Maiden City Festival

The sixth annual Maiden City Festival in Londonderry begins today (Saturday 2) and promises to be even bigger and better than previous years.

This year's event aims to build on the success of previous years and to attract even more people from the city to the events and to bring in even more visitors from beyond the North West.

The Festival is the premier celebration of diversity in Ulster, a tribute to the Apprentice Boys of Derry and to the communities of Londonderry city in the way in which the Festival has been embraced as a flagship that genuinely promotes the Maiden City.

Although the main highlights of the week are the commemorative events staged by the Apprentice Boys of Derry Association, the festival has a strong Ulster-Scots flavour as well.

The W.F. Marshall Summer School is in its third year; this includes a lecture, poetry, music and dance that spans for five days.

Tonight's 'Bluegrass on the Walls' concert is a popular event that takes music to the walls of the city. The bands all play music that once departed the shores of Ulster.

Also today will run the 'Ulster Rhythms' pipe, drum and dance workshops at Magee College.

'The Siege of Derry' poem by Cecil Francis Alexander has been revived and reprinted by The Institute of Ulster-Scots Studies at Magee University. Its launch will be held at The Verbal Arts Centre, 7.30 pm on Monday.

The Scottish Fiddle Orchestra is also on show, playing at the Millennium Theatre, Londonderry on Wednesday August 6.  Also on Wednesday evening will be the Highland Gathering at Memorial Hall featuring a highland dance competition in the afternoon and fling in the evening.

The Ulster-Scots Agency and other organisations jointly fund the event.