Series of concerts this week at the Alley Theatre in Strabane

Strabane’s Alley Theatre has an exciting range of events scheduled for this week as part of its One Big Music Festival.

Featuring a range of concerts, the One Big Music Festival is a five-day series for music lovers and offers a packed schedule with different genres of music to suit everyone.

The festival starts with ‘CRAIC – An Evening of local Irish Music, Song and Dance’ to take place on Tuesday (June 25) at 8pm.

This concert aims to celebrate the wealth of local talent from Strabane, Raphoe, Plumbridge, Letterkenny and other neighbouring areas and will feature sa variety of Irish music, sets, ceili, Irish dancing and songs. This event will also be the first time on stage for many performers, including the new youth Irish language accordion group – An Bhuíon Boscaí Ceoil.

UNPLUGGED

The Strabane Unplugged session – A Night for Joe – will take place the following day, Wednesday (June 26).

Joe Clarke was a Strabane musician who played with the likes of Sandy Kelly, Frankie McBride, even Lily Allen along with his own band The Brambles. He also played a key role in the success of the very popular Strabane Unplugged, where he did the sound for all the musicians.

Joe unfortunately passed away at the beginning of this year. This night is a chance to celebrate the life of this phenomenal musician.

SOUL

On Thursday, June 27, Victoria Geelan and her band of fantastic musicians will perform a carefully selected set of songs made famous by the ‘High Priestess of Soul’, Nina Simone. An award-winning artist, Victoria is best known for her passionate and powerful vocals, evinced by her most recent album, 2020’s ‘Sophisticated Lady.’

This performance will be followed by Gerard Bradley and friends in the cafe bar area for an intimate performance.

Friday sees Bone Machine take to the Alley stage for a much-anticipated performance. Bone Machine are a band of internationally renowned touring and recording musicians who perform a rebrand, melancholic and punk jazz set of Tom Waits songs. Over the years they have performed with the likes of Damien Rice, Mundy, Lisa Hannigan, Jerry Fish and Mike Flannery to name a few and have also laid down dozens of tracks on albums, EP and singles.

Saturday night festivities will kick off with performances by Belfast indie rock band The Scarlett Cavaliers. The band started back in 2019 at Queens University when the founding members Jamie Bonner and Ross Galway met whilst studying music together. Ever since they’ve been working on all original material, writing, recording, mixing, and mastering independently releasing two EP’s and three singles, one of which was picked up by the BBC for radio play.

For tickets and for more information contact the Alley Theatre Box office on 02871384444 from Monday to Saturday 10am- 4.30pm or visit the website at – www.alley-theatre.com