Cairncastle Ulster-Scots Festival continues

Cairncastle Ulster-Scots Festival moves to Glenarm village for a musical afternoon of traditional Scottish, folk and bluegrass music on Saturday.
"Tarneybackle", from Perthshire, will be taking part in Cairncastle Ulster-Scots Festival on Saturday July 26. INLT 30-652-CON"Tarneybackle", from Perthshire, will be taking part in Cairncastle Ulster-Scots Festival on Saturday July 26. INLT 30-652-CON
"Tarneybackle", from Perthshire, will be taking part in Cairncastle Ulster-Scots Festival on Saturday July 26. INLT 30-652-CON

It’s a musical afternoon of traditional Scottish, folk and bluegrass music, starting at 2pm.

Participating will be Scottish band Tarneybackle, from Perthshire, playing Scottish traditional music and a blend of strong vocal harmonies, soloists and duets from Larne, Ballymena, Maghera and County Donegal. Admission free.

The festival moves back to the Halfway House Hotel on Saturday evening with a soiree from 7.30 pm comprising up to 40 musicians including Grouse Beaters folk band, Tarneybackle, Islandmagee Fiddlers, soloists and duets from Cookstown, Maghera, Ballymena, Scotland and County Donegal. Admission £8.

The festival continues on Sunday July 27 with a non-denominational Ulster-Scots praise service in Cairncastle Presbyterian Church Hall, from 2.30 pm, featuring Cup O’Joe, a renowned juvenile Gospel group from Co Armagh and artists from Maghera, Scotland and Donegal.

A “musical bus tour” will leave Halfway House Hotel, at 8.50am, on Wednesday July 30, picking up at Church Road, Larne.

The tour will travel along the Shore Road to Belfast and County Down, visiting some of the Ulster-Scots sites with breaks in Bangor and Newtownards, and will return at approximately 6.00pm. Price £20 including a two-course meal.

In addition to musical evenings, workshops will be held on Friday July 25 in Cairncastle village, from 1.30 pm, for those who wish to learn how a fiddle is manufactured, history and similarities of Ulster-Scots/Irish languages and differences in accordion in relation to the instrument in Ireland, Britain and North America. All free.

On Thursday July 24, story-teller and author of Antrim Folk Tales, Billy Teare will lead a workshop designed to help those who would like to learn information more quickly and to retain and recall it with ease.

So if you are a singer wanting to learn more songs, a storyteller wanting to learn more stories or recitations, this workshop may help. Billy says it can also assist with learning scipts and studying for exams or anyone wishing to aid their memory.

The festival will close on Friday August 1 with an evening of Scottish, old tyme and sequence dancing led by John Blair, Linda and Ken Mclean, from Londonderry at Cairncastle Presbyterian Church Hall, starting at 7.30 pm. Admission £3.

For further information on all these events, please visit www.cairncastleulsterscots.co.uk or email: [email protected] or Bobby on 0777 4401935.

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