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home » festivals » London Feis » London Feis 2011
Dylan is on fine form on the opening day of the FeisLondon Feis 2011 reviewWednesday 29th June 2011 The inaugural London Feis (pronounced "Fesh" and translated as a traditional Gaelic arts and culture festival) takes place in Finsbury Park. Really a continuation of the Fleadh festival which was also run by Vince Power and held in the same location from 1990 – 2004, with a break in 2003. Feis is billed as a "21st anniversary" celebration as it's 21 years since the first Fleadh. It's a showcase for Irish music, with some international acts thrown in to the mix, and quite a few stalwarts from the days of the Fleadh are on the listings for this weekend. Initially it was to be a one-day festival on the Saturday with Dylan headlining, then the Sunday was added with Van Morrison topping the bill, a double coup. Tickets are quite pricey at £70 for the day, although there was a deal for buying tickets for both days, and there were rumours of some websites selling the day tickets for a fiver to bump up numbers after slow sales.
Stage 3 is hindered by being outdoor and at the approach, just in front of the food stalls which range around the arena, the sound from Main Stage clashes horribly with it. Bipolar Empire can just about hold their own due to their heavy sound.
The Waterboys follow to play us "English, Scottish, Irish and Cornish rock and roll". Their sound is certainly Celtic in feel, with harmonicas, jangling acoustic guitars and Steve Wickham's awesome fiddle playing, and in the way their music evokes sweeping landscapes and speaks of spirituality. Highlights include a pedal-steel enhanced 'And a Bang on the Ear', 'Be My Enemy', 'Raggle Taggle Gypsy', the sublime 'Fisherman's Blues' and their crowd-pleasing anthem 'The Whole of the Moon'. They play a couple of covers – a brave cover of Dylan's 'You're a Big Girl Now' and Frank Wilson's 'Do I Love You', with frontman Mike Scott claiming he's a Northern Soul aficionado.
By now the whole park is heaving, every inch of grass and walkway taken up so it's very difficult just to walk from one stage to another (goodness knows how wheelchair users are managing), there are queues at all the food vans and bloomin' scarily long queues for the toilets, and inevitably blokes peeing against the fence panels, even behind the ice cream van next to Main Stage, eugh!
Then' it's the moment we've all been waiting for and the reason Finsbury Park is heaving - the legend and icon, Bob Dylan, who turned 70 in May, takes to the stage. Feis is his only confirmed UK appearance this year, and he made his only UK appearance in 2010 at Vince Power's Hop Farm Festival. I last saw him play in 2003 when he rushed through the songs in his set, and with his indistinct vocals rendered them all barely recognisable. Thankfully, he's on fine form tonight, playing guitar and keys and bursts of harmonica, and his band are excellent. His voice is gravelly and raspy, but we can hear the lyrics which is the important thing. We're treated to an hour and a half long set which includes classics like 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue', 'Tangled Up in Blue' and 'Highway 61 Revisited', some boogie-woogie and dancing (the crowd not Dylan) for 'Summer Days', and a three-song encore of 'Like A Rolling Stone' with the audience singing "how does it feel?", 'All Along the Watchtower' and 'Blowing in the Wind'. Dylan has barely spoken to the audience apart from to introduce the band towards the end but he doesn't really need to, his back catalogue speaks volumes for itself. Dylan Set List Gonna Change My Way of Thinking It's All Over Now, Baby Blue Things Have Changed Tangled Up in Blue Summer Days Simple Twist of Fate Cold Irons Bound A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall Highway 61 Revisited Forgetful Heart Thunder on the Mountain Ballad of a Thin Man *** Like A Rolling Stone All Along the Watchtower Blowing in the Wind review by Helen OSullivan photos by Laura Bradley 
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