On The Record

Festival of the summer! Sister Sledge! Fight Like Apes! Flushing loos!

May 8, 2007 @ 10:46 pm | by Jim Carroll

Just when you thought there was no way anyone else would bother trying to get into the summer festival groove, along comes Castle Palooza.

Castle Palooza will be held on August 4th and 5th at Charleville Castle, Tullamore, Co Offaly (the place the late, much missed Mor once called home) and will be headlined by Sister Sledge. Yah! Having seen Chic slay the hip kids at Sonar last summer, I’m all for classic disco.

In addition, the line up contains an eclectic mix of Ireland’s home-grown
talent and will feature: Neosupervital, The Chapters, Mainline, Star Little
Thing, The Gorgeous Colours, The Chakras, Red Kid, The Spikes, Fight Like
Apes, Sickboy, Gavin Glass, Royseven, Angel Pier, Springbreak, Daves Radio,
The Loafing Heroes, The Aftermath, The Ok’s, Corsairs, Moebius, The
Ministry, Martin Staunton Band, Prison Love & Marian Bradfield, with more
acts to be announced. There is also the welcome addition of Frightened
Rabbit, one of Glasgow’s most promising Indie acts.

Then, there are the facilities. Take note rival festival promoters.

For your ticket price you can also enjoy hot showers, great camping facilities,
a full bar, exhibitions, performance and lots of other surprises. (Not to
mention proper flushing loos!).

Tickets are €125 (two days with camping) and are now on sale.

9 Comments »

May 10, 2007
2:44 pm

It doesn’t look very appetising though really does it? Other than Sister Sledge there’s not really much in the line-up that would get me all hot and bothered and in need of one of the aforementioned showers! Let’s hope some higher profile acts get added to the bill or I reckon it will be a washout, with or without flushing loos.

Comment by John

May 10, 2007
3:29 pm

Fight Like Apes rule

Comment by UnaRocks

May 10, 2007
4:38 pm

does anyone have any reports on this fest from last year, its first outing?

Comment by Jim Carroll

May 10, 2007
6:42 pm

Sounds great, both for line-up and facilities, and genuinely good value for 125 notes.

However, festival-goers in Ireland are still being expected to pay much more than in other countries. For example, 69 euros for three-day pass (+ free camping) to Les Vielles Charrues in Brittany (acts include Peter Gabriel, Arcade Fire, Scissor Sisters (there’s your bit o’ disco!), Rickie Lee Jones, Kaiser Chiefs, Klaxons and loads of local bands of all genres. Plus, subsidised transport (10 euro return train ticket from any town in Brittany).

Most 2 day festivals in France cost no more than 70 euros per ticket, with the same big international acts as Ireland’s festivals (and it costs money to bring US bands to every European country, so that’s not a valid reason for Irish high prices).

Comment by aidan

May 12, 2007
2:52 pm

aidan - the thing about that comparison is that you are comparing like with like. Irish citizens earn considerably more than their French equivalents. Irish high prices and costs are in direction co-relation to Irish high wages. A better comparison is with Norway - Oyafest in Oslo costs 200 euros for 3 days - or Denmark - Roskilde in Denmark is also 200 euros. There are even European festivals which are cheaper than France - Dour in Belgium is 75 euros for FOUR days and the excellent Arezzo Wave in Italy is 5 euros per day for FIVE days (amazing catering too).

Comment by Jim Carroll

May 12, 2007
9:33 pm

Jim - re: your point about wage costs, French wages may be slightly lower but French employers must pay sizeable welfare contributions and other charges for each employee (more so than in Ireland) so the end-of-day staffing costs would not be so different.

Also, Arezzo Wave receives local government financial support, doesn’t spend money on big-name international acts (last year’s only big international star was Sinead O’Connor)… and it used to be free!!!! But 5 euro is still good value all the same

(ps just sorted out my blogroll, so you can expect lots of posts in broken English from Johnny Hallyday fans)

Comment by aidan

May 13, 2007
9:19 am

aidan - while i accept your (obviously first-hand!) experience of french wages, i was also refering to other costs (transport, accomodation, production, staging, ticket handling etc) which are considerably higher in Ireland than elsewhere, hence the knock-on effect on ticket prices. I would also argue, and you must agree seeing as you didnt mention it, that irish festivals should really be compared to the Nordic and Scandanavian experiences in terms of costs and prices

as for Arezzo Wave, it was a lack of local government support which forced them to bring in that 5 euros a day charge and it’s lack of support from Arezzo City Hall which is forcing them to move to Florence for this year’s festival. While it’s predominantly Italian acts, they do book international acts (in 2006, this included zZZ, Gogol Bordello and Sinead O’Connor).

Comment by Jim Carroll

May 23, 2007
1:58 pm

Saw Angel Pier last year they are top class, probably one of the better Irish acts out there

Comment by jess

July 4, 2007
12:59 am

check this: 65bucks for wknd (incl camping) www.mantuaproject.com

Comment by mike