Sligo Live 2010 will take place over the October Bank Holiday weekend from Thursday 21st October to Monday 25th October inclusive. Following the enormous success of the 2009 festival we have left programme details up, so visitors can capture a little of the flavour of the last Sligo Live which many of you believed was the best yet.

We will announce acts for the 2010 festival as they are confirmed, so please keep in touch with this site to be the first to know whats happening with Sligo Live. You can also follow progress and join our community by becoming a friend on Facebook.

Sligo Live thanks the musicians, artists, performers, visitors and Sligo people for making this year’s festival such a huge success. The 5 days of the festival saw thousands enjoy a fantastic programme of music and arts in the pubs, clubs, cafes, streets, shopping centres and concert venues

It was great to see so many  have a good time with no trouble and miminal litter. You came from all over Ireland and from many countries and got into the relaxed Sligo lifestyle for a weekend, meeting friends and making friends. We appreciate you joining our celebrations and having experienced the magic that is  Sligo, will not only return, but bring your friends next time!

The Producers would also like to thank our main funders, Sligo Borough Council and Sligo County Council, The Arts Council and Failte Ireland for your support, together with The Irish Times, Radisson Blu Hotel, Irish Rail, RTE, Guinness, Quayside Shopping Centre, Erdinger, The National Lottery and a host of pubs, cafes and other local sponsors (listed on our sponsorship page) who made the festival possible.

Best wishes until next year; and watch this space for news of SLIGO LIVE 2010 which wil tyake place from 21st October  to 25th October 2010.

The big talking point of this year’s Sligo Live was the the online web casts from some of the traditional music pub sessions where Sligo Live and the region gained thousands of new friends globally. “If the reaction is anything to go by, this will increase numbers to the festival in the years to come and what a great way to kick off the overseas marketing drive which is now our key focus.” Said Shane Mitchell, one of the festival producers.

Once again Sligo’s dynamic musical heritage was celebrated over the October Bank Holiday weekend with SLIGO LIVE, Ireland’s foremost International Roots Music Festival bringing leading Irish and Int ernational Artists to Sligo.  SLIGO LIVE has enjoyed its best year to date with tickets to all concerts Selling out.  The Festival had an attendance of over 36,000 people at the eighty different concert, club, session, café culture, street entertainment and market events that made up the festival weekend and brought an estimated €4.5 million into Sligo over the 5 days.

Festival Organisers Shane Mitchell and Rory O’Connor have turned this event into Ireland’s fastest growing Music Festival and have firmly put SLIGO LIVE on the International Festival map.  This year’s Sligo Live Festival which took place over the October Bank Holiday featured over 80 Events, 170 Artists, 22 Café Culture Events, 18 Scheduled Trad Sessions, Martha Wainwright, Imelda May, Josh Ritter, The Saw Doctors, Frankie Gavin, Comedian PJ Gallagher, Wallis Bird, Jinx Lennon and Miss Paula Flynn, Chris Meehan and his Redneck Friends, Tony De Marco, Oddsocks Revival, Oisin, Seamie O’Dowd, Fiddler of Dooney Competition, World Air Fiddle Championships, Fantastic Street Entertainment, Open-air Markets, and much more.

Festival Producer, Rory O’Connor remarked “The Festival moved up a gear and enjoyed its most successful year. Almost every one of the 86 performances had a full house and the town was thronged with music lovers darting from show to show throughout the day and night.

O’Connor continued “If anybody doubted the value of entertainment, arts and culture to a community, Sligo Live shows what an imaginative programme can do for an area. We all are so proud that our main sponsors, Sligo County and Borough Councils, held their nerve under the most difficult economic pressure and continued their support. The Local Councils together with the Arts Council and Failte Ireland have been enthusiastic supporters of the event since its inception.”

This year’s Sligo Live firmly establishes the Festival as one of the top music and fun weekends of the year.  Since its inception, the festival has been renowned for its warm friendly atmosphere and dozens of performances in every nook and cranny of the town. Artists mingled freely with the audiences and visitors found new friends among Sligo’s music lovers. The friendliness in the festival club each evening was amazing.

