Ireland’s newest winter festival was nearly left out in the cold after a group of residents lodged an appeal — but the first ever Samhain festival is going ahead at Weston Airport, 20 minutes west of Dublin city.
Locals formally objected to the two-day festival, citing concerns about “traffic management, planning laws, crowd control and fire safety”. And maybe they’ve been following the media blitz around Sunday headliner Liam Gallagher over the last few months and reckon he’d be up for causing a ruckus or leading the kids astray.
In any case, the objections were overruled, and the Hangar at Weston is getting ready for Liam on Sunday, with tomorrow headlined by BBC Radio One DJ Annie Mac, making a rare appearance in her home city. Samhain tomorrow looks like an attempt to put a dent in the fortunes of Metropolis, with a full-on electronic music line-up.
Alongside Annie Mac playing BBC-approved big room dance music, special guests tomorrow include English DJ Eats Everything, who’ll keep things building with a solid hour of house and techno, maybe holding out the big guns for his show up the road at Shine’s 22nd birthday in Belfast that night.
2manydjs promise a few more left turns, with their anything-goes party ethos, brazenly mixing chalk & cheese records and making them work – anything from Vitalic to Slayer to Beyonce and plenty from their mash-up vault. Mele will be all about the tribal bass music early on, and Kelly Anne Byrne is a guaranteed party-starter, playing rare disco cuts when the gates open.
On Sunday, Ireland finally gets to see Liam Gallagher going put his money where his giant mouth is with his new album As You Were. He’s almost a meme at this stage, with the most successful PR campaign for a new album in recent memory. Liam has been clogging up social media feeds for months, slagging off Noel while also begging him for an Oasis reunion. The latest no-bullshit comment on Noel’s new track Holy Mountain – saying it has “too many notes”.
Liam’s debut solo album As You Were – following the collective shrug over his Beady Eye project – couldn’t survive without Liam’s swaggering promotion. It feels like a collection of Oasis cast-offs, but sounds enough like his old band to keep the diehards happy – and he’ll be playing Oasis singalongs, even if it kills him knowing they’re really his bro’s songs.
On support is Cavan mod revival act The Strypes, who’ve gone beyond a ‘WTF they’re babies’ novelty from a few years ago, to a more grown-up version, mixing with Liam Gallagher, Paul Weller and Elton John, who were always more likely to be fans than discerning teen rockers with a rebellious streak.
That’s where Derry band Touts come in – a teen punk trio who channel The Clash with their snarly sound, and nod to Stiff Little Fingers with their provocative song titles like Bomb Scare and Saturday Night Scumbag.
Moo Kid 