Celtic Connections on Saturday, 22nd January 2011
www.sligolive.ie

North West event will be exposed to a large UK and European audience

In what promises to be a unique and somewhat historic event “when a UK based festival promotes an Irish festival”, Celtic Connections in Scotland (the largest of its type in Europe hosting over 1500 artists, 300 events over 18 days) hosts a Sligo Live festival night on Saturday, 22nd January 2011. The Sligo Live night, which is set to become an annual event at Celtic Connections, is part of a newly formed partnership between the two festivals and this year will feature acts from County Sligo to highlight the abundance of talent the region has to offer, which is considered by many to be one of Ireland’s primary music hubs. The three acts that will perform as part of the event are; traditional music group Teada, Americana/Celtic/Folk act The Unwanted, and Flamenco/Jazz act Túcan.

An Irish band with a truly worldwide reach, Téada has appeared as a frequent headliner at major music festivals throughout the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Africa, Israel and Australia. Highlights include a 30,000-capacity stadium concert in Brittany, among many other performances. Winner of ‘Best Young Irish Traditional Act’ at Ireland’s Music Awards 2009, Téada released a fourth album – Ceol & Cuimhne / Music & Memory - during 2010 on the Gael Linn & Compass labels.

Sligo instrumental group Túcan produce a unique style of music that intensely engages the listener. On stage this hybrid monster roams the space between their instruments and your ears like some kind of fairytale colossus spewing out metal, flamenco and jazz stained compositions that raise their guitar necks to Tool, Django & Daft Punk.

The rich music traditions of both sides the Atlantic are the source and inspiration for the music of The Unwanted – three Sligo based musical forces, each with exceptional talent and a lifetime dedication to their music.  Firm favourites on the Festival circuit, The Unwanted recently played The Festival of World Cultures as well as The Shetland Folk Festival, Tonder in Denmark and many others.

In what is a quirky coincidence, the two festival artistic directors are both accordion players with top international acts; Shane Mitchell from the traditional music group Dervish is the artistic director of Sligo Live, and Donald Shaw who performs with one of Scotland’s top acts Capercaillie, is artistic director of Celtic Connections.

Shane Mitchell said, “We are truly delighted to have a Sligo Live night as part of Celtic Connections this year and we plan to feature music from Celtic Connections at Sligo Live in the coming year. We thought it would be appropriate to showcase on our first outing some superb talent that is based right here in Sligo which is a town that is alive with music. We have many plans for the future that incorporate artists from far and wide in Ireland, but this year we bring a piece of Sligo to Scotland. It is a fantastic night for Sligo Live and opens up a whole new audience for the event” he concluded.

Celtic Connections Artistic director Donald Shaw said; “We are delighted to enter into this partnership with Sligo Live Sessions in Ireland. The artistic vision and ethos of the Sligo Live Sessions is similar to that of Celtic Connections, and we believe this partnership will raise the profile of Sligo Live Sessions in Scotland whilst increasing the size of Irish audiences to Celtic Connections, Europe’s largest festival of its type”.

Celtic Connections is happening at present in Glasgow from January 13th until January 30th 2011, for full festival details see; www.celticconnections.com. Sligo Live will take place over the Irish bank holiday weekend in October from 26th until October 31st 2011.

Full details and announcements soon from www.sligolive.ie