Old connections brought me to a fantastic public music event in Sligo last week that featured over two hours of very varied but unique local music talents rocking Sligo’s Stephen St car park for free with ‘Stadium Anthems’ under the baton of of ace musician and director, Kieran Quinn.
Music is something Sligo does more of and better that most areas. It has diverse talents, diverse events, great venues, a legacy that goes back almost a century and generations coming through with music as a natural part of their childhood. It’s time for the many music interests in Sligo to get together and hatch a plan to make Sligo a ‘place of music’ to which others will come, spend time, and return.
Christmas is a great time for reading books and one of my choices this year was the life story of Sligo’s Tommy Higgins and his career in music, retailing and ticket selling. I never really knew the Ticketmaster story so I didn’t know what to expect exactly. I finished with the impression that there is a lot more that could have been included but that makes the story no less worth reading and well worth the effort.
Sligo hoped #Yeats2015 – a planned year long celebration of the 150th anniversary of the birth of ‘our’ poet – would be a focal point for a national and international interest in the region. It turned out largely as we would have hoped and established a foundation for the region worth building on. The challenge now is to do so in a meaningful way.
From the outside looking in... 