Experience live music like a chieftain at the Meet Me at Sundown festival in Claregalway Castle

Hibernacle returns this month with Meet me at Sun Down, which sees intimate concerts in the dining room of Claregalway Castle.

The concerts which are taking place on three consecutive Tuesdays in October, with the same acts performing the day before in Orlagh Castle in Dublin, sees double headliner shows featuring plenty of talent from this island and beyond.

Pearse Doherty, one of the organisers of the event has been a long standing fixture in the Galway arts scene says that this year's event will bring the same magic from last year's Meet Me At the Castle event, but with a much smaller and intimate event.

"Similar to last year's Hibernacle event, Meet Me at Sun Down will be much smaller, it will be in the dining room of the castle, with a big fire going. It's going to be arranged in a theatre type setting allowing people to get up close and personal with the artists. It's really going to be something special," he said.

For artist Brooklyn based E.W. Harris, last played in Galway over a decade ago in the Róisín Dubh, says that he's looking forward to visiting Galway again and playing for Irish audiences. He will be appearing in a double headliner with Mick Flannery on October 18.

"I have found, that with a lot of people from Ireland, they're listening to the lyric as intently as they're listening to the music. It creates a culture of song writers wanting to create in a way that's much bigger over there than it is over here.

"You have a country of lyrically forward songwriting which is focused in a lot of ways, I find even random pub audiences listen to what you say" said E.W.

Meet Me at Sundown also sees established singer song writer, Gemma Hayes, take the stage on October 25, in a double headliner with Cathy Davey, allowing the two solo artists to potentially collaborate and interact with each other organically.

"I'm seriously looking forward to it, I feel like I have been hibernating like a squirrel over winter," she laughed adding, "I'm loving being out gigging and the ethos of Hibernacle and Meet Me at Sundown and how it brings artists together."

With such a substantial back catalogue of five albums and an abundance of EPs, Gemma's gig will see some of her more private and never before preformed live songs alongside her more well known tunes.

"I want to play some songs people might know, but also want to delve into more private songs. I recently played songs at a concert that I had never before performed live, and it was really quite powerful," she said.

Inspired by the beauty and significance of Claregalway castle, Gemma says the venue has definitely influenced her set list. "I want to make the most of beautiful spaces and make music as fragile as possible. Fragile in the sense that it's powerful."

For Pearse and the organisers of Meet Me at Sundown, the enthusiasm for the event is palpable, detailing a magical evening of being up close and personal with Mick Flannery, Dani Larkin, Paul Noonan, E.W Harris, Gemma Hayes and Cathy Davey. Pearse has also expressed gratitude to the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media for the funding and to the owner of the castle, Eamonn O'Donoghue.

Tickets are €35 and are available now on Event Brite, a free bus will be provided to and from the castle from Eyre Square, for further information and to book the bus email [email protected]

The Meet Me At Sundown line up

 

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