I don’t know where you were on Saturday evening, but I was attending my first ever Bluegrass Concert. You are, as they say, never to old to learn something new. In this case I was actually learning something quite old. A style of music that goes back, as we shall find out later, to the 1940’s. None of the nine musicians playing in the two bands at Trinkpavillon this evening would have been alive when it was discovered I hasten to add – but clearly the members of Bluegrass Guerilla and The Villwock Brothers have taken Bluegrass Music to their hearts, and by evening’s end I had another musical rabbit hole to go down and lots of new songs and bands to discover.

This year sees the 20th Anniversary of the Rockpalast Crossroads Festival in Bonn. To celebrate it’s longer than ever this year, starting on Tuesday and rocking clean through to Saturday, so there should be something for every rock music fan in there. Tuesday’s openers Bywater Call were definitely a good reason for me to head down to the Harmonie, and I also had a niggling desire just to see how anyone could call themselves Eddie 9V. It turned out he was more than just a fun name.

A special guest from Huddersfield UK, Johnny Campbell, and a special event of a different nature were the defining features of Folk Club Bonn #139.  A pleasantly full house at Dotty’s in Dottendorf was there to enjoy a pleasantly varied collection of music and musicians – and that special event?  Read on…

Old Trees. Has Folk Club had that theme before? If not, it certainly should have. Many is the time now that John Harrison has been found standing under an old oak or a beleaguered birch extolling the virtues of the Green Man. No trees allowed inside Dotty’s of course but Bonn Tree Guardian (Baumwächter) Andreas Thieves was on hand to remind us what these tall and patient guardians of Nature do for us.

All good things etc… On Saturday evening it was time for the 2023 Stadtgarten Season to come to an end. The month has flown by and hopefully, there has been something for everyone, that’s always the aim of the Kulturamt der Stadt Bonn led by the tireless enthusiasm of Hans -Joachim Over oder ‘HaJo’ as everyone knows him. Today it was largely French Music Night with local band the Soline Ensemble and French Indie-Pop band The Rodeo, with a warm-up for everyone courtesy of the Bonn inclusion band Project Inclusion. Three bands then – and a 6:30 pm start to cram all the good music in.