The Festival exuded a fleadh-like atmosphere by holding free traditional music sessions throughout the five day event along with spectacular Street Entertainment on the Saturday.

The on-line session webcasts, made possible through an Arts Council grant and sponsorship from local TV services company, Omedia, and Guinness, were watched live by thousands which is a phenomenal response for this medium. Texts and e mails came from music fans around the world including Finland, Pakistan, all over the US, Argentina, Canada, Germany. The webcasts will be posted on www.sligolive.ie and on U Tube in the coming days for those who were too busy attending events to see them

Producer, Shane Mitchell said “We are all absolutely delighted with this year’s festival. Visitor numbers and concert attendances exceeded even our most optimistic expectations and Sligo Live is now developing faster than we imagined. This is a credit to the 100’s of volunteer’s and people who work on the event all year around, making the Sligo Live a truly special community driven festival. All events were a huge success and the strong festival programme proved a winner for us.

In 2009 Sligo Live embraced the digital age by broadcasting some of the Festival’s top Trad Sessions LIVE on the Internet.

There were sessions in every available space across Sligo, from lunch until the early hours of the morning. We placed some cameras in four pubs, hooked up an Internet connection and invited the best traditional musicians in Ireland to play for you.

Below is the full Live webcast from ‘Shoot The Crows’ last October. 

Click here to view more traditional music videos

To view our web casts direct from Sligo Pubs, click onto the Webcast page. The video box on this page is blank until the web stream goes live.  The music at last night’s Session in ‘Rendezvous’ lifted the roof off and we hope to have it up here to view again shortly. Many thanks to the gifted crew at OMedia for enabling our webcasts.

Our Friends at SLIGO TV are very busy filming concerts across the town. They’ll be posting their Sligo Live highlights soon on  http://sligotv.ie

We are also on face book so if you’d like to read updates from the festival as it happens or view photographs add us as a friend. Search for ‘Sligo Live’

Sligo Live Webcast Schedule 

SUNDAY OCT 25th- Live from Hargadons Pub, Sligo

A Lively session starring ‘young guns’ from Co Down. We have Stephen Rooney on guitar, Niall Quinn on bodhran, Joe Murray on fiddle and Austin Donnelly on flute plus special guests and the newly crowned senior Fiddler of Dooney Champion.

16.00 Eastern Daylight Time 11.00 Pacific Daylight Time 18.00 Ireland

MONDAY OCT 25^th – Live from Fiddlers Creek Pub, Sligo

The last blast sees all the Sligo Live Crew pile into this popular pub to hear a session that will lift the roof of the pub. Kilargue, Co Leitrim flute player Dave Sherdian joins remarkable Sligo Fiddler Oisin Mc Diarmada of Teada fame and Shane Mc Gowan from Knocknashee (Hill of the fairies)

16.00 Eastern Daylight Time 11.00 Pacific Daylight Time 18.00 Ireland

The Saw Doctors will relpace Sharon Shannon at this year’s Sligo Live Festival 2009.

Due to conflicting schedules for Shane MacGowan, The Sharon Shannon Big Band will now be unable to perform at Sligo Live on Sunday, 25th October ‘09 as previously announced.

However, the Sligo Live Festival Organisers are delighted to announce that The Saw Doctors will perform live in concert on that Sunday, 25th October ‘09 at The Radisson SAS Hotel. EARLY BIRDS can capture the special price tickets for The Saw Doctors which went  on sale from Monday, 13th July ‘09  at only €25.00. Sligo Live 2009 plays host to an amazing line-up of international stars this October Bank Holiday Weekend. The Saw Doctors will join New York Songstress Martha Wainwright and Sexy, Sassy, Sultry Singer, Imelda May at this year’s Sligo Live Festival.

Tickets for Sharon Shannon with Special Guest Shane MacGowan can be refunded at Point of Purchase.

A funny thing happened to The Saw Doctors last Autumn. After a gap of 17 years, the West of Ireland rockers topped the Irish Music Singles Chart with their punked up version of the Sugababes song “About You Now”, beating off international artists such as Pink and Kings of Leon.

