Great Start to DylanFest 11 with the Great Al Diesan
DylanFest 11
We wondered if Al Diesan would be as good this year as he has been in previous years.
In fact we wondered if he would even get here with the flooding and road closures.
Al comes all the way from Cagliari on the island of Sardinia.
He needs 6 planes to get here and back again.
However, nothing was going to stop him from performing at DylanFest 11 and he duly arrived on Wednesday with his wife.
How Many People?
As I walked up to Rosatos I wondered what effect the closure of the main road from Derry to Moville would have and the closure of City of Derry airport would have on attendance.
Normally there’s about 70-80 at any one time on the opening Thursday night of the DylanFest.
Walking up I speculated that there might only be about half of that.
So, it was a pleasant surprise to find over 80 people there. Indeed I was talking to a guy who had come up from Drogheda for it.
Al Diesan
So, what about Al?
Al was as good as ever – in fact even better than ever.
He played a mixture of the favourites such as Mr Tambourine Man and Like a Rolling Stone as well as some of the more obscure songs which Dylan fans like.
Al plays Rosatos again tonight and then on Sunday to close the festival.
There should be an even bigger crowd tonight to see him.
It was a great start to the festival – and the three main days are still to come.
And the road from Derry to Moville and the City of Derry Airport are all open again.
So, come gather round people. The action has started.