FOREWORD
Here we are, slightly stunned to have made it to the ten year mark, but grateful all the same. To all who have supported us to date, we’d like to say Happy Anniversary, and thanks for the memories. Someone once said that the first ten years are the easy bit. They obviously didn’t run a festival. But we’re ready for the challenge of the next ten.
With some great partners on board, particularly our new title sponsor, Coors Light, and the best new music we could rustle up on either side of the Atlantic, we are as excited about this year’s festival as we were about the first. Many of the American Roots bands haven’t been to Europe before, never mind Ireland, so their time in Belfast will be as exciting for them as we hope it will be for you.
Kieran Gilmore, Festival Director
A word from our sponsors
We are incredibly proud to be the new sponsors of the Coors Light Open House Festival, in what is now its tenth year. The festival has grown organically with the ongoing regeneration of Belfast City Centre, and Northern Ireland overall, in the past ten years. We believe the Open House Festival is a perfect representation of the diverse, stylish and culturally forward looking community we now enjoy.
Both Coors Light and the Open House Festival have been on a journey of discovery and growth within Northern Ireland for the past 10 Years. As we both began to celebrate this milestone, we felt that the time was right to come together to celebrate all that is great about Northern Ireland, and in particular, the culture, music, entertainments scene, ever changing skyline, and of course the forward thinking people who have made it happen.
The Coors Light Open House Festival fuses the eclectic American roots scene with the Irish Music scene in a most contemporary way, and we believe therefore that it fits perfectly with the Coors Light Brand, which is American at its roots, but which has been adopted and fused into the fabric of Northern Ireland since its launch here 10 years ago.
Coors Light is already a firm favourite in Northern Ireland, and we look forward to a high energy festival programme which really has something for everyone, and which the public can enjoy with a cold refreshing Coors Light, on hopefully, a warm and pleasant September evening.
We are looking forward to building a long and successful partnership with the organisers and musicians involved with the Coors Light Open House Festival, and with the many great bars and venues who host the festival.
Norman Trotter
Sales Director Hollywood & Donnelly
Home of Coors Light
The only thing you can safely say about the Open House Festival is that you’re never sure what’s going to happen next.
That is its great appeal – and it says a lot for the sheer courage of its creators.
Kieran and Alison are not the sort of people to sit back and repeat a winning formula. They’ve never heard the phrase “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.”
Last year they simultaneously shortened the Festival and made it bigger through the introduction of the Chilli Fest in a giant marquee on Custom House Square.
This brought the event to a whole new level: the fusion of great food and music made for record crowds, new audiences who like what they saw and will come back this year.
This time the Festival team has done it again – I scarcely recognise a single name amongst the artists they’ve assembled – and yet you somehow know that they’ve come up with more exciting talent.
For people who love live music there’s nothing better than hearing a brilliant band in a small venue and this Festival has built an international reputation for unearthing outstanding acts just before they make it big.
The Open House Festival is now firmly on the map – internationally recognised as one of the best of its kind and increasingly drawing audiences from far and wide.
I’m really looking forward to it, and everyone at Asitis Consulting is very proud to be supporting it for the third year.
Nick Garbutt
Managing Director, ASITIS Consulting
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