Farmleigh Affair 08 -Sunday

OPW's Pleasure Grounds in Farmleigh host a musical affair in August Bank Holiday

Sunday 3rd – Monday 4th August 2008

The Pleasure Grounds, Farmleigh, Phoenix Park, Dublin 15

Event is FREE but Ticketed

To book: www.farmleighaffair.com (from 4th July)

Sunday 3rd August: Mornington Singers | Grada | Carmen Souza | Hazmat Modine | Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara

Is there another summer music festival that loves you like The Farmleigh Affair?

With two days of performances from many of the worlds leading musicians, minutes from Dublin's centre yet in one of its most beautiful garden settings, and tickets entirely free, we think not.

Building on the Affair's growing reputation as the strongest world music line up of the summer , we've assembled some exotic musical blooms to further adorn Farmleigh's scenic Pleasure Grounds, with artists traveling from France, The UK, Congo, Cape Verde, Portugal, The Gambia and The US to perform over the August Bank Holiday weekend. Joining them are leading groups from right across the Irish spectrum, from choral to traditional music.

First arrivals on Sunday 3rd will be greeted by the thirty five strong Mornington Singers, raising the roof of Lord Iveagh's ancestral home with an uplifting programme of contemporary choral music that includes works by Arvo Pärt. Going to work on other parts of your musical brain will be Grada, the energetic and charismatic five piece based in Galway who are making their own creative waves among the many emerging bands in Ireland's resurgent traditional scene, with original tunes and great musicianship.

Carmen Souza in another artist on the right trajectory. Raised in Lisbon, she's grown up steeped in the music and identity of the Cape Verdean Islands of her birth, updating their emblematic morna rhythms with an afro jazz twist, and with a keen ear for songwriting gleaned from the fado of her adopted home city.

Hazmat Modine could only have come from one city, and New York seeps out of every musical pore of this willfully eccentric slice of Americana that embraces everything from jug bands and Jamaican rocksteady to country blues and klezmer. Its all delivered with deadpan charm from a band that includes harmonicas, tuba, Hawaiian steel guitar and other staples of the self respecting junkyard orchestra.

The blues get a further workout with Justin Adams, guitarist with Robert Plant and producer of Tinariwen, and Gambia's leading exponent of the ritti one string fiddle Juldeh Camara, in a partnership between rock 'n' roll and African roots that has yielded some of the gutsiest riffs you will hear this year.

There'll be refreshments available, along with tasty treats from organic producers to keep you going, and Farmleigh is the perfect spot for a picnic if you want to bring your own spread. If it's all too much excitement, you can always relax with a stroll in the gardens, a look around the galleries, or take a tour of the historic house.

The Farmleigh Affair is completely free but you will require tickets, limited to four per person and available from www.farmleighaffair.com from Friday 4th July onwards. Going by last year, we anticipate huge demand for this unique and much anticipated event so apply early!

Party over here, as Lord Iveagh might put it.

Don't forget about performances on Monday 4th August: Motema | Mor Karbasi | Lo Cor De La Plana | Iarla Ó Lionáird & Invisible Fields | Grupo Fantasma