Dunbar Music Festival 2023
Friday 22 to Sunday 24 September 2023
40 free gigs in 16 venues across town, plus a local youth bands showcase
Headliners
Gruff Rhys, plus Pocket Monica - Friday 22 September
Callum Easter and the Roulettes, plus Eyes of Others - Saturday 23 September
Gruff Rhys
Gruff Rhys is a songwriter, producer and BAFTA-winning storyteller, formerly most well known as the frontman of Super Furry Animals.
He'd recorded seven solo albums by 2023, with his most recent - Top Ten charting Seeking New Gods - his most critically and commercially successful yet.
Pocket Monica returned to Dunbar as winners of the Best Newcomer prize at the 2022 Scottish Alternative Music Awards. Their opening set was a heady mix of live instrumentation and electronic beat manipulation, melding Middle-Eastern and Celtic influenced sounds with deep female vocals and dirty beats.
Callum Easter
& the Roulettes
Callum Easter played to an ecstatic hometown crowd with a new line-up, on the back of the release of his second album in late 2022.
Fresh from appearing at Glastonbury and touring Europe and the United States with Young Fathers and Depeche Mode, we were thrilled to welcome him back to Dunbar.
Eyes of Others is the studio alias of Edinburgh based John Bryden, a self-christened ‘post-pub couldn’t get in the club’ producer. As the evening’s opening act, we were treated to beautiful, drifting melodies, cool grooves, and pretty playful words. His debut album had recently been released on Heavenly.
Free Gigs & Events Across Town
We presented 40 free gigs across 16 local venues throughout the festival weekend.
The programme presented well-established acts as well as up-and-coming local talent, across a wide range of musical styles including trad, jazz, blues, folk and rock.
Highlights include:
Family friendly open-air gigs at Lauderdale Park
Scots/Irish Trad open invite session
Psychedelic Peruvian Cumbia
A 20+ piece brass and drums ensemble
An afternoon of jazz
Our local ukulele orchestra
Our Youth Showcase in collaboration with East Lothian Council’s ELjam initiative showcased seven of the best high school bands from across the county.
This free event took place Saturday afternoon in the Parish Hall, using the same professional stage, sound and lights set up as our headliners.
Around 100 high school students, their parent and supporters rocked the Parish Hall for 4 hours ahead of our Saturday night headline show.
One of the acts was subsequently selected for a Scotland-wide showcase tour in early 2024.
