• Dispatches From A Field: All Together Now 2024 – Saturday

    August 7, 2024 - By 

    Mike Ryan continues his three-parter reporting back from this year’s All Together Now, with Day Two highlights from The Mary Wallopers, Rachael Lavelle, Soda Blonde, Kojaque and more Photos by Ian Davies The sunny day two of All Together Now kicked off with Dublin-based music ensemble Glasshouse performing the music of the late, great Ryuchi Sakamoto. The Lovely Days stage, miraculously recovered from Confidence Man’s blistering set the night before, now resembled a park amphitheatre, with revellers sitting or lying, easing their way into the day. Next up was a Main Stage performance from Sing Along Social. Easing is over.…

  • Dispatches From A Field: All Together Now 2024 – Friday

    August 6, 2024 - By 

    In the first of a three-parter, Mike Ryan reports back from the Friday of this year’s All Together Now, featuring Confidence Man, Toshín, Cardinals, Niamh Regan and more Photos by Ian Davies Back for its fifth iteration, this year’s All Together Now brought its expected share of international heavy hitters to the idyllic Curraghmore Estate, Co. Waterford, but more impressively, this time around it was absolutely heaving with both the stalwarts and fresh faces of the Irish music scene. Cork indie debutants Cardinals kickstarted the Guinness Lovely Days stage, bringing noughties-inspired guitar licks and matching the crowd’s very evident Day…

  • Dispatches From A Field: All Together Now 2023

    August 10, 2023 - By 

    Mike Ryan reports back from Sugababes, Iggy Pop, Beak>, Villagers and more at the latest and greatest All Together Now to date. Photos by Celeste Burdon All Together Now returned last weekend for its fourth instalment, and with the memory of last year’s stellar line-up still fresh in people’s minds, it was always going to have an uphill battle to impress returning punters. It didn’t help matters that on Friday night that hill was covered in mud and into 50km winds. But before the weather turned, the evening got off to a rocking start. After an impressive set in one…

  • All Together Now 2022

    August 4, 2022 - By 

    Returning after its forced hiatus, Waterford’s All Together Now festival was back with a bang this weekend, bringing with it one of the most diverse and interesting lineups of any festival this summer. Armed with just his notes app and press pass  -and accompanied by the inimitable Celeste Burdon and her camera – Mike Ryan gives us a glimpse into the odyssey that engulfed Curraghmore Estate for the August bank holiday weekend. Photos by Celeste Burdon I arrive at All Together Now overburdened with probably unnecessary camping equipment, but just in time to catch the back half of The Altered…

  • Féile na Gréine: The Beauty and Togetherness of a DIY Festival

    August 22, 2019 - By 

    Féile na Gréine blasted through Limerick this weekend with an unprecedented force taking over venues and public spaces in an explosion of rhythm, creativity and unity. The tireless efforts of Limerick’s best and brightest designers, sound engineers, artists and all round creatives seamlessly came together to create a beautiful moment in time, forever frozen in the hearts and minds of the beholders. Now in its second year DIY LK and Lower your Expectations collaboration glistened day through day with the sheer determination of the community to bring music alive within the city. With this year’s festival expanding into nearly double…

  • Beatyard 2019 @ Dún Laoghaire

    August 6, 2019 - By 

    Beatyard is a very different festival to your standard Irish festival. Boat parties and a concrete setting make for a different experience than the typical field fare. Families litter the audience and Bodytonic pieces are everywhere you turn from the Wigwam stage to the Eatyard area. Setting a festival in such a centralised area is no mean feat but Beatyard manage to pull it off with unique elements and a stellar line-up. This year’s Beatyard predominantly caters to dance fans with an occasional spot of pop music. The Main Stage boasts a number of big-name festival acts whilst the Wigwam…

  • Knockanstockan 2019

    July 23, 2019 - By 

    2019 will be remembered as a phenomenal year for fans of Irish music with so many genres showing substantial growth and development. Hype has been reverberating throughout the whole scene but too often these acts that are doing so well are overlooked by festival line-ups. This year, Knockanstockan is an exception to that rule with the entire line-up feeling like a homage to Irish growth. Boasting a line-up that incorporates the vast range of sounds on display in Ireland’s musical canon right now, Knockanstockan 2019 is admirable in its dedication to eclecticism and musical inclusivity and makes itself a fore-runner…

  • Body & Soul 2019 (Sunday)

    June 26, 2019 - By 

    There is a chill in the air as drops of rain pitter-patter down on the tents that litter the grounds of Ballinlough Castle, County Westmeath. The final day of Body and Soul is upon the hordes of punters that have gathered here and for a few, their time is up. Several parts of the campsites now lie vacant, leaving only flattened squares of grass and tiny metal canisters in their place. For those that have stayed there is still a whole slew of acts to be seen. Many early risers linger around the Midnight Circus tent, popping in for shelter…

  • Body & Soul 2019 (Saturday)

    June 25, 2019 - By 

    It’s early Saturday morning and the first few fragile souls have emerged from their tents to grab those precious few start of the day necessities: water, a greasy sandwich and a cup of tea. At the same time, there are a few not so fragile souls that have yet to sleep stood in a circle listening to Ennio Morricone’s soundtrack to ‘The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’. The classic ‘morning after’ feeling of festival season looms over the campsites of Body and Soul. For those that have managed to pull themselves together in the early hours of the day…

  • Another Love Story 2018

    August 22, 2018 - By 

    An intimate festival of approximately two hundred attendees, Another Love Story is based in a family home set in quaint country surrounds of Killyon Manor. A mixture of live music, art installations and talks were enjoyed across various makeshift venues on the lawn as well as inside the house, namely in both cosy front rooms and the spacious ballroom. Now in its fourth year, Another Love Story affirmed its position as Ireland’s finest festival. The interplay between bands from Dublin and Cork, namely, of musicians spotted multiple times performing with different acts over the three days, demonstrated both the connectivity of…