Yvonne Gordon

Getting ready to breathe some Oxegen

2008-06-24T13:20:00Z

The full stage line-up for Oxegen 2008 has been revealed and the festival, which takes place from 11th to 13th July 2008 at Punchestown Racecourse, Naas, Co Kildare (Ireland) is shaping up to be a fab weekend.

Festival goers at Friday’s Oxegen can see performances from the queens of urban-pop, Sugababes as well as Scottish singer songwriter Amy Macdonald. They can also check out the fresh new talents of Friendly Fires, Noah & the Whale and Liam Finn.

Saturday’s Oxegen will feature the spiky Indie-Pop of The Wombats, Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jong, hotly tipped to be among the best new bands of the year, as well as a performance by cult heroes The Brian Jonestown Massacre.

New additions to Sunday’s bill include Brooklyn rockers The Hold Steady, who’ll be appearing at Oxegen the day before the release of their new album Stay Positive. Reggae superstar Eddy Grant and Ireland’s own Republic Of Loose will also be entertaining the Punchestown crowds.

The full OXEGEN line-up

Friday 11^th July

Main Stage: Kings of Leon, Interpol, Editors, Paddy Casey, The Coronas and Amy Macdonald.

TheStage: Groove Armada, The Go! Team, Ben Folds, dEUS, Sugababes and Future Kings of Spain.

Green Room: Bell X1, Mundy, Aslan, The Saw Doctors and Captain.

Pet Sounds: Cat Power, Aphex Twin, Tricky, Battles and God Is An Astronaut.

New Band Stage/Futures: White Denim, Friendly Fires, The Metros, Noah & The Whale, Sparkadia, Bryn Christopher, Liam Finn and Leopold.

Dance Stage: Calvin Harris, Unkle, Annie Mac, MSTRKRFT, Koze, Kosheen, Sneaky Sound System and Burns.

Saturday 12^th July

Main Stage: The Verve, REM., Stereophonics, Amy Winehouse, Counting Crows, Newton Faulkner, Scouting For Girls and Bowling For Soup.

TheStage: The Prodigy, The Zutons, Feeder, Panic at the Disco, The Enemy, The Hoosiers, The Wombats, Powderfinger, One Night Only and Little Man Tate.

Green Room: Manic Street Preachers, The Charlatans, Pendulum, Echo and the Bunnymen, Vampire Weekend, British Sea Power, The Ting Tings, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Delays and Concerto For Constantine.

Pet Sounds: The National, Hot Chip, Richard Hawley, Seasick Steve, Declan O’Rourke, Paul Heaton, My Morning Jacket, Camille O’Sullivan and Jack McManus.

New Band Stage/Futures: Elliot Minor, Royworld, Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jong, Black Kids, Alphabeat, Ida Maria, Yeasayer, Holy ***, Mindless Self Indulgence, Cage The Elephant and Sergeant.

Dance Tent: Justice, Boys Noize, Slam, Michael Mayer, Streetlife DJs , Kavinsky, The Japanese Popstars and Chemistry DJ's.

Sunday 13^th July

Main Stage: Rage Against The Machine, Kaiser Chiefs, The Fratellis, The Kooks, The Blizzards, The Feeling and Eddy Grant.

TheStage: Chemical Brothers, The Raconteurs, Republic Of Loose, Kate Nash, The Pigeon Detectives, We Are Scientists, The Courteeners and The Subways.

Green Room: Ian Brown, The Pogues, Tom Baxter, Reverend and the Makers, Jack Penate, Alabama 3, The Stranglers, The Hold Steady and The Whigs.

Pet Sounds: The Swell Season featuring Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová, Roisin Murphy, Band of Horses, MGMT, Delorentos, Lightspeed Champion, David Jordan and Ryan Bingham.

New Band Stage/Futures: Los Campesinos!, Cajun Dance Party, Flogging Molly, Fight Like Apes, Glasvegas, The Script, Twisted Wheel, In Case Of Fire, Jaguar Love and White Lies.

Dance Tent: David Guetta, Luciano, Mylo, Kaz James, Carl Craig, Crookers, Radioslave, Does It Offend You Yeah? and Quiet Village.

