Shropshire's Big Weekend anniversary music festival will hit the right notes

The North Shropshire Big Weekend features the music and culture of Louisiana bringing the very best US performers to play alongside UK and European musicians.

It will be held from August 11 to 13 in Welshampton, near Ellesmere.

This year’s festival has won sponsorship from Louisiana organisation Lafayette Travel making it possible to expand its US line-up to include four top American performers.

It means that the 2023 headliners will feature two of the most sought after young Cajun players in Louisiana – fiddle virtuoso Cameron Fontenot and accordion maestro Austin Monceaux.

They will be joined by Grammy-nominated Corey Ledet who has travelled the world with his innovative style of Zydeco accordion plus Latasha Covington of New Orleans who has played rubboard with many of the legendary Creole and Zydeco artists.

The four American performers will be backed by a UK line-up of some of the country’s top musicians featuring swing, jive and blues alongside Cajun and Zydeco sounds.

Weekend tickets are already selling out quickly for the festival and now individual event and day tickets have gone on sale.

They range from £40 for a Saturday full day pass to £17 for afternoon tickets. Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening tickets cost £22, £25 and £20.

Creative director, Gavin Lewery, said the festival team was keen to make the event as accessible as possible to local music fans.

“The festival is popular with people across the UK but we want to make sure that Shropshire people have the chance to dip into our fantastic 10th anniversary line-up as well without having to go to the expense of a weekend ticket,” he said.

Full information on the line-up for each day and on how to buy tickets is available at www.the-bigweekend.co.uk

The three day festival also includes dance and instrument