VIA PRESS RELEASE | Virtual music festival Follow The Light will air online on Saturday, August 29, 2020 at 5PM EDT (10pm Irish Standard Time). Produced by We Banjo 3 as an ode to the band’s Irish heritage, the evening will feature musical performances by WB3, Gaelic Storm, Sharon Shannon, Nathan Carter and The East Pointers, with non-music festival features throughout the program. General Admission Tickets, Artist Meet & Greets Upgrades, and Festival Ticket/Exclusive Merch bundles are available now.
Harnessing the unique potential of the shared live music experience in a virtual setting, Follow The Light brings artists and fans together for an entertaining, engaging and authentic celebration of community. Hosted with We Banjo 3’s signature heart and humor, the immersive live event weaves in musical performances, set break game shows, green room artist interviews, coffee and booze drink specials at the bar, live fan voting, VIP meet & greets, and more.
About We Banjo 3 | Debuting in the U.S. in 2012, Billboard Bluegrass chart-toppers We Banjo 3 have since fine-tuned their knack for seamlessly converging the shared and varied traditions of Americana, Bluegrass, and Celtic music with pop-sensible songcraft to create a truly unique and gratifying signature sound. The Galway, Ireland, and Nashville-based quartet––comprised of two sets of brothers, Enda & Fergal Scahill and Martin & David Howley––continually push musical boundaries while maintaining an un-wavering devotion to the essential audience experience.
With regular touring currently on pause, WB3 has deep-dived into exploring alternatives to physically taking the stage. Connecting with fans through various online performances, fan Q&A’s, live interviews, poetry and book excerpt readings, general banter about topics of interest, and more, WB3 has taken a personalized approach to creating fan experiences. Now, with Follow The Light, the foursome will wield their infectious energy to present an even more immersive experience that sheds light to the rich Irish culture that WB3 was founded upon.
About Gaelic Storm | After two decades and over 2000 shows, this multi-national, Celtic juggernaut is a true force to be reckoned with. Gaelic Storm kicked off its career as a pub band in Santa Monica, California in the mid-1990s, but by the end of the decade, the musicians had appeared in the blockbuster film Titanic (where they performed “Irish Party in Third Class”). This laid the groundwork for a career that would eventually find them topping the Billboard World Chart six times, making appearances at mainstream music festivals, and regularly headlining the largest Irish Festivals across the country, all the while gaining a reputation as a genre-bending Irish rock band, whose songs mix Celtic traditions with something uniquely creative.
Gaelic Storm’s most recent album release Go Climb a Tree, (out July, 2017) has everything their fanatic audiences adores about the band —party drinking songs (“The Beer Song”), patriotic anthems (“Green, White and Orange”), beautiful folk songs (“Monday Morning Girl”), spritely instrumentals “”The Night of Tomfoolery”), perfectly poppy songs (“Shine On”), and even a raucous pirate song (“Shanghai Kelly”).
About Sharon Shannon | Sharon Shannon is an accordionist from Ireland known for her arrangements of traditional Irish tunes and Irish-influenced compositions. Renowned for her collaborations, Sharon has recorded and toured with the who’s who of the Irish and Global Music Industry, including Bono, Adam Clayton, Sinead O’Connor, Jackson Brown, John Prine, Steve Earle, The RTE Concert Orchestra, The Chieftains, The Waterboys, Willie Nelson, Nigel Kennedy, Alison Krauss and Shane MacGowan. She has entertained US presidents Clinton and Obama at the White House and in Dublin respectively, and Irish presidents Robinson and MacAleese. The genre defying star has had multi-platinum album sales and has had several number one albums, singles, and DVDs in her home country.
About Nathan Carter | Nathan Carter is a sensation! In Ireland he outsold One Direction, Pharrell Williams and Michael Buble, and became the first country act to reach number one in the Irish charts in 2013 after Garth Brooks, six years before. He is an exciting feature on the UK Country scene, and once again tops the Irish charts with his fifth album ‘Where I Wanna Be’ which features his unique blend of Celtic, country and pop! Not bad for the cherubic former head choir boy who sang for Pope John Paul ll in Rome.
About The East Pointers | The East Pointers have spent the last five years touring Canada, the US, Japan, Europe, the UK, Mexico, and Australia in support of their JUNO Award-winning debut album, Secret Victory and JUNO-nominated sophomore album, What We Leave Behind. Redefining the ever-evolving genre – modern folk – with Billboard-worthy pop hooks, deep acoustic groove, trance-like trad breakdowns and three-part harmonies, Tim Chaisson (vocals/fiddle/percussion), Koady Chaisson (banjo/tenor guitar/moog) and Jake Charron (guitar/keyboards), already internationally acknowledged as musical trailblazers, capture the furious energy of their live shows and push the boundaries of East Coast folk while lighting a path for a new generation of music lovers. Their newest album, Yours To Break was released in October 2019.