Stay tuned

For all the latest Oxegen news including line-up up-dates, camping, travel, age restrictions and parking information, see www.oxegen.ie

Stay tuned to www.MelodyTrip.com for further Oxegen updates and live blogs from the festival

Finally, if you want to see it all again, MTV UK & Ireland will be filming at the festival and coverage will premiere with the OXEGEN Festival Weekend on 2nd and 3rd August with over 50 hours of programming across MTV’s channels.

Yvonne Gordon is a Melody trip writer. view her news from Glastonbury 2007 at http://www.melodytrip.com/Community/blogs/yvonne_gordon/archive/2007/06/26/glastonbury-2007-hailed-a-success-despite-rain-and-mud.aspx

Dublin's Docklands take to The Streets

2008-04-13T18:29:00Z

by Yvonne Gordon

George’s Dock in Dublin’s Custom House Quay was transformed into a unique venue last night for the BudRising Street Party, one of the highlights of the five-day BudRising festival taking place around the Irish capital city.

Having drained the docks and built a stage in the middle of the dock basin, organisers turned the area into a mini-festival site with a great atmosphere for the once-off event headlined by British rapper The Streets.

Although a lot of the dock was drained, heavy showers of rain earlier in the evening threatened to put a dampener of another kind on the proceedings, However there was no need to worry as the main stage was completely enclosed within a smart white tent.

And judging by recent festivals (Glastonbury or CastlePalooza 07 anyone?), heavy rain seems as much a feature of Irish and British festivals now as tents, portaloos and paper cups.

The Body Tonic Toe Jam ‘market’ was full of treats, mostly of the audio-visual kind, with some funky DJ’s spinning the decks courtesy of the happening venue the George Bernard Shaw, and FutureShorts film screenings all adding to the carnival atmosphere where people frolicked around in mini festival kit like flowery hats and orange plastic shades.

oHowHowever the highlight of the night was when The Streets took to the stage just after 9pm to play their first Irish performance since 2004. Mike Skinner, the Birmingham rapper behind the band, told the crowd they were lucky to get to see The Streets ‘before we become big’. However with three hit studio albums so far – Original Pirate Material, A Grand Don’t Come For Free and The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living – and a fourth on the way later this year, that moment has probably passed and it was great to see him play such an intimate performance.

During his set, Skinner brought out all the big hits including ‘Fit But You Know It’ and ‘Blinded By The Lights’ and he had the entire crowd down on its knees more than once during the performance. Unfortunately the end arrived all too quickly, however after being told to ‘Dry Your Eyes Mate’ during a rousing encore, it was impossible to feel sad for long.

The Streets were followed by an energy-filled performance on the decks by Mixmaster mike, resident DJ for the Beastie Boys, who played a hip-hop happening hour or two of great tunes and really got the crowd during with funky mixes and scratches of dance classics.

BudRising has been going for three years now, with the aim of bringing the best international and domestic talent to venues large and small, nationwide. Last night, the festival brought something very special to Dublin’s docklands and set the tone for what is sure to be a great year for Irish festivals both large and small.

Yvonne Gordon is a MelodyTrip writer. Read her preview of Electric Picnic 2008 here:
http://www.melodytrip.com/MTNews/Default.aspx?NewsID=9409

BudRising Spring Festival comes to Dublin

2008-04-08T10:29:00Z

by Yvonne Gordon

Dublin (Ireland) is getting ready for the BudRising Spring Festival which hits the capital next weekend. One of the city’s first large music events of 2008, the festival will include performances from over thirty Irish and international acts including Hard-Fi and The Streets.

The Festival runs for five days, from 9^th to 13^th April, in various music venues around the city. International acts appearing include veteran New York soul and funk band The Dap-Kings, best known as the backing band on Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black album and her first US Tour, who will take to the stage with Sharon Jones at The Button Factory on Thursday, 10^th April, for the first of their European tour dates.

On Saturday 12^th April, The Streets are apt headliners for the BudRising Street Party in George’s Dock on Custom House Quay in the docklands. The support line-up for the night includes Mixmaster Mike, resident DJ for the Beastie Boys, and Dublin-based hip-hop DJ Morgan.

Fresh from the South by Southwest Festival in Texas where they performed as part of the Irish Music Showcase, Dublin five-piece Channel One will support Hard-Fi at the Olympia on Wednesday, April 9th.

