The summer is still young, but the 21st Edition of the Clonakilty International Guitar Festival (September 17-21), already has the makings of a vintage year, combining an attractive mix of established talent with emerging artists. Giving a rare public performance is one-man supergroup Roy Harper, still hitting creative sixes at an age when most cricketers have left the crease. Americana/folk trio The Raines will bring their poignant songs and stirring harmonies, while veteran Kurdish singer and bouzouki player Mohammad Syfkhan’s transcendent virtuosity is another unmissable highlight. The trio of Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Dónal O’Connor and Gerry O’Beirne channel pure yearning musicality. One of the youngest musicians on the programme is Muireann Bradly, a gifted Donegal blueswoman for whom the word ‘prodigy’ is no stretch whatsoever. Dublin’s Macdara Yeates is a youthful folksinger of power, vulnerability, rawness and refinement. The Bog Jazz Duo create sonic landscapes of eerie beauty. Hussy Hicks are a rootsy, gutsy, saline duo from Australia. Irish three-piece Adore perform with superhuman mosh-pit energy, and Cork city’s very own Babyrat command stages with their own brand of caustic exuberance. Also confirmed for the 2025 edition are Paula Bilá, a truly exquisite performer from Spain; George Lowden, master luthier of Belfast; and Martin Leahy, multi-instrumentalist, singer and activist, and widely respected on the Irish music scene. Guitartown wouldn’t be Guitartown without John Spillane, Cork’s songwriter-laureate. This year His Spillanic Majesty will charm birds from the trees with The Band of Wrens.