Back in the early ninties, The Saw Doctors were Number One in Ireland with Hay Wrap, N17 and I Useta Lover which still holds the record for the biggest selling Irish single. The bands first album, If This Is Rock & Roll, I Want My Old Job Back” was Number One in Ireland for most of 1991.

The Saw Doctors were discovered in the back room of the Quays Pub in Galway in 1988 by Mike Scott of The Waterboys who was recording The Fishermans’ Blues album in nearby Spiddal. Mike Scott asked The Saw Doctors to open for The Waterboys’ on the Fisherman’s Blues tour of the UK and Ireland in the Autumn of 1988 and produced their first single, N17.

After posting a second Number One album (All The Way From Tuam), The Saw Doctors set about touring the UK and in February 1996, the band’s third album “Same Oul’ Town” went to Number Six in the UK Top Twenty, yielding two Top Twenty UK singles, World of Good, and To Win Just Once. The Saw Doctors appeared on BBC’s Top of the Pops in January and July 1996 to promote the two singles.

In April/May 1997, the Saw Doctors undertook their first major coast to coast US tour and as a result landed a US record deal with Paradigm Records in New York. The compilation album, Sing A Powerful Song, was released in November 1997, prompting Geoffrey Himes to write in The Washington Post that “the Saw Doctors are one of the world’s most appealing roots-rock outfits”.

Songs From Sun Street, the Saw Doctors fourth album was released on both sides of the Atlantic in 1998. The album release was celebrated in the UK with a sell out show at London’s Royal Albert Hall. In America, the Saw Doctors headlined the American Fleadh concerts with Van Morrisson and Sinead O’Connor. At the Fleadh Festival in San Jose (June 99), they had the crowd “jumping like human pogo-sticks” according to the San Jose Mercury News.

The Saw Doctors are powered by the songwriting partnership of Leo Moran (guitar) and Davy Carton (Vocals). Their songs range from the plight of Ireland’s unmarried mothers to the effect of strong religion on a nation’s youth; from playing gaelic football against a neighbouring village to loving the prettiest girl in town but lacking the courage to tell her.

“From country to punk to pop and rock’n'roll”, explains Leo Moran on their success, “we stole all our favourite bits”.

Over the years, The Saw Doctors have built up a reputation as a great live band. They have toured in Australia, Canada, USA, Sweden, Germany, Holland, Norway and the UK. Paul Sexton of The Times in London observed that “if they could bottle the sort of bonhomie that can make an entire concert hall feel better, The Saw Doctors would have the medicine show to end them all”. The Saw Doctors play a number of Irish and UK Festivals this summer, including Oxegen at Punchestown Racecourse, Cambridge Folk Festival in England and the Cape Cod Melody Tent Festival in Massachusetts followed by Sligo Live Festival on the October Bank Holiday Weekend.

Sligo Live 2009 takes place over the October Bank Holiday Weekend from Thursday, 22nd – Monday 26th October 2009. For more details log onto www.sligolive.ie Early bird Tickets to all events are on sale at an amazing €75 for a weekend ticket to all festival events.

Sligo Live festival 2009 presents Imelda May in concert Friday, 23rd October 2009

Sexy, Sassy, Sultry Singer, Imelda May is confirmed to perform at Sligo Live 2009 on Friday, 23rd October 2009 at 8.30pm in The Clarence. Earlier this year, Imelda May was the winner of ‘Best Female’ at the Meteor Ireland Music Awards. Having fallen in love with rockabilly and the blues as a nine – year old in Dublin, Imelda May has gone from strength to strength and is enjoying overwhelming success with her debut album “Love Tattoo”. She has shared the stage with everyone from Van Morrison to the Scissor Sisters. Her fresh blend of irresistible Jazz Beats, Blues and Fast-tempo rockabilly have won Imelda May such fans as Jools Holland, Jeff Beck and Michael Parkinson as well as massive public and critical acclaim.

Sligo Live 2009 plays host to an amazing line-up of international stars this October Bank Holiday Weekend. Imelda May will join New York Songstress Martha Wainwright and Ireland’s finest Sharon Shannon at this year’s Sligo Live Festival. Imelda May will perform many of her recognisable and much loved songs including the hugely succesful “Johnny Got a Boom- Boom” and “Big Bad Handsome Man”. and promises to stun audiences with her seductive vocals and feisty burlesque live performance.