Choice Music Prize winners Super Extra Bonus Party will headline at Whelan’s on Saturday, April 12^th and co-headlining with Future of the Left at The Village on Sunday, April 13th will be two-time Meteor nominee Fight Like Apes.

Other festival headliners including The Ting Tings, Hadouken, The Raveonettes, Maps, Simian Mobile Disco DJ Set and Red Snapper.

The support line-up across the five-night festival also includes performances from Irish acts including Arveene, TwinKranes, Butterfly Explosion, Billy Scurry, The WhiteLiars, Trev Radiator, Neon Love DJs, Anthony Remedy and Le Galaxie.

Date	Band	Venue	Admission
WED APRIL 9^TH	HARD FI WITH SPECIAL GUESTS	OLYMPIA	€33 INC BKG FEE
THURS APRIL 10^TH	SHARON JONES AND THE DAP KINGS	BUTTON FACTORY	€25.50 INC BKG FEE
THURS APRIL 10^TH	SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO DJ SET	SPY	€18 INC BKG FEE
THURS APRIL 10TH	THE RAVEONETTES	WHELAN’S	€10 INC BKG FEE
FRI APRIL 11TH	EROL ALKAN DIGITALISM THE CAZALS	THE BUTTON FACTORY	€23 INC BKG FEE
FRI APRIL 11TH	HADOUKEN	THE VILLAGE	€18 INC BKG FEE
FRI APRIL 11TH	THIS WILL DESTROY YOU	WHELAN’S	€10 INC BKG FEE
SAT APRIL 12^TH	STREET PARTY FEATURING THE STREETS AND MIXMASTER MIKE	GEORGE’S DOCK	Tickets by application at www.budweiser.ie
SAT APRIL 12^TH	MAPS	THE BUTTON FACTORY	€15 INC BKG FEE
SAT APRIL 12^TH	THE TING TINGS	THE VILLAGE	€15 INC BKG FEE
SUN APRIL 13^TH	RED SNAPPER	THE SUGAR CLUB	€15 INC BKG FEE
SUN APRIL 13^TH	FUTURE OF LEF FIGHT LIKE APES	THE VILLAGE	€10 INC BKG FEE

Yvonne Gordon is a MelodyTrip writer. Read her preview of Electric Picnic 2008 here: http://www.melodytrip.com/MTNews/Default.aspx?NewsID=9409

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Electric Picnic 2008 Preview

2008-04-08T10:27:00Z

by Yvonne Gordon
Posted 27 March 2008

The line-up for this year’s Electric Picnic festival, the boutique music festival in Stradbally Hall, Co Laois, Ireland , has just been announced. The 2008 festival will take place from 29^th to 31^st August and acts will include Sex Pistols, Sigur Ros, Grinderman, Franz Ferdinand, George Clinton & The P-Funk Allstars, My Bloody Valentine, Goldfrapp, Christy Moore, Wilco, The Gossip, Duffy, Underworld, Tinariwen and CSS.

Tickets go on sale tomorrow, 28^th March at €240 each (including booking fee and VAT) for a weekend ticket – an increase of €20 since last year. There are also new family camping tickets (2 adults and 4 children) and campervan tickets available.

Iconic acts

As before, the festival mixes music from around the world, mixing iconic acts with hot new acts, from the incendiary Sex Pistols, who changed the course of rock in their day, to the melodic, classical, experimental Sigur Rós, the Icelandic post-rock band known for its ethereal sound.

Scottish Indie rockers Franz Ferdinand unveil their eagerly anticipated third album with what is just one of a handful of shows they are playing globally this year and another iconic and influential band playing a rare show are My Bloody Valentine whose critically acclaimed 1991 album Loveless was recently voted as the greatest rock and roll album of all time in an Irish Times poll.

Funk legend George Clinton & his astonishing 30 piece P-Funk Allstars will bringing his innovative funk to Stradbally, while Nick Cave's Grinderman appears in Ireland for the first time. Christy Moore makes his maiden voyage to Stradbally and new Motown sensation Duffy will also hit the stage.

For electro pop and upbeat tunes, Goldfrapp, Underworld, The Gossip, CSS and Philadelphia's The Roots will all play.

New Jazz stage

A new stage this year is the accoustic Jazz & World Music, while elsewhere on the site, organizers are promising that there’ll be everything from chamber music and desert blues, to funky organ trios and grooving Balkan brass.

