Bowness ready for blues festival (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Bowness ready for blues festival

8:00pm Wednesday 20th March 2013 in News By Daniel Orr, Reporter

BOWNESS is all set to be taken over by the sound of blues and R’n’B this weekend.

The Bowness Bay Blues weekend is back in style with a host of great names from the local area and beyond.

The second festival all kicks off tomorrow (Friday) and runs until Sunday across eight venues, the Hydro, Burn How, Burnside and Stags Head hotels, plus the Ship Inn, Quayside, Wheelhouse, Ruskins, Hole In t’Wall and Lake District Boat Club.

The line-up is jam-packed with music, with tomorrow night’s proceedings kicked off by The Deluxe, who will showcase their edgy take on the blues, and also perform on Saturday afternoon.

The Ben Poole Band, led by one of the country’s best young blues rock guitarists, headline the first day.

Saturday’s bill features versatile Cumbrian guitarist Buzz Elliot, at the Quayside from midday, before sets from the likes of Stark, Secure Unit, and Tin Pan Alley.

John O’Leary’s Sugarkane will play a potent mix of blues, jazz, funk and rock when they headline on Saturday night On the final day, Dan Burnett, Fuschi 4, Snakewater, Magic Dragons, and Bullfrogs all perform before Grainne Duffy, whose smoky, soulful voice has been compared to Bonnie Raitt and Joss Stone, closes the festival, backed ably by her talented band.

Eighteen-year-old Endmoor singer-songwriter Evie Plumb will be there, as will The Elderly Brothers, who hail from Windermere, Ambleside and Bowness.

Profits from the festival, organised by the Rotary Club of Windermere, go to local charities. For more details and tickets, visit www.bownessbay blues.co.uk or call 015394 43721.