Universities Symposium

Saturday Jun 8th

The Universities Symposium

Westport Town Hall at 10am

Admission: FREE

As part of the festival’s flagship project - “The Universities Project”, we will hold a large educational and artistic symposium on the Saturday afternoon.

The symposium will be held and moderated by leading representatives of the ETSU, the University of Limerick, and Middle Tennessee State University. The symposium will take the form of a presentation in which the roots of bluegrass and old time music and their connection to Irish traditional music will be explored, promoted, and celebrated.

This symposium will also provide the ETSU band and students from the University of Limerick the opportunity to come together and play for the other attendees of the conference. This collaboration will serve as the essential element in demonstrating the deep connections between bluegrass, old time, and Irish traditional music, and will aim to promote the world of bluegrass and old time music to the younger generation, and to musicians of different genres and backgrounds.

This collaboration will also serve to enhance the diversity of the bluegrass world in creating such opportunities for young musicians to collaborate, learn from one another, and promote their talent at one of Europe’s leading bluegrass festivals.

This conference will be recorded professionally and is intended to be used as educational content and as a promotional device for the project and the connections of all 3 genres.