Picnic favourites

Usual Picnic favourites such as the Crawdaddy Stage, Bacardi B Live Arena, Comedy stage, Body & Soul Village , Leviathan Think Tank, Hot Press Chat Room, Salon du Chat and The Word poetry tent will all return to the festival site, joined by new venue the glittering ‘thisispopbaby’ lounge.

For more, keep an eye on www.electricpicnic.ie

Yvonne Gordon is a MelodyTrip writer. View her blogs from Electric Picnic 2007 at: http://www.melodytrip.com/Community/blogs/yvonne_gordon/archive/2007/09/03/first-day-at-the-picnic.aspx

Electric Picnic voted best large festival at 2007 Irish Festival Awards

2008-04-08T10:23:00Z

by Yvonne Gordon

Posted 29 January 2008

Electric Picnic was voted the Best Large Festival and Primal Scream was voted the Best Headline Act at the first ever Irish Festival Awards. Irish music fans voted online for their favourite music festivals and acts for the awards which had 17 categories and covered music festivals in Ireland in 2007.

The Irish Festival Awards were organised by CherryCool Promotions, who run the Castle Palooza festival (which was excluded from the voting process in the interest of fairness).

According to CherryCool, 2007 saw a huge increase in Irish music festivals and these awards brought the supersized and small festivals together.

“We set up the Irish Festival Awards because of the huge increase in the amount and quality of festivals taking place in Ireland,” said awards organiser Cillian Stewart. “There were over 4,000 votes received from all corners of the globe and we’re hoping there are many more festivals next year.”

Winners of the awards will receive a festival gong. The organisers decided not to give an award for greenest festival and called on festival organisers to reduce their carbon footprint in 2008.

For more information see www.irishfestivalawards.ie

Here are the winners:

Best Large Festival: Electric Picnic

Best Medium Festival: BudRising

Best Small Festival sponsored by EQ Audio: Hard Working Class Heroes

Best Dance Festival: Life

Best Traditional Festival: Sligo Live

Best New Festival: Cois Fharraige

Best One Day Festival: Lovebox

Best Lineup: Oxygen

Best Rock Act: Arcade Fire (at Oxegen)

Best Headline Act: Primal Scream (at Electric Picnic)

Best Alternative Act: Final Fantasy (at Electric Picnic)

Best Dance Act: The Chemical Brothers (at Electric Picnic)

Best Irish Act: Snow Patrol (at Oxegen)

Family Festival Award: Festival of World Cultures

Best Service Award: Indie-pendance

Social Responsibility Award: Hard Working Class Heroes

Best Toilets: Flushing toilets!

MelodyTrip will be again covering the hottest Irish festivals in 2008 – check in for regular updates, previews and blogs during summer 08.

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Last day at Electric Picnic

2007-09-03T20:46:00Z

Electric Picnic, Stradbally Hall, Ireland
Day Three, Sunday 2^nd September 2007

by Yvonne Gordon

The closing act on the Main Stage last night was a fab two-hour long set by the Chemical Brothers which went on till 2am. Unfortunately, someone collapsed in front of the main stage just before the end and an ambulance had to work its way through the crowd and stopped near us and we found out today that a young man died. Gardai are conducting a post-mortem (it was a suspected overdose) but said they thought the crowd was ‘good in general’ with only one arrest Friday and one on Saturday (apparently that is good!).

The sun’s out today - there have been a few heavy rain showers of rain, but not enough to prevent tired festival goers chilling out on the grass around the site. An interesting discovery has been the Salon du Chat in the Leviathan tent - a ‘restaurant’ where you can order ‘chat’ instead of food. You sit down and order a starter, main course and desert from the menu - all items on the list are subjects to talk about, and then begin talking. A bell rings if anyone is caught diverting from the topic. It looks great but we’re too all-talked-out to take part!

However Glenisk are giving out free organic yoghurt and there are some comfy haystacks to sit on just outside - a great pick-me-up - and the Cultivate stand has an interesting religious-type carbon confessional where you can calculate your carbon emissions and find out your carbon footprint.

The Pixie Pictures tent -solar powered- has been showing some eco-warrior films and nearby, a collection of fancy-dressed characters have been indulging in a spot of speed dating in the Speed Dating tent.

