Donegal Youth Service will host a Irish Youth Music Awards Prep gig in the Green Room Live at Voodoo Ink this Thursday April 12th.
Donegal Heat winner Apollo 6 will take to the stage alongside Dungloe’s Loose Bananas, Letterkenny’s The Capital, Jamaican Vampires and The Candela Ways from Ballybofey.
The gig is a fundraising night to help with the costs of bringing Apollo 6 and members of the other bands along to the Irish Youth Music Awards National Finals, which take place on April 28th, where Apollo 6 will peform one of their own songs, and an original track by regional heat runners up Loose Bananas.
Apollo 6 consist of Eilis Cusack (vocals), Ashley Kavanagh (guitar), Thomas McDaid (bass) Chris Cullinane (guitar) John O’Connell (drums).
They will now represent the county at the Irish Youth Music Awards National Final in Liberty Hall in Dublin on April 28th. This year saw over 30 young acts from across the county enter the competition, with 16 acts taking to the stage at the Regional Final on March 3rd.
The Irish Youth Music Awards, which is co-ordinated at local level by the Donegal Youth Service, is unique in that the regional final works off a principle where all the competing bands have one vote and they have to select who they think will represent the county best at national final. This is where the work really begins also however, as fellow bands are asked to work together to support the chosen act. If the Donegal act is successful in the national final all the local acts get to be part of a professionally recorded album in Dublin.
This is the 5th year of the Irish Youth Music Awards, with Donegal claiming the Paul Clancy Songwriting award in 2011, having previously won the overall award in 2008.
At the national final there is also the added bonus of all the bands learning a little bit more about the music industry and meeting representatives from the Irish music industry, and they are judged on all aspect of the Donegal team’s project, such as putting on preparation gigs, photography, styling and fundraising efforts to help bring the band and supporters to the national final.
The Prep Gig gets underway on Thursday April 12th at 7.45pm, with admission €5 at the door. This is a non-alcohol event.
The Irish Youth Music Awards are a Youth Work Ireland Initiative. For more information on the Irish Youth Music Awards Donegal Heat contact Letterkenny Youth Information Centre on 074-9129640.
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