11 of the best up coming acts from all over Cork and beyond will be performing at different times in the bars and hostelries of the town – everything from funky Traditional to groovy Country and good old fashioned Rock’n'Roll will have the town buzzing for the whole weekend.

Acts include The Céilí All Stars, Toy Soldier, The Taxmen, Stuart Wilde and Slow Motion Heroes to name but a few. So make sure you check out the fantastic pre-festival buzz in the town on Friday night or chill out on the Sunday with laid back music and sizzling summer barbeques.

Full details of this event are available on the website www.corkxsw.com, the box office in Skibbereen or look for the leaflets and posters in participating outlets in the town.

“Master Cooney restores the ancient link between lyre and lyric, betweenpoetry and performance, the rhapsody and rascality”. Seamus Heaney

	Steve Cooney was born in Australia in 1953, and came to Ireland in 1980. Steve has had a long association with Canon Goodman’s music and is one of Ireland’s leading authorities on the subject. In 1993 he performed (with Odhrán Ó Casaide) a concert of Goodman pieces to mark the opening of the Great Blasket centre in Dunquin, the first time those tunes were heard publicly in Goodman’s native West Kerry in over 100 years. In 2000 he recorded a selection of them for ‘Scéilín Ó Bhéilín’, an educational Irish language CD for schoolchildren.
	Máirtín O’Connor is regarded as one of Ireland’s best musicians. Accordionist with such stellar groups like De Dannan, Midnight Well and The Boys of the Lough, his infectious and irresistible style has kept him very busy not only with live concerts but also as a session musician on recordings by many national and international musicians including Rod Stewart, Elvis Costello, Mark Knopfler, Tanita Tikaram, Townes Van Zandt, ‘The Chieftains’, ‘The Dubliners’, Davy Spillane, Maire Brennan and ‘The Waterboys’.
	Seosaimhín Ní Bheaglaoich is a member of the famous musical family from West Kerry. She lectures in Traditional singing in DIT Conservatory of Music and is a well-known broadcaster with RTÉ Radio na Gaeltachta. In 2008 she released a solo album called Under The Sun/’Taobh na Gréine which was produced by Donal Lunny. During tonight’s show she will be singing some of the songs associated with Canon Goodman.
	Catriona McKay (Scottish harp) and Chris Stout (Shetland fiddle) have gigged together for 15 years now and continue to evolve and create a sound and style “Operating at a rarefied level of expertise.” (‘The Herald’). “Sensual, throaty fi ddle alines… the harp is deliciously angular and haughty.” (‘Irish Times’)