IRISH band The Eskies have included the Port Fairy Folk Festival on their inaugural Australian tour.
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The band have some big festival experience, having played at the Glastonbury Festival in the UK.
From Dublin, the five-piece band describes its genre as “sea soaked gypsy rock”.
The Irish World newspaper proclaimed The Eskies as the Dubliners for the internet generation.
The Eskies released their debut album, After the Sherry Went Round, in 2015, and followed with their second offering, And Don’t Spare the Horses, late last year.
They will play four shows in Port Fairy, these include Saturday performances on stage two and stage one, at the Shebeen on the Sunday and back there again on the Monday. The Folkie will be The Eskies final shows on a tour that begins in New South Wales in late February.
The Eskies are part of a strong contingent of Irish performers coming to the Folkie.
Andy Irvine, who is an established solo act as well as having played with a number of Irish groups, including Planxty, will form a duo with Australia’s Luke Plumb for the festival.
He will form the Irish part of the Exile – Songs and Tales of Irish Australia, along with John Spillane, Pauline Scanlon and John McSherry.
Killarney singer-songwriter Shane Howard is the creative director for the Exile show while Koroit Lake School tutor Ewen Baker is the musical director.
Other Lake School regulars including Paddy Fitzgerald and Jack Brennan will also be part of the show, as will Warrnambool musician John Hudson.
Exile will be performed twice at the festival, the first on stage one on the Friday night and on stage three on Saturday night.
Performer times have been released with all music acts playing multiple shows.
Some of the headline acts for the festival include the Black Sorrows, Archie Roach, Tex, Don and Charlie, Mental as Anything, Jordie Lane & the Sleepers, the Twin Topps, All Our Exes Live In Texas and Jeff Lang.
Renowned academic Geoffrey Robertson is also on the bill. He will present a show on the Saturday afternoon of the festival in stage three.
Tickets for the festival, to be held on the weekend of March 9-12, are still available but selling fast.