Category: IRELAND

Longitude map a course for 2019

Chance the Rapper, A$AP Rocky, and Future are among the first  wave of acts announced for Longitude, taking place in Marley Park, Dublin from July 5 to 7 next year .  The line up continues a definite shift from a fairly eclectic line up to a more definite rap and hip hop feel in recent years.

Brockhampton, Rae Sremmurd, Lil Uzi Vert, Juice WRLD, Versatile, Aminé, Denzel Curry, $uicideBoy$, Lil Baby, Sheck Wes, Clairo, Slowthai, and Flohio were also announced today.

Promoters MCD have announced that a limited number of weekend tickets, priced at €189.50, will go on sale this Friday at 10.00am via ticketmaster.

The announcement of the names came out of nowhere and is much earlier than previous years.  Following on from the early sell out of Electric Picnic, it looks like promoters are hoping to cash in on pre – Christmas sales.

 

 

FOMO grips Ireland as Electric Picnic sells out

Electric Picnic tickets went back on sale briefly yesterday, for just 15 minutes in fact.  That was all the time that it took for the Irish festival to join the elite group of festivals that can sell out without naming an act.

Tickets were initially on sale in the week after this weeks festival in September.  Discounted early bird tickets sold quickly and even full price tickets did not last long in that initial sale.  The balance of tickets were shifted quickly on Monday.

EP has sold out for the last few years.   In recent years, tickets were snapped up within minutes of headliners being announced.  Tickets for last years show, which featured Kendrick, N.E.R.D, Massive Attack and The Prodigy were like hens teeth in the weeks leading up to the event.  Organisers have even increased capacity by 5,000, to 57,000+ for next year.

Organisers have said they will be releasing the full line up in the New Year.  Its not clear whether this will be one big announcement, or whether they will issue a series of announcements through the summer, as is their usual M.O.

One way or another, the power of FOMO has driven the Electric Picnic audience to part with their cash early.

Bastille day in Cork

Indiependence has announced the first to headliners for the August Bank Holiday weekend.  Bastille and Biffy Clyro are the opening headliners for the Cork event.

Bastille last played Indie in 2013.  This will be the first trip to the Cork venue for Scottish Rockers Biffy Clyro.   Biffy have headlined some major festivals in the past, so this is a major coup for Indiependence, a great way to celebrate their tenth year.  The festival has grown from 3000 to 15000 in that time.

Organisers are promising an improved VIP area and a larger camping space.  These build on improvements in previous years.  Tickets cost €139 and are on sale now.  They will go up to €149 in January.

Check out updates at www.indiependencefestival.com

Indiependence tickets on sale

Indiependence is, to me, the little festival that could.  When it started back in 2009, it attracted a crowd of 3000 to Deer farm in Mitchelstown, Co. Cork.   Since then, it has grown to a 15,000 strong festival.  It has held its own well against stiff competition in the Irish market.

Indiependence has always had a nice mix of established indie stars with up and coming Irish artists.  Last years headliners included Jake Bugg, Primal Scream, Walking on Cars, Everything Everything and Le Galaxie.

Early bird tickets go on sale this Saturday from tickets.ie.  Ticket prices for early bird purchases will remain at last years level.  Early bird tickets start at the excellent value of €109, while Tier 1 VIP tickets are priced at €169.  Organisers have promised that they will be making their first line up announcement pre – Christmas.

INDIE18-4

Bobby Gillespie, Primal Scream at INDIE18 by Kieran Frost

John Reynolds – An appreciation

Like many other music lovers, I was stopped in my tracks last night with the news of John Reynolds sudden passing.  At 52 he was a relatively young man with a great future still ahead of him.

Ireland’s concert-going community know the debt we owe to John Reynolds.  He changed everything.  The arrival of Electric Picnic in 2004 not only brought choice to festival goers, it also brought a whole new level of experience.  This was not just a music festival, but a music and arts festival.  Quite a few people at the time were scratching their head as to what that might mean.   It meant an entirely new way of running a festival.

While Reynolds would ultimately lose control of Electric Picnic, his legacy would continue in all Irish festivals.  The launch of All Together Now in 2018 was a clear attempt to recreate the initial atmosphere of Electric Picnic as a smaller, boutique festival.  Just as the Picnic had been formed as an alternative to the behemoth that was Oxegen, All Together Now was aimed at a section of the market that Reynolds believed had been left behind as Electric Picnic had expanded.  The first All Together Now was, according to punters, a huge success.

Body and Soul, which has grown into one  Ireland’s best festivals gained much of its fame from inclusion in the Electric Picnic line up.  It is hard to imagine that Body and Soul would have grown to what it is without Reynold’s influence.