The Comedy tent has been a big crowd-puller today, with Aidan Bishop and Karl Spain entertaining the masses in the afternoon and the Crawdaddy tent has also been packed for most of the afternoon, and especially for a surprise late afternoon acoustic set at by The Beastie Boys, who already played the Electric Arena last night. Iggy and the Stooges and Primal Scream are the headliners on the Main Stage for later tonight, with Unkle and The Go! Team over on Electric Arena.

There’s lots we haven’t got to see yet - which is great as it means there’s lots to do - like the theatre, circus, panto, silent disco, having a pamper in the powder room, or checking out the Boutique campsite where they have Tipis and beach huts.

But whether we get to see it all or not before the end, it’s been a really fantastic festival with a lot of things to enjoy - great music, great entertainment, a great atmosphere, well-behaved audiences and much shorter queues than last year for food, which is always a bonus. It’s hard to believe it’s nearly over and we haven’t seen it all, so roll on the next Electric Picnic!

Yvonne Gordon is a MelodyTrip writer. View her blogs from Glastonbury 2007 at http://melodytrip.com/Community/blogs/yvonne_gordon/archive/2007/06/23/mud-and-melodies-at-glastonbury.aspx

Party at the Picnic

2007-09-03T20:41:00Z

Electric Picnic, Stradbally Hally, Ireland
Day Two, Saturday 1^st September 2007

by Yvonne Gordon

Well, even for those who arrived late last night and missed the main stage, the parties went on well and truly into the night. After the main stage, we headed over to BodyTonic which was pumping out dance tunes till 2am, thanks to DJs Greenskeepers Live and Derrick Carter. Some of our group got separated and text messages weren’t being delivered so unfortunately, the MelodyTrip photographer was last seen for the evening heading over to BodyTonic accompanied by a well-known Irish comedian who once played a priest in the popular TV programme Father Ted - I am sure they behaved like saints, while we stopped off at the ubiquitous wooden circular festival venue, the *** Parleur, for some late night dancing.

A couple of us later listened to a DJ playing on what must be the festival’s tiniest unofficial stage, a table between the Crepes In The City food stand and a coffee stand, which had a large crowd of revellers having fun and dancing their socks off. Major déjà vu from last year!

However last night’s best discovery - and another magic festival moment - was a music stage hidden in the trees! At 3am, while wandering back to the campsite, we were lured into a little stage in a forest glade under a canopy of green trees by the sounds of great music and cheers from a happy crowd. The trees above were all lit up with silver lights and DJ’s were mixing some amazing dance tunes. Apparently this stage is called Tir na gCasta (the Irish for ‘Land of the Trees‘) and everyone is talking about it today. It was very captivating!

So back to today. There is lots going on around the site, lots of new arrivals and the good news is that it’s sunny and warm and wellies are an optional fashion accessory rather than a necessity! The inflatable church has a few weddings booked in for the afternoon, and in the Fair Green there’s a cinema, Kiddies Area and a Circus.

It’s all quite old fashioned over in Ballymundane Village Fair, there are three-legged races, a gramophone disco and a ‘Lovely Guy and Girl’ contest in the Village Hall, as well as a farmer’s market, a Mongolian Yurt (a large, round tent-house which is for sale, apparently) and an interesting photo exhibition. The Fairground is also busy with a carousel, slide and big wheel.

Body and Soul is again centred around a natural amphitheatre with the Chill Stage in the centre and the area is full of spiritual and earthly delights and treatments. There’s a wishing tree, a pretty garden, a tent where you can express yourself with stories and poems and lots of places to get wholesome, organic food.

Bands today have included Easy Allstars Radiohead on the Main Stage, playing an excellent reggae version of Radiohead’s best hits, and an angsty performance by Jarvis (Cocker) in the Electric Arena. MIA also played an energetic set in the Electric Arena and got everyone moving to the beat and the Magic Numbers were one of the biggest crowd drawers to the Main Stage, looking delightfully happy to be there.

Over at the other side of the site, in the ‘Spoken Word area’ there’s been lots going on too, including interviews with bands in the Hot Press Chat Room and political debate in the Leviathan tent. One of the best sets we saw here was by two guys from Limerick who played some great tunes with a variety of eccentric ‘instruments’ including a dustbin and a curtain rail! This was followed by a ranting set by Jinx Lennon.

