This May, a festival in honour of singer-songwriter Pierce Turner will take place in his hometown of Wexford.

Tying in with The Gathering, 'A Homecoming Hug' - which runs from May 10 to 12, will celebrate Turner's extensive body of work, featuring a string quartet performance, a discussion (with Jackie Hayden, Liam Fay and Tom Mooney, to name but a few) a special mass, and of course - a pub crawl!

Turner explains; 'Why are we doing this you might ask? A couple of reasons come to mind... this is the year of The Gathering, a huge incentive to bring all our beloved to Ireland. The second reason is I have been around for a while now and my audience is getting too lazy to move! So this might be my last chance to get them out of their houses - also it really doesn't look like any major organisations are going to recognise me before I drop dead... So this is it!"

Go to [link]www.pierceturner.com[/link] for details on how to become a 'Friend' of Pierce Turner; receiving a sigmed Manana In Manhattan album, access to all the event gigs and a souvenir programme.