Having played Glastonbury last year with Hothouse Flowers, Clare Sands will return to Somerset this month to play a headline solo-set when she opens the acoustic stage on Saturday, June 24.
Bill BrowneCorkman
CORK singer / songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Clare Sands has been unveiled as the opening Saturday act on the acoustic stage at this month’s Glastonbury Festival.
It has been a busy couple of years for the Whitechurch musician, who in 2021 collaborated with Susan O’Neill, Steve Cooney, Tommy Sands, Brídín and Liam Ó Maomnlaí on the ‘Tírdhreacha agus Fuaimdhreacha’ EP, which was described by the BBCs Folk Show as being ‘Hypnotic, tribal and fill of life’.
Last year saw the release of her highly anticipated self-titled album, which was included in the Irish Times Top 5 Folk Albums of 2022 and earned her a ‘Best Folk Singer’ nomination in the Irish Folk Awards. The album spawned the single ‘Sail On’, which topped the charts and featured on Spotfiy’s ‘A Breath of Fresh Éire’ playlist.
In between, Sands maintained a busy touring schedule playing venues across Ireland, Europe and the US, as well as making her Glastonbury debut for an electric set alongside her musical soul brothers Hothouse Flowers.
This year will see her play a headline set on the legendary Somerset festivals acoustic stage, which will also see performances over the weekend by a host of famous names including Steve Earle Gavin James, Paul Carrick, Rickie Lee Jones, The Mary Wallopers, Newton Faulkner and Glen Hansard.
Other upcoming festival appearances will include the Stendhal Festival, Cambridge Folk Fest, Belfast Trad Fest and closer to home the Cork Summer Show and Tracton Arts Festival.
Clare Sands latest studio project, Gormacha, is a four-track EP of carefully macaronic songs in Irish and English to be released throughout this year.
The next release, Dealán Dé featuring Brian Finnegan (Flook) will be released on June 14.