Erasure played to a very packed Electric Arena (proving so popular, security had to put up barriers outside and arrange some crowd control) and they were followed by an amazing performance by the Beastie Boys. Our MelodyTrip photographer got some amazing close-ups from the pit (check out the photo section).

First day at the Picnic

2007-09-03T20:34:00Z

Electric Picnic, Day One, Friday 31^st August 2007
by Yvonne Gordon

Well it’s finally here, day one of Electric Picnic! Excitement has been building all week with so many previews in papers and magazines and all the ticket-holders I know feel very lucky indeed that they are going, while those without tickets are regretting that they didn’t get one.

Having left Dublin at 6pm this evening, and crawled for an hour through rush-hour traffic out of the city, we hit Stradbally at 8pm and managed to be on-site with our tent up by 9pm. A remarkable achievement it appears, as many people got stuck for three hours in traffic in the village and didn’t get on site till midnight!

Having found our bearings, we made our way to the Main Stage and caught the last few minutes of Bjork - sounding a little more tuneful than she did at Glastonbury - and followed by LCD Soundsystem, both playing great sets on the huge outdoor stage. One of the most magical moments was the appearance of a nearly full moon behind the stage just after dark and the air filling with glittery silver paper raining down during Bjork’s performance. Stradbally Hall itself is illuminated with lights and forms a great backdrop.
Other popular gigs were Modest Mouse at the Crawdaddy Stage and Manic Street Preachers in the Electric Arena.

This is the fourth Electric Picnic and the organisers have been making refinements each year since it started in 2005, when it ran for just one-day. Over this weekend, the three-day festival promises to welcome 32,500 campers and enough musicians to fill ten stages, with an eclectic, left-of-centre music mix of everything from rock and pop to world music, hip-hop, dance, reggae and roots. There’ll be lots to discover.

One of the most ingenious features this year is the Eco-Cup - you buy the cup for €3 from the bar and use it for the weekend, instead of wasting plastic glasses for drinks. You hand in the cup every time you need a refill and can either keep the cup as a souvenir or get your €3 back at the end. I hope I manage to hold on to mine as it is one of the limited edition Electric Picnic branded ones!

Castle Hullabaloobas! Castle Palooza Day Two - Sunday

2007-08-05T21:22:00Z

It was more like Sister Sludge than Sister Sledge in the campsite at Castle Palooza this morning, as the dreaded rain, which started last night, built to a crescendo in the early hours of the morning, forming nice little puddles and muddy patches. There were some complaints of leaking tents this morning, and some sodden festival-goers decided to pack it in and go home, but they obviously haven’t been around for the two months of rain we’ve been having all summer here in Ireland and were poorly prepared - and are missing a fantastic day today. Others cleverly camped under the tall trees in the castle gardens and were somewhat protected from the deluge. However despite the rain, waking up under the turrets and spires of an 18th century castle is quite an interesting camping experience.

The rain dried up around lunchtime and the sun came out to make an appearance for sets from Dave’s Radio, Angel Pier and Prison Love in the early afternoon. By 4pm, the sun was well and truly shining, as were the crowd, when Cowboy X (who had just arrived from a festival in Oldcastle, Co Meath, where they played yesterday) took to the stage and got the courtyard rocking.

In the small food village, people have been sitting around on picnic tables and enjoying crepes, pies, noodles and burgers and the only time a queue has ever formed over the weekend is at the latte section of the pie stand, while the coffee-maestro warms up yet another batch of milk for the most popular revival drink of the weekend, a nice milky latte.

Parts of Charleville Castle - such as the long, elegant ballroom, where the ballroom scene of Becoming Jane was filmed last year - are open to us festival-goers to relax and socialise in and people started bringing their bacon sandwiches and coffees in from early morning, to relax on the large sofas, recover from last night and dry out some soggy clothing. Large log fires, ornately carved furniture, chandeliers and a resident great-dane dog wandering around keeping an eye on things are making this a truly special festival.

