Bob Dylan to headline revived festival The Feis at Finsbury Park

Published: 11 March, 2011
by TERRY MESSENGER

RENOWNED Irish music fan Bob Dylan is the headline act at a revived festival of music from Ireland due to be staged in Finsbury Park.

While not strictly speaking Irish, Dylan embraced the country’s music while listening to rebel balladeers the Clancy Brothers in New York in the early 1960s.

The young American was inspired by the Clancys, who were a more established act on the pioneering folk scene in Greenwich Village and he borrowed tunes and themes from the trad­itional Irish repertoire. A spokesman for The Feis festival said: “Bob Dylan knows Irish music very well and sees it as an honour to be in our show.”

The Feis, pronounced Fesh, is a successor festival to the Fleadh, pronounced Flah, at Finsbury Park which  ran from 1990 to 2004, organised by Irish impresario Vince Power.

The Fleadh, which was part of Mr Power’s Mean Fiddler business group, ceased when he sold the enterprise.

The festival spokes­man said: “Vince thought it was too long to go without a festival in Finsbury Park. We have to call it something different but we doubt people will mind as long as the music’s great.”

The Finsbury Park shows started off as purely Irish but broad­ened out over the years to embrace music from around the world as well.

The Feis will be staged in the park on June 18 with other acts to be announced soon.