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Dart Music Festival

Dart Music Festival

By Jordan Mitchell

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Every year for a whole weekend in may, the beautiful town of Dartmouth in Devon showcases some of the most talented people in music, in every available space in the town for a performer you can be sure its being used, this wonderful event is the Dartmouth Music Festival http://dartmusicfestival.co.uk

This years event was held over three days 15th 16th 17th may and was welcomed with beautiful weather and lots of enthusiastic music fans having a blast… and can I just mention, this even it free! However, in order for it to be able to happen year after year, staff of the event wonders the streets with yellow buckets where donations can be made to fund the festival, and thank goodness they do! It is full of charm and there is something for every music lover from classical to country (I said it… I’ll get to that bit later) rock to jazz it really caters to everyone’s tastes.

Well presented and thought out programmes are available to purchase and you really cannot be without one, too much exciting talent performing to risk missing out on. I am lucky enough to be from this wonderful town, so am lucky enough to have grown up around this festival, and being a huge country music enthusiast I was more than exciting to have two of my country friends come play at this years DMF, both Gary Quinn and Sasha McVeigh performed Sunday slots.

BCMA winner Gary Quinn, played The Band Stand, which is main stage Sunday afternoon to a full crowd, he was introduced to stage but not before a little joke, as The Gary Quinn band were set to play DMF 2014 but their van broke down… but not disappoint the band took to the stage and opened with a cover of Kenny Chesney’s ‘Beer In Mexico’ to which they got the crowd going and kept them entertained with an awesome set list! That included both covers and originals, one of my favourite Keith Urban tracks ‘Days Go By’ and a real pleasant surprise of Gregg Bates ‘ Fill In The Blanks’ such a great song. Quinn played a select few of his original songs from his self-titled album including http://www.garyjpquinn.co.uk/music ; ‘He Don’t Show Her Anymore’, ‘Dodge Your Bullet’ and ‘Watch You Leave’ and what a great response they all got, and rightfully so! It was a great addition to have included ‘Online’ by Brad Paisley where Luke Thomas (of duo Luke and Mel) showed off his impressive guitar skills, just incredible!

Sasha McVeigh played The Guildhall and The Masonic Hall hat day it was the second venue I caught her play and I have been lucky enough so see this talented young lady perform a few times this year and each and every time she seems to get better and better, which I did not know was at all possible, as she has such an incredible voice. With her Brand new album ‘I Stand Alone’ she’s fuelled and equip with brand new material to take to the USA where she will be playing some of the biggest festivals in country music… oh just to mention she also has a UK single ‘Someone To Break My Heart’ which is available to purchase, and if you like the sounds of that, well I guess you should just hit the ‘Pre-Order album’ button set for release 8th June. https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/someone-to-break-my-heart/id984048694

She performed ‘I stand Alone’ , a Zac Brown Band medley which I adore and of course my favourite ‘Mr Brown Eyes’ that takes some beating as far as song- writing stories go, and yet again performed to perfection, we certainly have some talented country folk here in the UK.

It was an outstanding Dart Music Festival for me, I thoroughly enjoyed it, I highly recommend checking out the website and seeing for yourself by travelling to our cute little town and joining in on the fun, surrounded by stunning views and hopefully lots of sunshine.

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Annette Gibbons
Hi, I’m Annette, I have been a huge country music fan since the early 90s those were the days we were lucky enough to have CMT in the UK. I enjoy nothing more than listening to country music whilst having a cold beer (or a moonshine) with friends. I try to as many gigs as I can here in the UK and in the USA; I think of Nashville as my second home and I am lucky to have made some amazing friends in Tennessee. Think Country is something I am very proud of, I just want to share my love and passion of all things country music related with you all.
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