There is a latin inscription on the fireplace which translates as ‘The brave may falter but cannot yield’ - very appropriate for those of us festival goers who decided to stick the rain and are still here, reaping the musical rewards. The bands are hanging out in the ‘green room’ which is really the castle’s dining room and apparently there’s a haunted staircase, a library with a secret exit and a morning room with two pianos, in the haunted castle. The ballroom is to turn into the burlesque ‘Tassel Club’ late tonight, so it should be fun.

This is a tiny festival - only 1500 tickets go on sale each year, and some of the money goes towards the castle's restoration. The organiser thinks that keeping the festival small is one of the secrets of such a great atmosphere. As well as hot showers, real toilets, no queues and the use of the castle, there are lots of other nice touches, such as recycling. Plus, we all got amazing goodie bags, with lots of little treats like mini deodorant, shower gel, an inflatable festival seat, plastic poncho, chocolates and an energy drink - all exactly what is needed and such a nice touch.

As festivals go, this is one of the best experiences yet. Walking up a oak tree-lined forest drive, camping in the grounds of a castle with spires and turrets, climbing a huge sweeping staircase with a chandelier at the top, relaxing in front of a log fire in a huge, ornate ballroom, seeing great bands without having to crane your neck over a large crowd, using a real, flushing toilet and ordering a beer without queuing...are just some of the nicer touches. Festival organisers could learn a lot from this and the organisers of this one certainly have many things right.

Now, if only they could work on getting rid of that rain…

Yvonne Gordon is a MelodyTrip writer. View her news stories from Glastonbury 2007 at http://www.melodytrip.com/MTNews/Default.aspx?NewsID=5963

Castle Palooza - Day One

2007-08-05T21:12:00Z

by Yvonne Gordon

Going to a festival is a mixed blessing - you get to see great bands and enjoy socialising outdoors (when the weather is good), however there are few little niggly things that can make the festival experience a bit of a survival test - the challenges of portaloos, queuing for toilets with no toilet paper, having no running water, no hot showers, no place to sit down indoors if it’s raining…Well here at Castle Palooza, which is set around an 18^th Century castle in Tullamore, Co Offaly (the midlands of Ireland), we’re enjoying what must be one of the most civilised festivals going! There are real, flushing toilets; hot showers; running water taps and we all have access to a two-hundred year old castle with huge log fires and comfy sofas. There’s plenty of live music on the two stages but if you get bored with that (unlikely), you can see an art exhibition in the castle, get a massage among the trees, or have a game on one of the three Xboxes in the castle’s upstairs hall!

The festival, which contributes towards the ongoing restoration of the castle, started today (Saturday) with an opening by Moebius at 2pm on the Boudoir Stage - a cosy white tent with glitter balls and comfy sofas to relax in. This was followed by the OKs, Leanne Harte and House of Cosy Cushions. Hoarsebox rocked the small crowd at tea-time, followed by a chilled out, down tempo set by Loafing Heroes. Aoife C got the crowd going again at eight, followed by Donegal-based techno DJ Jusity. Sinc then, DJs Marc Allton, Johnny Moy and Arveene have been playing groovy tunes and are set to stay on until the early hours.

The campsite is right behind the castle, among some neat lines of mature yew trees, which many tents are pitched under, for shelter from the rain. The gothic-style castle itself, Charleville Forest Castle, is apparently one of the most haunted in Ireland (check out the Wikipedia page here) and has been on TV shows like Most Haunted, however the only spirits around seem to be those flowing from the CastleBalloobas bar in the main square, sending very good vibes to the crowd indeed!

It’s been raining a lot all day but as it’s been raining in Ireland nearly every day since May, everyone’s prepared and there are many plastic ponchos - and even a few umbrellas - keeping music-lovers dry.

On the Main Stage, right in the castle courtyard, bands like Orphan Code, The Spikes and the brilliant The Charkas were entertaining the select audience earlier in the day, with Fight Like Apes and Star Little Thing building up the crowd before a superb midnight performance from historic US 1980s group Sister Sledge, who belted out hit after hit with Frankie and Lost In Music before ending with the legendary We Are Family as the encore of the night.

The crowd might be small - only 1500 tickets for this went on sale - but it just shows that you don't need a lot of people to create a festival with a good vibe.

Yvonne Gordon is a MelodyTrip writer. View her news stories from Glastonbury 2007 at http://www.melodytrip.com/MTNews/Default.aspx?NewsID=5963