Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Beoga and LYRA add their class for debut
Southern stars among stellar Stendhal lineup
Things are looking up – for now at least. Restrictions are starting to ease, we’ll be able to get our hair cut soon, go out (literally out) for a drink and enjoy live music again.
It has been a long time coming. With that in mind, Stendhal has announced the line-up for the first half of it summer two-parter in July. And, as you’d expect from the festival at Ballymully Cottage Farm in Limavady on July 9-10, it’s another genrespanning gem.
Among the fab headliners are trad superstars Beoga (they of Galway Girl association but we’ll forgive that), electronic popster LYRA, rockers General Fiasco, Ciaran Lavery and Joshua Burnside. Sounds great - and exciting to see how a festival such as Stendhal will fit into the the new world order of social distancing and, well, hand hygiene.
Festival Director Ross Parkhill said: “We’ve been waiting to get back up to the farm for a long, long time now and this line up of home grown and Irish talent only makes that prospect all the more tantalizing.
“Beoga and LYRA are both phenomenal live acts and we are so pleased that they will be making their Stendhal debuts in July. Kila are friends of the festival and have never put on anything but a must see show.
“Of course we have a huge selection of the very best Northern
Irish acts as usual, covering loads of genres as usual and we expect that the bands and musicians are keen to make their return to a festival stage as memorable an occasion as possible.
“We have loads more to announce in terms of the line-up, more music, our family programme, comedy programme, poetry and arts line-ups are still to come.” At present Mass Gatherings are still prohibited but as restrictions are starting to ease Ross says he remains confident that Stendhal will be given the green light to proceed this year following frustrating attempts to proceed in 2020.
Ross said: “We remain confident, now that the timetables for reopening across Northern Ireland have become clearer. Once beer gardens and hotels open up, we believe that camping and entertainment fields should be a very natural next step, particularly now that discussions regarding pilot events will be opening up at Stormont, hopefully within days.”
The musical lineup announced so far for July is as follows: Beoga, LYRA, Kíla, General Fiasco, Ciaran Lavery, Joshua Burnside, Jealous of the Birds, Cormac Neeson, Amy Montgomery, Lore, Blackbird and Crow, Reevah, Ports, Paddy Nash, Bakken, Matt Mcginn, Cherym, Bicurious, Bridgid O’neill, Rebekah Fitch, Beauty Sleep, Joseph Leighton Organ Trio, Waldorf and Cannon, Villa in France, Molly Hogg, Travi The Native, Stephen Roddy, Teknopeasant, String Ninjas, The Drew Hamill Band, Daft Punk Tribute.
For tickets and more information visit Stendhalfestival.com
Tickets for the July and August edition’s of Stendhal Festival are on sale from 9am on Tuesday, April 20 but are severely limited this year due to ongoing covid restrictions, with fewer than 1,000 currently left.
Be smart – be quick.