• Festival Preview: Beyond The Pale 2023

    May 24, 2023 - By 

    As expertly-curated boutique music festivals go, Beyond the Pale takes some beating. Returning for three days of top-tier sounds, art and food at Glendalough Estate in Co. Wicklow across 16th-18th June, the festival is well and truly doubling down on last year’s stellar first outing. Better said, it’s this year’s most unmissable Irish summer festival. First, and of course foremost, Beyond The Pale sets itself apart with its first-rate musical curation. Where last year more than delivered on a wonderfully diverse, genre-spanning bill, this year’s edition comfortably inhabits a space that can’t be rivalled on these shores. As well as era-crossing, genre-distilling world-beaters in the form of this…

  • 10 Sets To Catch at All Together Now 2018

    August 2, 2018 - By 

    This Bank Holiday Weekend (August 3-4), All Together Now pops up at Curraghmore House in Co. Waterford for its first run. With one of Ireland’s most stacked festival line-ups this summer, here’s our guide to the acts you have to catch this weekend. Words by Kelly Doherty Go here to buy tickets to ATN 2018 Fleet Foxes – Sunday, 10.30pm, ATN Stage The Seattle folk kings returned from a long break to regain their crown with their 2017 release, Crack Up and are set to light up the ATN stage as the festival’s final headliner on Sunday night. Expect expansive,…

  • Festival Mixtape: Arcadian Field

    July 25, 2018 - By 

    One of the most scenic, intimate music festivals in Ireland returns for its third year over the weekend of August 4 & 5, Arcadian Field. Taking place at Bellurgan Park at the foot of the Cooley Mountains just outside Dundalk – its manor house woven into the festival area – it’s a celebration of all that’s culturally rich in Irish music, art, spoken word, poetry, theatre, comedy, workshops & in nature – with a Burning Man-esque fire ritual on the final night, as well as candlelit drawing room performances and nature walks. There are several new programming additions on offer this year. As well as…

  • AVA Festival Preview: Denis Sulta

    May 15, 2018 - By 

    All this week, we’re going to be previewing some must-see acts at this year’s AVA Festival. Set to return to Belfast across Friday 1 – Saturday 2 June, the island’s finest electronic showcase will feature Bicep, Larry Heard aka Mr Fingers, KiNK, Floorplan, Denis Sulta and many, many more at the S13 Warehouse. We have a big giveaway for this year’s festival. To be in with the chance of winning two AVA weekend passes, two AVA T-shirts and, to sweeten the deal, four drink tokens, simply Like our Facebook page here and send us a link to your favourite Bicep track to info@thethinair.net There’s so much we could say about the Glasgow-born, Berlin-based, Denis Sulta but honestly? His Boiler…

  • Preview: Brilliant Corners 2018

    February 5, 2018 - By 

    Returning for its sixth year, the country’s finest jazz festival, Brilliant Corners will take over various venues in Belfast across March 3-10. Programmed by the ever tasteful team at Moving On Music, this year’s bill is a wonderfully diverse patchwork of jazz and first-rate sonic digression. As well as films including Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker being screened in association with Belfast Film Festival at the Bean Bag Cinema, this year’s programme boasts Belfast’s experimental rock masters Blue Whale, the singular guitar explorations of Jim Mullen alongside the Ronnie Greer Organ Band and a homegrown showcase featuring Joseph Leighton Trio, Sue Rynhart…

  • Festival Preview: Quarter Block Party 2018

    January 15, 2018 - By 

    Returning to the centre of Cork city for its fourth year isQuarter Block Party, a music and arts festival fast establishing its position as one of the finest weekends in the cultural calendar. Presented by Makeshift Ensemble and the Southern Hospitality Board, a myriad of events are due to provide some much-needed upliftment following the post-Christmas tedium over the first weekend of February (Friday 2nd to Sunday the 4th). Psych-pop experimentalists O Emperor (below) have been quiet since the release of their Lizard EP which came out back in 2015 and their return provides an occasion for the band to debut…

  • Festival Preview: It Takes A Village 2018

    January 12, 2018 - By 

    At the final All Tomorrows Parties festival at Pontins Holiday Camp, East Sussex in 2013, one music fan-in-residence jovially likened the rows of chalets and wandering music fans that inhabited them as being like some kind of ‘dystopian playground’. They didn’t realise the prescience of their reflection at the time. All Tomorrow’s Parties subsequently went down in an inglorious debt-ridden blaze after so many stellar festivals – events that took the holiday camp model and created a communal event where artist and punter stood on equal footing. They ate, drank, and slept together, got fucked up and came back down together; they…

  • Preview & Festival Mixtape: Le Guess Who? 2017

    October 25, 2017 - By 

    Laying comfortably in the shadow of Amsterdam is the chilled-out university town of Utrecht, where the red light district is gladly a distant memory, and typically Dutch architecture and culture are in great supply. While this particularly from of citywide festival can be tough to pull off, Le Guess Who? has developed and diversified every year, offering something for everyone. A holiday-planner’s dream, it boasts the artistic ambition with none of the associated pretentiousness. Many of the performances take place in the impressive TivoliVredenburg or multitude of other venues within walking distance. Most music starts after 5pm, offering the chance to visit the Rietveld Schröder House, tour the…

  • Festival Preview: Right Here Right Now

    April 27, 2017 - By 

    Eimear Hurley caught up with Cork Opera House C.E.O. Eibhlín Gleeson and Brian Hassett of Coughlan’s Live Promotions to find out about Cork’s newest festival, Right Here Right Now, which will showcase a range of artists currently making music in the city. Following a number of successful collaborations between Cork Opera House and Coughlan’s Live Promotions over the past couple of years, the two organisations have joined forces to put together this unique festival which will take place from April 28–30 all under the roof of the Opera House. The idea for the festival came to Eibhlín when she heard singer-songwriter…

  • Festival Preview: AVA Festival 2016

    May 17, 2016 - By 

    Having had an unforgettable inaugural outing last year (you can check out our review right here) Belfast electronic festival AVA will return to T13 on Saturday, June 4 with the very solid aim of celebrating and nurturing talent from across the length and breadth of the country. With just over one month left to this year’s festival – which also features much more than just live sets – TTA’s resident electronic savants Aidan Hanratty and Antoin Lindsay have banged heads to produce the following preview, featuring all confirmed artists performing at this year’s festival. Go here to buy tickets to this year’s AVA Festival. Check out…