Thursday night acts announced and final prep underway at Stendhal Festival

The 2018 Stendhal Festival takes place at Ballymully Cottage Farm on August 9,10 and 11 and with the countdown to opening well and truly on, organisers have announced the acts set to take the stage on their first ever Thursday night.

Opening the festival this year will be No Oil Paintings, The Henry Girls and Trucker Diablo.

The three acts will take to the Stevie Martin stage, while the Foyle Film Festival will also be screening Easy Rider and a documentary on Woodstock Festival in our Circus tent.

Festival Director Ross Parkhill said: “We are really excited about opening for an extra night this year and really pleased with how the line-up for Thursday came together.

“All three musical acts are excellent in their genres and the film screenings by Foyle Film Festival will help add to the chilled out and relaxing atmosphere we hope will develop on the Thursday night.”

Ross added: “With about a week to go until show time, we are all hands to the pumps up at the farm but everything is coming together really nicely. We have focused a lot on improvements this year as opposed to a lot of new development so the site is in great shape.

“There are of course a few new developments this year, in particular we can’t wait for people to enjoy the new audience area at the Henry McCullough Stage.”

With 8000 people expected over the weekend, this will mark the largest ever crowd Stendhal will have ever drawn.

“It’s Hard to believe that we are eight years in now, said Ross. “In 2011 we had around 800 folk here and this year we are prepping for 8000.

“Looking back at photos from 2011 and comparing them to last year, it really is a great indicator of just how much progress we have made over the years.

“The growth is down to an incredible desire amongst our team to bring something very special to Limavady and now Northern Ireland. We all worked on a 100% voluntary basis for the first 6 years and since then we have been able to create a few full time and seasonal jobs with an eye on creating more going forward.

Ross concluded: “It took us a long time to be able to say we achieved our first goals with the festival but we are there now and hopefully we can sustain a good level of growth over the next five to ten years.”