Bob Dylan's Irish concert turned into a boost for Moville's DylanFest

Posted Saturday, March 13, 2010

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DylanFest

I couldn't believe it when I first heard the news.

Bob Dylan's only concert in Ireland in 2010 was to be on the weekend of Moville's DylanFest.

Surely all his fans would be at the real thing.

Even if some of them came to Moville surely all those in Dylan bands and acts in Ireland, that we would want to book for the DylanFest, would be at the Dylan concert rather than the DylanFest.

Silver Lining

However, there's no cloud without a silver lining.

A big Dylan afficionado in Moville suggested that it could be an opportunity rather than a problem.

And so it turned out to be.

Press Release

I immediately got together a Press Release with the title 'Ireland To Go Dylan Mad in July' linking the two events and started sending it out to the Press.

Even as I was still sending them out I got a call from DJ Mark Patterson at BBC Radio Foyle asking me to be on his show.

"Get back to me in April / May and we'll dedicate the second half of the show to it and bring along someone who can play a couple of Dylan songs" he said.

That was good news for a start.

RTE

Then soon after I saw it on the RTE Entertainment page.

Click on here to see it.

In among the news about Cheryl Cole, Pink Floyd, Tom Cruise and Amy Winehouse was the headline 'Dylan Clashes with Donegal DylanFest'.

That was a real boost.

Logistical Problems

I'm not sure how easy it would be to go to the Moville DylanFest on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and then get to Limerick on Sunday.

However, here's a thought.

Bob Dylan, supposedly, once turned up incognito at a DylanFest in the US.

During previous DylanFests in Moville he was playing in far away places like New York and Melbourne.

However, this year......