If you have not yet organised your October Bank Holiday Weekend, then you had better make a trip to Sligo Live 2009 top of your list! A limited number of Early Bird Tickets are on sale in all Ticketmaster outlets and online at www.ticketmaster.ie for the special price of €25.00 for Imelda May’s Concert and an amazing €75 for a weekend ticket to all festival events.

Sligo Live is now in its fifth year and is one of Ireland’s fastest growing International Roots Music festivals. Sligo Live is also proving popular with overseas visitors and there has been a big increase in enquiries this year from music lovers in the UK, Europe and the US. The festival’s unique fleadh like atmosphere of dynamic pub sessions and street entertainment combined with concerts, café performances and club nights gives an intimate and personal feel where festival goers mix freely with artists and really enjoy the atmosphere. Choosing between the dozens of gigs is the biggest problem many visitors face over the weekend.

Sligo itself is proving to be a very popular festival location. Festival goers will have the opportunity to enjoy many of the year round activities Sligo has to offer; Ireland’s best Surfing beaches, Hill and Forest walks, Seaweed baths, Boating, Fishing, Sailing, Camping, Golf, Music Archives, and an array of activities to tantalise young minds.

Sligo Live 2009 takes place over the October Bank Holiday Weekend from Thursday, 22nd – Monday 26th October 2009.

Top New York songstress, Martha Wainwright, is confirmed to perform live in concert at Sligo Live Festival 2009 on Saturday, 24th October ‘09 at The Radisson SAS Hotel, Sligo.

Martha Wainwright’s second album, “I Know You’re Married, But I’ve Got Feelings Too!”, is both tender and tough, beautiful and brutal, and simmering with invention and confidence. Martha has toured her songs internationally many times, sweeping up acclaim and awards with every flight ticket. She’s made music with The Who’s Pete Townsend, Damon Albarn’s African Express, Antony Hegarty and Snow Patrol with whom she scored a top 20 hit. Her brother Rufus, father Loudon Wainwright, Emmylou Harris and Ed Harcourt sang at her wedding. She covered Leonard Cohen’s songs for the film I’m Your Fan, performed Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with the Royal Ballet Company, and sang Pink Floyd’s See Emily Play with her mother Kate McGarrigle at a Syd Barrett tribute.

If you have not yet organised your October Bank Holiday Weekend, then you had better make a trip to Sligo Live 2009 top of your list! A limited number of Early bird Ticket are on sale priced at €30 for Martha Wainwright and an amazing €75  for a weekend ticket to all festival events.

Sligo Live is now in its fifth year and is one of Ireland’s fastest growing International World Music Roots festivals. Last year the Festival had an attendance of nearly 30,000 people at the Seventy-Six different concert, club, session, café culture, street entertainment and market events that made up the festive weekend  over the 6 days.

Shane Mitchell Artistic producer said “we are in discussions with a number of other exciting acts at present and we plan to announce our biggest and best festival line-up to date with many unique fringe events to complement this year’s music program. Each year the event gets bigger and better and the hard work of our volunteers throughout the year has enabled the festival to evolve into a truly magical event”, he added.

Sligo Live is also proving popular with overseas visitors and there has been a big increase in enquiries this year from music lovers in the UK, Europe and the US. The festival’s unique fleadh like atmosphere of dynamic pub sessions and street entertainment combined with concerts, café performances and club nights gives an intimate and personal feel where festival goers mix freely with artists and really enjoy the atmosphere. Choosing between the dozens of gigs is the biggest problem many visitors face over the weekend.

Sligo itself is proving to be a very popular festival location. Festival goers will have the opportunity to enjoy many of the year round activities Sligo has to offer: Ireland’s best Surfing beaches, Hill and Forest walks, Seaweed baths, Boating, Fishing, Sailing, Camping, Golf, Music Archives, and an array of activities to tantalise young minds.

Sligo Live 2009 takes place over the October Bank Holiday Weekend from Thursday, 22nd – Monday 26th October 2009.