It is with great sadness that I inform our regular festival goers of the sudden death of my festival co-organiser, Marc Sheehan.

Marc, pictured here acting as roadie to The Midden, played a fundamental role in the re-establishment of the Folk Festival in 2005 and was pivotal to its success since. Over the years we have striven to raise funds to get the best young bands to our bijou festival here in the Port. That was only half the challenge - the other half was fulfilling their sound requirements. Marc proved that he was more than up to that challenge. Over the years he did the sound for Grada, Anna Massie, The Midden, Bodega, Clair Mann to mention but a few. His talent was, unknowingly, appreciated by many and his gift to the community will be sadly missed.

Marc’s life was celebrated with a humanist ceremony at the family house in Portpatrick on 9th April. Condolences are still being passed to his wife Julie and his wee daughter, Emily.

With such a small organising team you can imagine that it has taken a bit of time to get the wind back in our sails so we apologise for the lateness of information this year. Fear not, however, we shall be carrying on the festival, in Marc’s name, if nothing else and we hope to see you all again this September.

Harry Harbottle

Marc Sheehan 1962-2010

3,4 & 5th of September 2010