Billy Kennedy: Top line-up at weekend of Bluegrass music at the Ulster-American Folk Park

​With this most popular event spread over four days from today into bank holiday Monday and the weather set to remain good, folk park staff are preparing for a huge influx of bluegrass fans, from across Northern Ireland, other parts of the United Kingdom, the Republic, and even mainland Europe.

The Omagh festival is now in its 32nd year, with many of America's leading Bluegrass musicians in past years. gracing the many stages located through the picturesque West Tyrone venue.

The North American artistes taking part this year include the Honey Dew Drops from Baltimore, Maryland and Zoe and Cloyd from Asheville in mountainous north Carolina.

They will be joined by Viper Central, from Vancoucer in Canada; the Truffle Valley Boys, from Italy; the Bluegrass Boogiemen from Holland, the Old Baby Mackeral group from England, and the Niall Toner band from Co Carlow.

The festival opens tonight (Friday) with a concert in the Silverbirch hotel in Omagh, with all of the main artistes taking part.

The main compere for the festival will again be Frank Galligan, the Donegal-based television and radio presenter.

Americans Kagey Parrish and Laura Wortman, of the Honey Dew Drops, are a husband and wife couple who perform fresh original songs on vocal harmonies and tight instrumentalism. They are influenced by traditional Appalachian music and blend old styles with new, creating music that is both powerful and heartfelt.

Canadian group Viper Central are a dynamic musically energetic band, with a traditional Bluegrass sound. They have a high reputation at the major bluegrass festivals in Western Canada and have toured abroad in the UK and mainland Europe.

Husband and wife John Cloyd Miller and Natalya Zoe Weinstein teach bluegrass and old-tyme music and American roots music in North Carolina. John Cloyd Miller is of 12th generation Scots-Irish North Carolina family and grandson of pioneering bluegrass fiddler Jim Shuemate.

The Omagh festival, largely due to the efforts over the years of park director Scotsman Richard Hurst, has enjoyed much acclaim internationally over three decades, including the International Bluegrass Music Association award 'Event of the year' nomination in 2015.

American Bluegrass icons who have appeared at the Omagh festival in past years include Dale Anne Bradley and her band; Claire Lynch and her band; Doyle Lawson and his Quick Silver band; Jamie Dailey and Darin Vincent, brother of Bluegrass icon Rhonda Vincent; The Grascals, from Nashville; blind fiddler Michael Clevelend, from New York, and Darin and Brooke Aldridge, a husband and wife duo from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Northern Ireland performers on the bill will include Woodbine, from the Irish Republic; Cup'O Joe, from Co Armagh; Knotty String Band, from Co Tyrone; and Eilidh Patterson, from Derry. There are also 'pick ‘n bow ‘n strum ‘n sing events, titled the the Geordie McAdam Open Mic Sessions - in memory of one of the finest old-tyme fiddlers in Northern Ireland, Shankill Road man - the late Geordie McAdam.

Niall Toner will take the lead at 'McConversations' question and answer sessions, on the history and musical rudiments of American (Appalachian) music. Niall is widely regarded as one of Ireland's leading experts on Bluegrass and American country music and will delve into his years of experience on the musical road, with a song or two thrown in

* Tickets for the festival are available to book at ulsteramericanfolkpark.org