Indiependence Music & Arts Festival once more returned to its location of recent years in Deer Farm, Mitchelstown over the August bank holiday weekend. The festival line up boasted a high calibre of acts from both home and abroad with headliners Maverick Sabre, 2 Many DJ’s, and The Coronas. While all the music certainly lived up to expectation, one thing that unfortunately didn’t cooperate was the weather. So bad was the mud that campervan tickets had to be returned in the days before, and the usual carpark closed with nearby industrial estates thankfully opening up their gates to festival goers.
Security was extremely tight on entering the arena all weekend in what was an obvious repercussion to Phoenix Park a month previous. A ‘Post Phoenix’ festival saw everything from makeup bottles to gazebos being taken from festival goers upon entry, and while frustrating, it has to be said there was no trouble to report of over the three days.
All the above however didn’t take away from the quality of music on display all weekend, and while the likes of Scroobius Pip and Maverick Sabre put on stellar performances, most impressive was our very own talent.
Richie Egan rocked the Big Top Stage on Friday belting out hits from his previous two Choice Music Prize albums proving as always why he and his band Jape deserve the ample accolades they receive.
Saturday the Irish act of the night belonged to Patrick Kelleher and his Cold Dead Hands. This band have managed to create a unique yet retro electro sound that compells you to listen to more. These guys just get better and better and really come into their own on bigger stages.
The night also featured Ross Breen taking his well earned place on the Redbull Bedroom Jam stage. Ross won Newstalk’s Tom Dunne’s show search for Ireland’s greatest singer songwriter. His song ‘Monet’ was chosen by a judging panel as the best entry from over a thousand submissions and on Saturday night he didn’t fail to prove his worth on stage. If you haven’t listened to him already, you can hear him href="http://www.rossbreen.com/" target="_blank">here.
Sunday saw another wealth of Irish talent take to the stages. You won’t find a more entertaining gig out there at the moment than a Le Galaxie one, if not for the tunes off their spectaculary good debut album Laserdisc Nights 2 but for the enthuasiasm with which they deliver them. They MAKE you have a great time, and you want them to.
The Minutes, Delerentos, We Cut Corners, Ham Sandwich and of course The Coronas also made their very notable marks on the night with Ham Sandwich even treating the crowd to an array of gigantic balloons floating overhead for their final performance.
All in all, the festival delivered what it should have and will no doubt continue on as the biggest festival in the South for many a year more. The weather, the unending mud and the extremely tight security placed an unfortunate taint on the weekend but that was not the fault of organisers who went out of their way to make things manageable for festival goers in the days previous. The festival served as a reminder that no matter what the lay of the land is in this country, diverse talent and quality music is something we will never stop having in abundance.
By Fiona Flynn
