blocks, a ladies and a gents! Please note that all the site facilities will be operational from Wednesday afternoon until Monday morning. The bar will be open form Thursday through to Sunday night.
Tickets are now on sale and we recommend you purchase these early to benefit from the advance booking discount. We have had to introduce a charge for camping on the extra nights (Wednesday and Thursday) as providing site facilities for an extended time has given rise to additional hire charges.
Simply download the booking form and send in your ticket requirements not forgetting to include an S.A.E.
We really hope you are able to put this date in your diary and come along with lots of friends and help us make Didmarton 2010 a festival to remember!
All enquiries to john.wirtz@didmarton-bluegrass.co.uk

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