The Henry Girls have confirmed that they will travel to Los Angeles in September to play at the Irish Film Festival. The festival will show Aidan Quinn’s “A Shine of Rainbows” – which was shot in Inishowen, and the Henry Girls also feature in the film’s music.
The girls are delighted to have secured the funding from Culture Ireland and Donegal County Council for the visit. “We can now start planning our trip and will stay for around 10 days, as we have been asked to play at the festival’s opening and closing events,” said Lorna McLaughlin.
Closer to home, the girls feature in the 21st Earagail Arts Festival, when they perform with the Morroccan band Gawa Fusion for two gigs in Carndonagh and Letterkenny. They first performed with Gawa Fusion in Morocco two years ago, and Lorna McLaughlin said they were “very proud to be in a position to invite international artists to join us in the Persian Bar weekly Wednesday night sessions.”
“The first international night will be Wednesday the 8th of July when we will be joined by Casablanca group Gawa Fusion. The next special Earagail Arts Festival session at the Persian Bar will be on the 15th July when we will be joined by Appalacian singer Jerry Harmon.”
Lorna says they really can’t wait to see how these two special festival Wednesday sessions go down with the crowds in the Persian. “By the way, we’d like to say a big thank you to all the musicians who come along and join us every week. Inishowen is just teeming with amazing musical talent!!”
“We first met Gawa Fusion last year when we played at the International Nomad Festival in the Sahara. We were blown away by their music. They were very interested when we told them about the Earagail Arts Festival. They’re all in their 20s and are dying to travel the world and play music so we are happy to be their hosts in Ireland and give them this opportunity.”
The Henry Girls gigs with Gawa Fusion play on the 8th July in the Persian Bar and on the 10th in Club Rouge Letterkenny. Both events are free so Lorna is inviting everyone to come along “and support the lads who will have travelled such a distance to play in Donegal.”
“As well as their Earagail Arts gigs, we have organised another couple of events for Gawa Fusion: On the 9th of July they will play support to Reggae singer Natty Wailer in Sandinos, Derry and on Saturday the 11th they will do an acoustic session in Cafe Donagh, in Carn at 3pm…an afternoon of Moroccan fusion music and a panini… welcome to Inishowen!”
Festival details and tickets on www.eaf.ie. Ticket hotline: +353 74 9120777.
Sign up to the festival mailing list for a copy of the brochure at info@eaf.ie
or +353 (0) 749168800.
