News

Irish Festival Fever

• 31st Mar 2010

With our Winter being horrendously cold, windy, wet and snowy and our Spring being unfathomably hot and sunny already, many of us are resting our little hearts on an epic summer.

If the cold snap, followed by a heatwave tells you anything, the general consensus is that the Summer will be even more glorious and with that comes the glory of festival fever.

Ireland has been known to throw a good knees up from time to time since Oxegen and Electric Picnic emerged as our biggest exports but here at Irish Glasswerk we have all your festival needs catered to and will highlight just what you have to look forward to (and save for) this Summer.

Kicking off your summer will be Live At The Marquee in Cork kicking off on June 14th. Rockers Megadeth, poppers JLS and bopper Kenny Rogers have all been confirmed on various dates. The month-long festival will also include Deep Purple, The Cranberries, Westlife, The Horslips and Paul Weller.

Coming right after we jump North to Bundoran in Donegal for a spot of surfing. The Sea Sessions festival will be live from Friday 25th – Sunday 27th of June. Headliners confirmed are Fun Lovin' Criminals, Paul Weller, Cathy Davey and Director. Tickets are around €80 euro each with unofficial camping €20pp and if that doesn't tickle your fancy, wash the sand out in an abundance of nearby hostels. Expect sun, sea, sand, wetsuits, BMX, Quiksilver competitions, BBQ and booze. Gnarley!

Dominating the start of July and ripping competition to shreads, comes Ireland's biggest festival, Oxegen. Voted Best Overseas festival at the 2009 UK Festival Awards, Punchestown will once again be choca block full of funfairs, dirty drunken youths, hundreds of food stalls and a few international superstars thrown in for good measure. Listing them would take a decade, but take a look at our news piece on Oxegen 2010 to get your full menu! Highlights seem to be Jay Z, Eminem, Black Eyed Peas, Kasabian, Dizee Rascal, Arcade Fire, The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim and returning for another year are Paolo and Florence.

If you can muster up the strength and recover from the early July binge, pop on over to Tullamore, Co. Offaly where the grass is green and castles are a plenty. Charleville castle, more precisely will be the holding ground of Castle Palooza 2010 on July 31st and August 1st. Earlybird tickets have just gone on sale at €59 and acts are TBA, but no doubt the festival will rake in it's signature staple of premium Irish Talent.

Though it's line-up remains secret until well into the Summer, Belfast's Belsonic will make a welcome return this year. The unbelievable response since it's birth in 2008 will cement it's impending success this August. With acts like Dizzee Rascal, Crystal Castles, Boyz Noise, Vampire Weekend and Deadmau5 last year, expect great great Elecronic and Rock things, come the end of August.

A mysterious yet massive festival which is a staple in Irish music, yet is not annual, will be returning this year! Slane 2010 is still in the planning stages but the internet is rife with predictions and expectations. Lord Henry MountCharles has given it to go-ahead (in a February interview with the Evening Herald) while promising an international act to headline the August day festival.

Supstars like Madonna, The Rolling Stones, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and U2 have headlined in recent years, while Oasis and The Prodigy rocked Slane Castle in 2009. Rumours circulating the web have been Jay Z (who has since confirmed Oxegen), Green Day (who have since opted for Marlay Park with Paramore), Guns N Roses and even Stevie Wonder. Facebook users have launched a fan page demanding Kings Of Leon for 2010, generating over 12,000 fans already, so the hot tip is that KOL and possibly Snow Patrol as support may be coming!

September holds a special place in music lovers' hearts as Electric Picnic rounds out the long summer and kicks those back to college woes out the door for one final party. Famous for being Ireland's premier boutique music, arts and culture festival, Stradbally in Co. Laois will play host to 32,500 attendees again this year from September 3-5.

Acts just announced can be found on our dedicated EP news article here on Glasswerk but some of the headliners include Imelda May, Crystal Castles, Jonsi, Bloody Betroots, Massive Attack, LCD soundsystem and Mumford and Sons. Tickets are priced at €240 and are available right now.

Possibly the newest underground festival to hit our ears is Hard Working Class Heroes which will hopefully return in mid-October. The weekend sees around 100 bands play three days in over six venues. The line-up should be announced around August.

So there you have it, if our predictions are right your summer will be full of sun, happiness, music, love, alcohol and if you attend every festival, a trip to the otologist. Enjoy!