Limavady’s Stendhal Festival of Art rolls around for another year this Friday for two days of music, arts and family fun. Every year the festival is packed full of local artists who make up the bulk of the weekend’s entertainment. Our own Kickstart competition winners play a slot at the festival including In An Instant and Lauren Bird in recent years. This year Brand New Friend won the honour and will feature on the festival main stage on Saturday afternoon. In the run up to the festival we like to highlight some of top picks to check out and we thought who better to ask than our winners themselves.
► Taylor Johnson: My family have been coming to Stendhal for the last couple of years and we’ve shared some very special moments in these fields, watching some brilliant bands! As always the line-up looks amazing this year, but if I had to pick one act I’m most looking forward to it would be Jealous of the Birds. Naomi embodies the spirit of Woodstock, she’s made for festivals and her album is beautiful!
► Fionn Crossan: I’m looking forward to Ryan Vail at Stendhal. His use of electronics has always intrigued me and having never seen him live I’m really curious to see how it translates from studio recordings to performance.
► Darren Hill: I’m really looking forward to seeing Joshua Burnside, I’ve seen him on a good few occasions and he seems to add something new and exciting to his live show every time!
► Lauren Johnson: I’m really looking forward to seeing Jessica Doherty. I’ve seen her live only once, as part of Chordblossom’ Christmas gig for the NI Children’s Hospice, and I was totally captivated by her voice. I can’t wait to see how her set has evolved and hopefully hear some new material!
You can catch Brand New Friend at Stendhal at 12pm Saturday 13th August on the main stage. Tickets for the festival are still available from their website.
