At Folk and Tumble it’s taken us a while to hit the ground running in 2015 but the Belfast and Bangor based Open House Festival have had no such problems with a regional tour already in the pipeline alongside their always impressive year long programme of events.
In a year that’s seen widespread cuts to funding in the arts, many other festivals would take fewer chances but Open House Festival have decided to take their show on the road in the most literal of senses. From Saturday 28th February to Wednesday 4th March 2015, you can catch up with the stellar lineup in a host of intimate and unusual venues ranging from a brewery and a recording studio to a yacht club.
Our audiences come from all over Northern Ireland and beyond. We wanted to bring some of our trademark quality acts to them, and introduce fantastic live music to some unusual and bespoke venues around the country. It’s not a province-wide tour, but we’ll be travelling from Portrush to Holywood, via Lisburn, Bangor and Rathfriland.
Kieran Gilmore – Open House Festival
Each night of the tour will be headlined by former Young Acoustic Guitarist of the Year – John Smith. Hailing from Devon, Smith has been widely tipped to become one of the most exciting young voices on the British folk scene and has already chalked up performances with John Martyn and Seth Lakeman amongst others.
Support comes from Derry indie-folk outfit PØRTS, and Dublin electro-acoustic classical group, Prima String Quartet.
Open House Festival on the Road
| Saturday 28th February | Portrush Town Hall | John Smith, PØRTS, Prima String Quartet |
| Sunday 1st March | John Smith, PØRTS, Prima String Quartet | |
| Monday 2nd March | SERC Studio Theatre, Bangor | John Smith, PØRTS, Prima String Quartet |
| Tuersday 3rd March | Analogue Catalogue Recording Studio, Rathfriland | John Smith, PØRTS, Prima String Quartet |
| Wednesday 4th March | Holywood Yacht Club | John Smith, PØRTS, Prima String Quartet |
Tickets available for all remaining shows on openhousefestival.com.