Ards Guitar Festival: Jimmy Page's daughter hopes portrait 'hits right note'
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme, she said that exhibiting her work at Ards Art Centre was a "great opportunity to mark 10 years, and get to come over and spend time in Belfast with family".As Scarlet says, "it totally made sense to have it displayed at the festival".That's because Newtownards, in County Down, has a long-standing association with the guitar.A factory in the town which made the instrument inspired the beginning of the Ards International Guitar Festival almost 30 years ago.
'It's something to celebrate'
Emily Crawford has been the director of the festival for the past 19 years."Not everybody knows that there is a guitar factory in Newtownards," she told BBC News NI."Going back 30 years ago, it was the Lowden guitar factory, it was later taken over by Avalon which is still there today."Then, it was a real cultural and economic driver to have the festival and let people know Newtownards was somewhere that world class guitars are made, and still are today. "It's something to celebrate."
Emily says the festival gives local musicians opportunities to share a stage with international artists."We're not Belfast or Dublin, so it can be difficult to convince an audience to come to Newtownards rather than go to Belfast, but we have such a wealth of talent right here on our doorstep," she said.Being able to bring musicians such as Ricky Warwick, of Thin Lizzy, back home to Newtownards is "inspiring", she added."It shows people insight into a local boy who's made it on a an international stage," she added.
Blues music
Tom Adair has been a big fan of the festival's events over the years."I'm a big blues music man, I was brought up listening to that music," he told BBC News NI."It's been great to be able to go down the Arts Centre when it's on and see some fantastic blues artists that are both local and international, and have them on our doorstep."
As the owner of The Ivy Bar, Ian Falls hosts some of the festival's events in his pub. He said it is "well loved" by his customers. "We've always had live music in the pub, and when the guitar festival started almost 30 years ago we were more than happy to host," he said."We get families coming, old faces, new faces. It's so great for the community to just get together and appreciate great music and fantastic guitarists."
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