Festival fever

SLANE is over for another year but Irish festival season is only beginning.

Alongside ‘big footprint’ events such as Oxegen and Electric Picnic — and their international line-ups — the summer features an array of smaller festivals, in such unlikely venues as a whimsical country garden, a scenic surfing locale and a Wicklow lake-side.

What progress since the days when ‘festival season’ meant being bored witless by whiffy bodhrán bashers and leathery heavy rock bands two decades past retirement in a rickety sports stadium. Nowadays, there’s a festival to suit everyone’s tastes. Here are our favourites: