Festival puts Body & Soul into diverse programme

Nick Cave veered from slow and pulsatingly beautiful to the raw and fiercely charged.

The festival, designed to feed the senses and fuel the mind, does exactly what it says on the proverbial tin. Body & Soul offers a decidedly diverse programme designed to include and inspire whilst allowing you to indulge in every sense.

In its embryonic stage, Body & Soul occupied the ‘alternative’ element of Electric Picnic before maturing into its current incarnation of a three-day, 13-venue performance festival. The Body & Soul team have striven to forge a festival identity, promoting equal opportunities for activities both of a holistic and healing and of a decidedly hedonistic nature. This is not intended to be a place where musical headliners take centre stage, but where well-known acts and new-comers alike contribute to and become an intrinsic part of all the wondrous happenings onsite.

The ‘Wonderlust’ stage embodied the essence of the Body & Soul festival, demonstrating the desire to curate an all-inclusive, community-driven experience. This stage hosted inspirational talks such as ‘The Trailblazery’ & ‘The Art of Getting Lost’. Artist Fergal McCarthy’s tales of conversing with street cleaners whilst dawn-swimming in the Liffey were followed by philosophical discussions of some of the 62,205 Irish townland names, hosted by Manchán Magan. Insights into the background and impetus for the festival were revealed during a public interview between the festival’s driving force, Avril Stanley, and her counterpart Bill Hauritz of Australia’s ‘Woodford Folk Festival’.

In accordance with Haritz’s philosophy of offering to create new rituals in people’s lives, festival-goers were presented with a myriad of activities throughout the woodland, culminating in the ‘Holistic Haven’. The invitation was extended to experience a Shamanic journey, partake in Yoga workshops or visit the ‘Hypno Tent’.

Nearby at the ‘Green Crafts Area’, baskets were being woven, bags knitted and keyrings knocked out at the bike-powered ‘High Nelly Forge’. Families were very much in evidence this year, with ‘Soul Kids’ adding to the programme, offering additional child-focused events. Sunday saw a mass group meditation, where hundreds of festival-goers took part in a short period of collective calm and reflection led by ‘One Giant Mind’.

As well as meandering through a multitude of innovative installations such as the awe-inspiring ‘Dream Farm’, the 6,500 attendees were also treated to the more traditional festival experience with an eclectic programme of live music from acts both familiar and novel. Homegrown acts such as Richie Egan, Si Schroder and Wallis Bird inhabited the gentler end of the musical spectrum, whilst the innovative RSAG delighted his sodden audience with an opportunity to dance the memories of rain away. Tented acts benefited from an audience of shelter-seeking crowds attempting to escape the seemingly ever-present threat of downpours.

A lone poncho-wrapped family were amongst the few who persevered through a deluge to watch Kurt Vile & the Violators on Saturday night, before Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds proceeded to give what has to have been one of the best live music performances at any event in recent years.

Warning: Video contains explicit language.

Catapulting his unstoppable energy into the crowd, Cave’s set veered from the slow and pulsatingly beautiful to the raw and fiercely charged.