Five things we learned at Body & Soul

Ellie O’Byrne had fun in the sun — and the mud — at the weekend festival in Ballinlough Castle

1) Main-stage moments met with a mixed reception

On Friday night on the Body and Soul stage, Girl Band knocked out songs laden with tightly-controlled, raw, punk-infused energy and explosive vocal delivery from frontman Dara Kiely. Having cancelled several gigs already this year for health reasons, fans were all the more appreciative of their performance, which was a true festival highlight.

The last time St Germain toured, Ludovic Navarre had mixed results putting across his jazzy house in a live setting. This time around, he’s recruited musicians from Mali, Senegal and Brazil for an afrobeat-inspired set that included exuberant on-stage dance-offs on Saturday night. A mixed crowd of dreamers and dancers swayed to a set that should have been eminently danceable and celebratory and yet somehow never quite seemed to kick off.

‘Stadium trad’ from Irish supergroup The Gloaming was also met with a mixed reaction; the response from the crowd to the ethereal offerings of Hayes, Ó Lionáird, Ó Raghallaigh et al varied from hushed and receptive reverence to distracted chatter.

2) There’s no keeping the Ireland fans down

Dublin DJ collective Motel saved the day, sacrificing half their slot at the Midnight Circus tent so that Body & Soul could play host to the Ireland v Belgium match after an online petition from fans garnered over 2,700 signatures and forced a last-minute change of heart for organisers, who had announced that they weren’t planning on screening the game.

Three thousand fans packed the gently steaming tent for the game, with hundreds more lounging in the sun on the grass outside.

In the campsite, the festival vogue for hippie-inspired flower face paint briefly gave way to the tricolour. The 3-0 loss did little to dampen the mood, though.

3)The food abides

Hungry punters had plenty choices. In line with Body & Soul’s sustainable ethos, the ‘Food on Board’ area in the walled garden, brainchild of Cork food guru The Rocketman, aka Jack Crotty, dished up grub on re- usable wooden food boards and composted their food waste on site.

The collaborative effort between some of Ireland’s most innovative food producers offered a dazzling array of eats including delicate assemblages of pea-shoots, kale and Toonsbridge buffalo halloumi, seafood from Sligo’s hip Shells Café and heartier fare, more suited to lining caroused-out stomachs .

4) Ditch the programme and wander

Musically, it’s unexpected stumble-upons that make for the most memorable moments and Body & Soul’s layout and innovative booking policy, which booker Jenny Wren freely admits is largely based on gut instinct and personal taste (“If I’m the only one down here for them I seriously don’t mind, I just love them!” she said, waiting for Korean experimental post-rockers Jambinai to take to the Body and Soul stage on Saturday) that makes the festival fertile ground for rewarding new discoveries.

Galway’s My Fellow Sponges on Saturday night at the Bulmer’s Lounge were an endearingly quirky hit of positivity and talent. A wander in the woods uncovered Mario Batkovic, a sharply-dressed Serb equipped with a quiff, an accordion and a loop pedal. Twin vocals from AE Mak’s Aoife McCann and Ellie McMahon on a smart and sexy electro-pop arrangement of Nina Simone’s ‘See-Line Woman’ on Sunday evening were a definite musical highlight.

5) The head-dresses got drenched, but the spirits weren’t dampened

It was more trench-foot rock than Trenchtown rock at the Jamaican-themed PortRoyal stage by Sunday afternoon as the inevitable sea of mud advanced on the water-logged site. Organisers said that the 15,000 tickets available for this year’s expanded festival all sold, but there’s no doubt that the rain affected numbers on Sunday, with some waterlogged punters bailing early.

But it was the truly dedicated that stayed on to see out Sunday night and the mud, as usual, became a prop in the festival frolics.

One enterprising reveller demonstrated his cross-country skiing technique with a pair of tent-poles and plastic sheeting wrapped around his feet.

“I skied all the way here from my tent,” he declared proudly to his appreciative audience.