There’s something Narnia-like about getting an overnight ferry in Portsmouth and waking up in Saint-Malo on the coast of Brittany. After leaving England with a belly full of Wetherspoons’ fried chicken and a vista of […]

There’s something Narnia-like about getting an overnight ferry in Portsmouth and waking up in Saint-Malo on the coast of Brittany. After leaving England with a belly full of Wetherspoons’ fried chicken and a vista of […]
Not exactly full of hot takes here, just bang-on dependable acts, from alt-rock to full-on techno, life-affirming hip-hop, politically-engaged electronics and industrial ultraviolence. Death Grips (Rankin’s Wood, Sunday, 9-10pm) California trio Death Grips are one […]
For years, Electric Picnic has been pointing out that it’s more than just a music festival, and every year they double down on this USP as Ireland’s main music and arts festival that rivals any […]
Too often, festivals boast of their idyllic settings, when the big reveal is actually a fenced-off stately home, fairy light forest trails and installations not much better than a load of dream catchers. We hit […]
It takes some nerve to start up a new festival in Ireland these days, but even with all the moans of over-saturation, there’s still room for one more if it’s done right. All Together Now […]
When it comes to the August bank holiday weekend it really is a punter’s market, with almost too much choice, and Beatyard up against veteran festivals like Castlepalooza and Indiependence, and the new venture All […]
Most festivals in Ireland or the UK boast about their wonderful setting, usually in the grounds of some stately home that’s fenced off from the session ruffians. It probably makes sense – protecting against the elements, […]
It’s lunchtime in a sweltering Belgrade airport and Nina Kraviz glides past me and joins the queue, as if she hasn’t just banged out techno to thousands of diehards in the moat of a Serbian […]
One of the funniest Twitter rage storms of the year was the huffing over the Longitude line-up — with the ‘real music’ brigade moaning that there were no proper bands on the bill. These lads […]
AS IRELAND’S only surf and music festival, expect the average punter you meet at the seaside bash to have a lot more stamina than your regular session rollover head covered in grass stains and last […]
AVA creator and organiser Sarah McBriar was boasting in the Irish Times this week about the festival’s USP — the unpretentious up for it Belfast crowd. If you’ve got that as a base for an […]
With AVA festival and Forbidden Fruit this weekend and Life Festival last week hoovering up thousands of techno buzzers, a select few hundred are heading to the wilds of Cork for the underground electronic music […]
Life Festival in Mullingar got the head start on the summer season last weekend, with nearly every weekend booked up with sessions up and down the country. And as usual, Forbidden Fruit in Dublin is […]
Life Festival jumps the gun on the bank holiday weekend with the first big weekender of the summer season – while also avoiding the clash next week of Open Ear and Forbidden Fruit and […]
When the Biggest Weekend was announced, Beeb bosses claimed it would be “the biggest single music event ever attempted by the BBC”. No pressure then. With Glastonbury taking one of its occasional years off to […]