Umina band to play in blues festival

Umina band Slightly Off was selected as one of more than 25 acts to perform at the inaugural blues festival in Gosford, GosBlues 2016.

Slightly Off band-member, Mr Carl Desborough, said: "We are pleased to have been selected to perform at the inaugural GosBlues 2016.

"Having been very well received recently at Gulgong Folk Festival and now preparing for St Albans Folk Festival, this fits in perfectly with our program.

"What we have to offer is very different from every other act at GosBlues 2016 and we look forward to presenting that to locals and visitors alike.

"To be included among such a stellar line-up is a real thrill for us as it is often hardest to be noticed by locals."

Other GosBlues artists will include 2014 Australian Blues Singer of the Year, Sugarcane Collins, from far-north Queensland, Jesse Morris Band from Byron Bay, Greg Bowles from Western Australia, Frank Povah from Tasmania, and Phil and Trudy Edgeley from country-Victoria.

GosBlues 2016 will be a free, three-day event to be held across multiple venues in Gosford over the weekend of 19-21 February.

Central Coast Leagues Club, Hotel Gosford, Central Coast Hotel, West Gosford RSL, Gosford Golf Club and Reviver Bar are all hosting blues, jazz and roots artists from many parts of Australia.

Entry to all events is free but volunteer collectors will be seeking gold-coin donations for Coast Shelter.

Former Member for Gosford, Mr Chris Holstein, now working as a consultant for Coast Shelter, said: "This is a fantastic, free event for Gosford and I encourage everyone to come to Gosford throughout the weekend to enjoy the free entertainment.

"While you're there, think about those less fortunate than ourselves who are homeless and in need of assistance from Coast Shelter to keep them safe and give generously to our volunteers, who will be on hand at all venues."

Current Member for Gosford, Ms Kathy Smith has also offered support: "What a wonderful event this looks likely to be for the people of the Central Coast and beyond.

"It will be great to see hordes of people in the Gosford CBD throughout the weekend moving from venue to venue to see what the various artists have to offer."

A comprehensive programme of free one-hour workshops has been included as part of the festival.

All workshops will be held upstairs at Hotel Gosford and will include master-classes on such things as playing a saw, gypsy-jazz accompaniment, blues harmonica, slide guitar, backing-singing for blues, and finger-picking guitar.

Workshops will commence at 12pm on the Saturday and Sunday.

For more information visit www.GosBlues.com, or find the festival on Facebook under GosBlues Festival.

Media release, 4 Feb 2016

Cec Bucello, GosBlues 2016