This weekend coming will see the fourth running of Metropolis, another of Reynold’s innovations.  The show, which is being headlined by Villagers should be a tribute to a man who has given a huge amount to Irish audiences.

There is an Irish saying which is used in moments such as this, ‘ni bheidh a leitheid aris ann.’  It translates as, never will we see his like again.

Here is an RTE archive report in advance of the first Electric Picnic, including a brief segment with John Reynolds

 

Falling event numbers and crowds see lossses continue at Live Nation Gaiety

Accounts were recently published for 2017 by Live Nation Gaiety, one of the UK’s largest promoters.  Live Nation operates a large number of the UKs festivals, including Reading & Leeds, TRNSMT, Rize and Isle of Wight.

LN Gaiety, a joint venture between Live Nation and Denis Desmond has reported a consolidated loss after tax of £227,496.  The consolidated loss in 2016 was £2.9m.  Turnover at the company was down to £199.4m, down marginally on the year before.  However, things are far from gloomy at the behemoth, as the company was sitting on over £27m cash in the bank.  Net assets at the company were down 1.5 per cent to £40.1m.

The promoters ran 4,191 events in 2017, this was down from 4,728 events in 2016.  Despite a 11.4% drop in events, the total attendance for events was only marginally down, from 5.48m to 5.34m.

The Company had 630 staff in 2017, up from 618 in 2016.  Salaries in the year amounted to £18.1m, up from £17.5m the previous year.  A total of £527,850 of dividends were paid to “non-controlling interests” during the year, which was down from £3.2 million the year before.

 

 

 

Electric Picnic still a nice little earner

Electric Picnic Republic, the holding company for EP has declared profits for 2017 of €1.9m.  Thats a five fold increase on the previous year.  Attendance at the festival was raised in 2017 from 51,000 to 55,000 weekend tickets. Despite the larger attendance, the festival sold out in advance of any acts being named.  The same happened this year and sales have been reported to be strong for next years Picnic.

With 2018 a decidedly mixed year for concert promoters in Ireland, the importance of cash cow events such as EP is pretty obvious.  It seems likely that a number of high profile shows in 2018 were loss making.  EP not only generates revenue, but by selling out up to 7 months in advance, it bank rolls a lot of other activity.

Cher Ching!

I will have a longer piece over the weekend on the LN-Gaiety results, which were published a little while back.

 

 

 

Irish health authorities to consider drug testing at festivals

The Health Service Executive (HSE), Ireland’s national health service, is to establish a working group to consider the possibility of implementing drug testing facilities at festivals and nightclubs.  Drug testing allows drug users to check the composition of the drug they are going to take, potentially helping users to avoid drugs with unwanted contaminants.

The working group will examine a number of measures, of which drug testing is one.  The HSE has come in for both praise and criticism in recent months, for an advertising campaign which is targeted at cocaine and crack users, outlining ways in which users could reduce their risk.  Some commentators argued that this was a mature response which acknowledged that people were going to use drugs and that risks could be mitigated.  Others argued that a state body should not promote drug use in any shape.

The matter was raised in the Irish Senate (Seanad) yesterday, by Senator Fintan Warfield, who praised the Government’s initiative on cocaine and crack, but asked would the Government take specific initiatives to protect festival goers.  He highlighted initiatives such as The Loop in the UK.

Minister of State for Health Promotion, Catherine Byrne,  indicated that the matter was to be examined by a HSE working group, early in 2019.

“The HSE’s addiction services has had preliminary discussions with emergency health providers who attend music events. It has examined emerging approaches that provide targeted preventive messages to recreational drug users. Our strategy, Reducing Harm, Supporting Recovery, looked at evidence related to interventions to tackle the drug problem, including drug testing as a harm reduction measure. It includes a specific action which aims to strengthen early harm reduction responses to current and emerging trends, as well as patterns of drug use. This will be delivered by establishing a working group to examine the evidence on early harm reduction responses such as drug testing.” 

Metallica confirmed for Slane

Slane owner, Lord Henry Mountcharles, has confirmed the worst kept secret of the autumn, with the announcement that Metallica will headline Slane 2019.

Launching the gig, Mountcharles pointed out that Metallica were formed in 81, the year of the first Slane.  Mountcharles pointed out that his grandson Sean (6) is a Metallica fan.  He claimed that this show would prove that ‘Slane’s rock and roll roots were alive and well.’

The gig will take place at the Co. Meath castle on June 8th.  There will be a minimum of 5 acts, possibly 6.  Ghost, currently touring with Metallica, will be one of the support acts.  The opening act will be an Irish act.

Tickets for the 80,000 capacity event will go on sale on Friday