It was a dream come true for its organizer. It was a tribute to the memory of the man being remembered. It was a boost to the town where the event was held.

The town was Ballyshannon, in County Donegal. The man in whose memory the event was held was Rory Gallagher, legendary Irish rock musician. The organizer was Barry O’Neill, a businessman in the very street in which the young Gallagher spent the first five years of his life before his family moved to Cork.

The town’s population doubled in size, thanks to the wealth of musical talent drawn from Germany, the United States, Holland, and in Ireland from Dublin, Cork and Derry, to play Rory’s music, and keep his memory alive.

"It was an absolutely fantastic heart-felt tribute. We had mature rockers here who live, sleep and drink Rory Gallagher and we had a whole new generation of fans who are only just discovering him," said O’Neill.

The festival was a welcome boost to the town’s economy. Performances were held at a number of venues, but most fittingly on an outdoor stage erected in front of a monument to the singer in the East Port, familiarly known as “the Purt”, where Rory lived as a child from 1948 to 1953.

Gallagher died at the early age of 47 in 1995, but his music continues to grow in popularity with the passage of time. Members of his old band, including Gerry McAvoy (bass), Brendan O'Neill and Ted McKenna (drums), Mark Felthan (harmonica and vocals), Gwin Ashton (guitar), and Lou Martin and Peter Moller (piano) played before adoring fans at the Abbey Centre.

The number of visitors exacerbated the problem of finding parking spaces for cars and other vehicles, so much so that the Town Council is now considering the installation of parking meters on some streets.

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