Gardaí praise behaviour of fans at festival

A senior garda has praised the behaviour of up to 15,000 young fans who attended a three-day music festival in North Cork.

Superintendent Mick Comyns said he was happy to praise fans who attended the Indiependence Music Festival in Mitchelstown for their orderly behaviour, especially as there had been bad press from other recent festivals — notably when trouble flared as the Swedish House Mafia played in Phoenix Park.

“We had up to 5,000 people attending the festival each night from last Friday night until Sunday. The vast majority attending would have been in their late teens and early 20s and I was very impressed with them,” Supt Comyns said.

“I couldn’t compliment them enough. Everybody enjoyed themselves and there was great banter between the gardaí and themselves. We [the gardaí] were asked to stand in for pictures with the young people and I lost count of the number of times I did so,” he said.

The superintendent said that there had been some minor drugs seizures at the event, but they “were very small in relation to the amount of people who attended”.

“People were able take their own drink into the campsite and they had access to a number of bars at the festival itself. Yes, there were people who were obviously drunk but they behaved themselves,” he said.

“There were no more public order issues than you’d get any weekend in any town. We had a good presence there in case anything happened, but people were very well behaved and we have to give credit to them for that.”

Supt Comyns said he would certainly welcome having the Indiependence festival in Mitchelstown again next year.