Ironbridge Bluegrass Festival UK - 1998

[Ivan Kelsall]

In response to an e-mail from a US e-mail buddy,i looked for any videos of the now defunct Ironbridge festival & found one that had ony been on YouTube for 3 weeks or so.
The Ironbridge festival was possibly the best we ever had over here,until the local council tried to hi-jack it as part of the annual ironbridge Culture show.
It 'll give an impression of what the general atmosphere was like. This was taken at the new venue in Ironbridge - Mile End Park,on the banks of the river Avon.
The old festival site was a couple of miles away,& was better attended - it was based around a pub after all !.
Going into the clip about 7.25 mins,you'll see a group of players - me (wearing a leather jacket) on banjo,my Irish friend from Dublin,Enda Donnelly on his Fraley mandolin & the guy who kicked off the whole UK Bluegrass festival scene,Steve Read on guitar.
Every Bluegrass festival we've ever had over here is as a direct follow on from Steve's efforts back in 1976 & we owe that guy more thanks than we could ever give him,
Ivan;)

https://youtu.be/24yQCenlpVc

[mandrian]

Hi Ivan,

Thanks for posting that. I recognised quite a few faces from when I frequented the Scottish bluegrass music festivals in the 90's in particular Guildtown. The harmonica player Ken Kennedy who appears several times was one who encouraged me to take up mandolin.

Regards,

[Paul Cowham]

Thanks Ivan - looks like it was fun and suitably soggy for a British festival! Recognised a few faces there too :)

[Ivan Kelsall]

Ironbridge was possibly the best UK festival ever. Usually the weather was hot & sunny,unlike Steve Read's own Edale festival,which became notorious for the lousy weather.The first full weekend in June & you could almost guarantee rain or even snow. Laurie Lewis & her first band,''The Grant Street String Band'' were booked one year.They flew in from California the day before the did their first gig. When they came on stage,they were almost blue with cold & shivering like hades - the stage was in a barn = not warm. It was snowing hard outside & they said they'd never been anywhere so cold.
When Ralph Stanley came over & played there,i spoke with Curly Ray Cline his fiddle player & he told be he nearly turned blue with cold during the previous night.
Folk came from as far North as Scotland & as far South as Hastings on the South coast,year after year. As i mentioned,the new venue was never as good as the old one,but it was still well attended & might have carried on if Telford Council had kept their noses out & not tried to hi-jack it for themselves. I forgot to mention the guy who ran the festival,Mal. Salisbury. He was pestered for so long by the council that he simply gave up out of sheer frustration. Another festival oraniser to whom we UK Bluegrassers owe a huge amount of thanks,
Ivan;)
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