AMERICAN Country music star Zach Bryan recently added a unique touch to his tour by hiring a mobile pub from Fermanagh.
Roslea man Jonny McGeough has been on the road with The Hidden Naggin for eight years, with the pub-on-wheels proving a hit with celebrities across the country.
The quirky venture didn’t begin as a business, though, with Jonny initially simply looking for an alternative to a tent when attending music festivals.
“I asked my father if he could make me a pub that I could sleep in, and it all took off from there,” Jonny told the ‘Herald.
“It was Nathan Carter who was in it and he said that I should be renting it out, so I decided I would, I called it The Hidden Naggin and put it up for hire and as the years go on the more people want it and the more in demand it is.”
Last week the ‘Naggin had its biggest guest yet, with 180,000 people going to see him over three days and nearly five million Instagram followers.
“The events manager at Aiken Promotions contacted me and they didn’t tell me what it was for. They just asked me to come to Dublin and would I be available for these nights and I said no problem so she told me to secure the dates,” Jonny explained.
“So I kind of knew in my head that Zach Bryan was in Dublin and I had tickets anyway. It was all confidential, so she booked it for five nights. The concerts started on Friday and we dropped off on the Wednesday and it was all set up back stage, were we set up was a wee festival type area that was only for Zach Bryan, the band and family members.
“They wanted the ‘Naggin to give them the whole Irish authentic feel for the weekend, so we set up and Guinness and Diageo sponsored the whole drink.”
Jonny was told that the Bryan family thoroughly enjoyed the ‘Naggin, with Zach staying in it for two hours before each gig and three hours after.
“I think out of it all, Zach’s father never left it. he was in love with it all and I have two walking sticks and he actually took one home and he left me a note to say that he couldn’t leave without it.”
The cherry on the cake for Johnny was Zach posting a picture of him outside The Hidden Naggin on his Instagram.
“He did do a video on his story of it and I was hoping that he would post something and when he left on the Monday, he put up 20 photos of Dublin and it was him on the bike which was one of them so I was made up.
“It has now took off, my phone hasn’t stopped.
“Aiken have been in touch again to say it was better than they thought and everyone loved it and they will be making an excuse for me to do another event as soon as possible so I am happy out.”