Shropshire's Big Weekend anniversary music festival to star US foursome
Shropshire’s Big Weekend summer music festival is to bring a foursome of top US musicians to the county as it celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.
The North Shropshire Big Weekend features the music and culture of Louisiana bringing the very best US performers to play alongside UK and European musicians. It will be held from August 11 to 13 in Welshampton, near Ellesmere.
This year’s festival has won sponsorship from Louisiana organisation Lafayette Travel making it possible to expand its US line-up to include four top American performers.
It means that the 2023 headliners will feature two of the most sought after young Cajun players in Louisiana - fiddle virtuoso Cameron Fontenot and accordion maestro Austin Monceaux.
They will be joined by Grammy-nominated Corey Ledet who has travelled the world with his innovative style of Zydeco accordion plus Latasha Covington of New Orleans who has played rubboard with many of the legendary Creole and Zydeco artists.
The four American performers will be backed by a UK line-up of some of the country’s top musicians featuring swing, jive and blues alongside Cajun and Zydeco sounds.
Weekend tickets are selling out quickly for the festival with only a few discounted Tier 2 tickets remaining. Individual event tickets will go on sale in May. Ticket information is available at www.the-bigweekend.co.uk.
Creative director, Gavin Lewery, said he wanted to thank Lafayette Travel as well as Travel and Tourism Marketing Ltd who helped to organise the sponsorship deal.
“We were always planning to make our tenth Big Weekend something special but the Lafayette Travel sponsorship has given us the opportunity to really boost our US line-up and bring some amazing sounds and talent to our festival-goers,” he said.
The three day festival also includes dance and instrument workshops, authentic street food, music sessions in the village pub plus its own festival campsite.
