Now in its 18th edition, Hard Working Class Heroes is now an Irish music institution, an annual showcase of the best of the underground and a chance for Irish audiences and industry heads to get […]
Category: Festivals
Feile Classical is a long way from Tipperary in the 90s
It must be odd for Feile veterans listening to people complaining that Electric Picnic was ‘better in my day’ — which was only 2004-5. As the original Irish festival OGs, Feile heads have been carrying […]
It’s Brittany, Bitch: La Route du Rock 2018 review
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 […]
Here’s your top 10 for Electric Picnic
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 […]
Electric Picnic off the beaten track
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 […]
Channel hopping: Five reasons to hit La Route du Rock 2018
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 […]
All Together Now elbows its way into festival season
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 […]
Beatyard is the easy way out this bank holiday weekend
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 […]
Novi Sad’s EXIT strategy
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, […]
Can’t get No Sleep: Going the extra mile at Exit Festival in Serbia
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 […]
Here’s your top 10 Longitude acts for this weekend
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 […]
It’s Showtime at Sea Sessions
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 Festival: It’s all about the Belfast crowd
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 […]
Here’s a radio documentary about why you should be at Open Ear this weekend
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 […]
Here’s your top 10 Forbidden Fruit acts this weekend
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 […]
