CountryFest 5

tipptopper

Seems to be a lot of controversey over this event, allegedly alot of the artists haven't been paid from previous events, false advertising etc.. Has anyone any idea what's going on? Attended this event a few years ago and quite a few of the artists advertised never showed up which left a lot of people very disappointed. It's a costly weekend and not going booking anything till I know for sure whats going on or who is running it. Anyone shed any light on it?

hairbrush

Hard to know. I have gone 3 years out of the 4 and I am definitley not going this year. Purely on reading up about James McGarrity and what has happened with artists he hired in the past and also the artists he had not booked but had on the bill anyway.

Even at this stage the on listing of artists can only be got from sending a private message to a facebook page of Ryan Michael McParland.

I witnessed some shocking unprofessional posts today on that facebook page. This Ryan guy made a statement to slander some guy that used to work for James by saying he was having an affair and drove with no license. Somebody came back to say she hoped that he would pay his staff and artists this year and not use his wife having cancer as an excuse. Then he wife posted saying there was no proof he had said that. Totally unprofessional I couldntt believe what I was reading. It sums it up really.
I wouldnt want to support an event if I thought these allegations were true and it seems they were. Billie Jo Spears has passed away and he seemingly owed her 30,000.

Philomena Begley is still on the Bill although I believe she had make a statement to say she wont be attending , same goes for Derek Ryan, Nathan Carter, Mick Flavin and Shaun Loughrey.

I called the Clanree a few weeks ago to ask what the story was as I was intending to go at that stage. They said hotel was fully booked , when I asked about lineup and if any changed had been made to the lineu featured on a poster on their website they said they were not responsible and only renting the venue to james mcgarrity and I would need to speak to him.

Anyway if you decide to go enjoy yourself.

I'll be holding out for Clonmany.


I would love to see events like this to go ahead in future under new management.

musikality

Not sure what the craic is with thefest thisyear but i do know that the ryan michael mcparland fb page is the officia countryfest page.