'Frailer now in body, but not in spirit, we take two days up by train, and a more leisurely trip back, to attend an event which has grown to become a prestigious landmark event in the Blues calendar. Hard work and dedicated devotion from Nick and his team, friendly and hospitable hotel staff, catering for our special needs make this lovely little festival a real pleasure to attend. Little in actual dimensions, maybe, but certainly not in terms of musical magic' - RC

From a humble beginning in 2007 the Carlisle Festival has grown rapidly and is now firmly established as one of the major events in the UK Blues calendar. This intimate and friendly festival has built its reputation on the strength of its line up which just gets better and better by the year.

The superbly organised event is now one of the first entries in many blues enthusiasts’ diaries and such is the growing popularity that people are now travelling from as far as Devon in the South, Inverness in the North and everywhere in between. Even more impressive is the list of visitors from Holland, Denmark, France, Ireland and Luxembourg.

2011 will be the first significant chronological milestone for the festival as it will be celebrating its 5th year. The line up for the anniversary is absolutely first class, arguably the best blues line up in the UK in 2011. As is usually the case, the weekend is crammed with some of the top names from the list of British bands augmented by one or two up and coming or undiscovered gems with a sprinkling of special guests from the USA, although for this special year, a greater ‘sprinkling’ than usual.

To celebrate the anniversary Earl Thomas with Paddy Milner and The Big Sounds will, for a second time, be headlining on the Saturday night. Earl is the first headline act to be invited back and thoroughly deserves the invitation after his sensational performance in 2009, easily the most talked about gig in the history of the event.

Other celebrated guests 'popping' over from the States will be George Thorogoods' magnificent guitarist, Jim Suhler (Texas) who will be bringing his own band Monkey Beat, Eugene Hideaway Bridges (Louisiana) with his Big Band, Gregg Wright (Texas), The Deadstring Brothers (Michigan) and Patrick Sweany (Ohio).

The heavy weight British contingent will include King King, Larry Miller, Paul Lamb & The King Snakes, Marcus Malone, Gary Fletcher Band, 24 Pesos, The Revolutionaires, Dale Storr Band, Robin Bibi Band, Chris James and Al Hughes.