Over Coachella? Four Irish festivals to get to for substance over style

With America's Coachella weekenders getting it in the neck for losing their edge amid the arrival of a wider audience, here are four festivals closer to home that put the tunes first

Tue, 19 Apr, 2022 - 05:18

Mike McGrath Bryan

The modern-day weekend outdoor festival has been a thing for decades now, and in Ireland has grown from its roots in the Mountain Dew Festival, a major outdoor gig in Macroom for blues legend Rory Gallagher, to a bustling array of events for a wide variety of tastes, genres and audiences.

Recent social-media patter from the States suggests that the two-weekend-long spectacle of the industry-leading Coachella festival, in the Colorado Desert in Indio, California, has finally lost its appeal.

But if you're thinking of heading out to a weekend festival - or taking a city break in Cork this summer - there's plenty of options around where you can get out of a "casual" festival headspace, and deep into new and emerging music and culture, without sacrificing the craic.

Open Ear - June 3-5

Ella Motherway and Imelda Forde enjoy the view of Sherkin Island on a balmy winter afternoon where temperatures reached a high of fourteen degrees in Baltimore, Co. Cork, Ireland. - Picture David Creedon

Heading out for the weekend on boats to the long-tenured festival locale of Sherkin Island off the southwest coast of Cork, Open Ear has established and maintained a reputation for showcasing progressive, forward-thinking electronic music over the past few years.

This year's line-up is no exception, with Carlow techno exponent Tr One, Dublin trolley-pushers Acid Granny, and North Cork entity The Department of Energy on the billing.

Tickets from €185 are on sale here - including donations to keep the island's primary school open as a community hub.

Cork Midsummer Festival - June 15-26

Less a weekender, and more a longform exploration of Cork city's cultural life, the Midsummer Festival has been a beacon of support and innovation over the course of the Covid crisis - and is roaring back into life with a huge cross-disciplinary line-up.

Early music announcements include the return of US songwriter Sharon Van Etten to the Opera House, and beatboxing workshops at the Everyman, with a full line-up announcement due in the coming weeks - perfect to build a city break in Cork around.

For more info and tickets, go here.

Body & Soul - June 17-19

While the name Body & Soul is inextricably tied to weekends out on the lash as part of their previous involvement with Electric Picnic, the group's standalone festival has always offered a more thoughtful festival experience.

While the concept for this year's festival was to make the best of post-Covid longing by promoting a mystery line-up to be unveiled upon arrival at its Co Westmeath site, a few early names have been revealed that have stirred up interest, including Róisín Murphy, Scottish post-rockers Mogwai, and US soul veteran Lee Fields - as well as a lineup of homegrown heroes that includes country queen CMAT, psych-rock heroes The Altered Hours, folk singer John Francis Flynn and many more.

For more info and tickets, go here.

All Together Now - July 29-31

Pillow Queens: part of a huge lineup at All Together Now

While perhaps operating at a larger scale than some of the festivals mentioned here, and packing a couple of nostalgic headliners (like Nick Cave, Underworld, and the retiring Groove Armada) to feed the needs of casual fans amid all of the weekend's splendour, All Together Now's lineup packs a serious punch in a Co Waterford setting that doesn't eschew atmosphere in seeking to escape campsite chaos.

Highlights of a jam-packed August Bank Holiday weekend include Sinéad O'Connor, Floating Points, Aussie psych-rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, US shoegazers DIIV, and a massive round-up of Irish music's new generation, including Pillow Queens, CMAT, The Altered Hours, Denise Chaila, Gemma Dunleavy and Pretty Happy.