Jersey’s newest music festival confirms its first headliner, 6 times Grammy Award winner - VAN MORRISON
iFOLKLORE is the latest addition to Jersey’s event calendar, and plans are now well underway for a festival that will be unlike anything ever staged on the Island. With a capacity of just 5,000 attendees per day, alternative live music, comedy, theatre, poetry and film will take place across two stages at Peoples Park in Jersey on the weekend of June 30th and July 1st.
Following the recent announcement that 3- times Grammy-nominated artist Joan Armatrading will perform at the inaugural festival, the organisers are pleased to announce that they have confirmed the first of Folklore’s two Main Stage headliners. Topping the bill on Saturday 30th June is one of pop’s most legendary performers, Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison.
The winner of six Grammy Awards and an inductee to both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Van Morrison OBE (real name George Ivan Morrison) is without doubt one of rock n’ roll’s most enduringly loved songwriters, with hits such as the immortal ‘Brown Eyed Girl’, ‘Sweet Thing’, ‘Domino’ and ‘Madame George’, an integral part of the soundtrack to the 60’s and 70’s. Having recorded a mammoth 33 studio albums since his debut in 1967 (including 1968’s seminal Astral Weeks, considered his masterpiece), he’s one of the most prolific recording artists of all time. As well as the aforementioned Grammy Awards, he has also picked up a Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music (1994), an Ivor Novello, a place on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was ranked 24th in Rolling Stone’s magazine’s 2008 list of 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.’ In 2002, he was even bestowed with the honour of being featured on an Irish postal stamp. In short, he has the full package: a back catalogue matched by few, accolades matched by even fewer, and critical and commercial successes in equal abundance.
An elusive character, often considered introverted, reclusive even, he’s let his music do the talking over the years, and with one of the most distinctive singing voices (one which led influential American critic Greil Marcus to say “Morrison may have the richest and most expressive voice pop music has produced since Elvis Presley”), he’s an artist in the truest sense of the word.
With such a long and illustrious career to boast of, it’s with the utmost pride that Folklore welcomes Van Morrison to Jersey to headline our very first festival.
Warren Holt, Director
“We feel truly honored to be hosting Van Morrison for the launch of Folklore. To have booked not just one of the most prolific international artists ever, but someone with such a huge repertoire of classic rock and roll songs to headline the Saturday night of the festival, is a major coup for Folklore and for the Island. Personally, I can’t wait for the moment to hear 5,000 happy festival attendees singing along to ‘Brown Eyed Girl’, ‘Moondance’ or ‘Gloria’; the list is endless. It will be a once in a lifetime moment for everyone there, an historical occasion and something that they will remember for the rest of their lives.”
Warren Le Sueur, Director
“With two legends in Van Morrison and Joan Armatrading already booked to perform, we envisage Folklore becoming an important new festival internationally. We expect a considerable number of attendees to travel from Guernsey, the UK and France – creating an important event-led tourism opportunity for the Island, at a key time when the Island needs to develop new economic activity. We will be making further exciting line up and event announcements shortly – watch this space!”
Published on 23 February 2012 by Wayne Feltham
