Lennon Festival (original) (raw)

Lennon festival line-up announced

A remote Highland village has announced plans for a major festival in honour of murdered Beatle John Lennon.
Organisers said the three-day event in Durness would be one of the "most extraordinary" festivals to be staged in Scotland.

John Lennon spent five summers in the area while he was young, staying on a croft in Sango Bay with his cousin. The landscape is said to have inspired Lennon's song In My Life.

The festival plans include musical performances, poetry readings, film screenings and a dance event in a cave.

Organisers have announced that 1,100 tickets for the September festival will be released. The line-up includes the Royal Academy of Music who will perform a world premiere of a Beatles Prom. Also on the bill are Nizlopi whose JCB Song reached number one at Christmas. A dance event is to be held in Britain's largest sea cave, and the poets Carol Ann Duffy and Michael Horovitz are expected to take part. The Beatles connection is to be marked with screenings of the band's films and by family members talking about John Lennon's life.

The famous singer-songwriter's cousin Stan Parkes, 72, said Lennon would have been "delighted and surprised" to learn he had inspired such a festival in a place he loved so much.

Durness has a population of 350 and is one of the most remote villages on the British mainland.

© BBC