• Vantastival Postponed Until September

    Vantastival has been postponed until September. The annual Drogheda music festival, which was set to return across May 29-31, is the latest event to be postponed due to issues surrounding the global spread of Coronavirus. The festival will now take place across September 18th-20th and all tickets purchased are valid for the new dates. In a Facebook post, organisers said: “Due to multiple challenges arising from the spread of Coronavirus, we have reluctantly taken the decision to postpone the Vantastival festival, which will now take place 18th – 20th September 2020. All expert opinion indicates the situation is likely to deteriorate…

  • Final Acts Announced for Vantastival 2019

    Vantastival have announced the final acts to play this year’s festival. Beauty Sleep (pictured), Tanjier, TAU, The Bonny Men, Rebel Phoenix, Amy Montgomery, Ghost Accuser, Coscán, Little Dove, Bajjna, The Roomkeepers, Kelso, Music Generation Louth and The Samba Mamas will play the Drogheda festival’s tenth-anniversary outing across May 31-June 2. The festival has also announced that Repak ELT is the official support of the Glass House Stage, which will showcase singer-songwriters including Australia’s Tailor Birds, The Midnight Union Band’s Shane Joyce, Gemma Bradley, Rachel Grace, Ojo, The Finns, Bayonets, Bawn, Little Oak, Niamh Rebekah, Rosco Flanagan, Kloé and more. Revisit our recent…

  • Going the Distance: 10 Years of Vantastival

    Ten years is a long time in the summer festival business. Both in terms of challenges faced and having reason to celebrate, it’s a much longer time if your summer festival adheres to a fiercely homegrown and independently-minded manifesto. Returning for its tenth anniversary across May 31-June 2, Drogheda’s Vantastival is proof that, with the right marriage of ambition, hard work, knowledge and passion, success is possible. Placing community, curation, sustainability and affordability at the heart of their approach, the organisers are currently busy putting the final touches to this year’s outing. Ahead of that, we speak to festival co-director Louise Tangney about the…

  • Festival Mixtape: Vantastival 2019

    In an age when we’re lucky to have new-fangled festivals are springing up left, right and centre, Drogheda’s Vantastival holds steady as one of the country’s most consistently impressive – and downright eclectic – Irish summer festials. Set to return to Beaulieu House and Gardens for its 10th anniversary across May 31-June 2, this year’s outing will play host to everyone from King Kong Company, Lisa O’Neill and Just Mustard, to Wallis Bird, Afro Celt Sound System and Pillow Queens. The Co. Louth festival has always boasted much more than a carefully-curated bill of music and this year is no…

  • Vantastival 2018

    Vantastival 2018 at Beaulieu House in Drogheda, Co. Louth featuring live performances from Thumper, Loah, The Stunning, No Oil Paintings, Dreaming of Jupiter and more. Photos by Kristy Hal

  • Vantastival @ Bellurgan Park, Co. Louth

    When they say Vantastival is one of the Irish festival circuit’s best-kept secrets, it’s not some line they’re feeding you. A family-run event, over the past six years, Bellurgan Park, Co.Louth-based fest has been built up completely from scratch, “a totally unique, brazenly independent event and the only one of its kind in Ireland”, and its sixth annual instalment, running from May 1st to 3rd, is looking like a cracker. Headlined this year by reunited Welsh rap-rockers Goldie Lookin’ Chain, and Irish indie-pop veterans Delorentos, the multiple-award nominated fest also places the spotlight on a diverse range of Irish bands…