We are tremendously excited to announce Shrewsbury’s own DAN OWEN is returning to Farmer Phil’s Festival in 2023.
A long-time friend of the festival, Dan Owen has been wowing us here in Ratlinghope – and indeed, across the UK and mainland Europe – since his early teens with his gritty yet soulful voice that belies his years and bluesy brand of acoustic rock n’ roll.
Constantly gigging in pubs throughout those early years, Dan honed his craft the good old-fashioned way: hard yard after hard yard. Arresting performances at folk, blues and rock festivals across Europe earned him admiring glances from a string of record labels. In 2015 he put pen to paper, signing with Atlantic Records and releasing his debut EP ‘Bad For Me’ later the same year.
Dan followed this up with ‘Open Hands & Enemies’ and successive European tours before, in 2019, he released his long-awaited debut album ‘Stay Awake With Me’. Popular single ‘Icarus’ was a huge hit across the UK and Europe, receiving regular airplay on BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2, while the album has received over 60 million streams to date. Meanwhile, film lovers may remember his song ‘Hideaway’ being used in the trailer for the Gerard Butler action blockbuster Angel Has Fallen, also in 2019.
Tours across the US and Canada before he returned home to undertake a grassroots folk tour of the UK, which he again the old-fashioned way – just Dan, a guitar and his bike – taking in over 850km in the process. After returning home, he went on to play St Mary’s Church in Shrewsbury that November, with tickets selling out so quickly that additional dates had to be added at the venue.
Like the rest of the performing arts industry, the COVID pandemic put paid to Dan Owen’s touring plans in 2020 and early 2021, so instead he put his energy into writing new music and in 2021 new singles ‘Radio Tower’, ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ and ‘Fall Before You’ were released, while a more recent collaboration with Paradigm (notable for their collaborations with Katy Perry, Afrojack and others) titled ‘Crave You’ hit six-figures for streams on Spotify in next to no time!
And now we’re delighted to bring our talented friend back to our happy little festival for what we’re sure will be a performance none of us will forget in a hurry!