Mosney holiday centre to host Homelands Ireland, State's first dance music festival

A major live music festival in the Mosney Holiday Centre, Co Meath, on Saturday, September 18th, is expected to attract upwards of 20,000 people. It will be the first dance festival of its kind in the Republic.

The Homelands Ireland festival will feature a mixture of live bands and DJs in six different outdoor arenas at the holiday centre, and some of the biggest names in the contemporary dance music scene are expected to be confirmed to appear within the next two weeks.

Homelands Ireland is a joint promotion between Mr Vince Power of the Mean Fiddler organisation and Mr John Reynolds of Dublin's POD club.

The festival will run from 1 p.m. for 13 hours, and special transport will be arranged to bring people to the holiday camp from around the country.

Mr Phelim McCluskey, MD of Mosney Holiday Centre, said: "We have taken advice from senior counsel and we are happy that this music festival is within the remit of what we're allowed stage at the centre.

"We will be complying with the Code of Practice for Safety at Outdoor Pop Concerts which has been issued by the Department of Education. I have total trust in both Vince Power and John Reynolds as promoters of this festival."

Homelands Ireland will be the first dance music festival to be staged in the State.

"I'm really happy to be presenting a bill of this calibre in Ireland," said Mr Reynolds, "and according to Vince Power, who is a man who really knows his festivals, Mosney is the best festival site he's ever seen.

"It's only 22 minutes from the centre of Dublin by car and it's also on the Dublin-Belfast railtrack."

Waterford-born Mr Power also runs the Homelands England and Homelands Scotland festivals which will take place at the end of May and early July respectively.

Apart from owning a number of prime music venues in London, he also promotes the Reading rock music festival in England as well as the annual Fleadh festival in London, which is billed as the biggest celebration of Celtic music in the world.

"Homelands Ireland will be a sort of dance music version of the Fleadh," said Mr Reynolds, "and like the Fleadh, we hope to bring it over to the US at some stage in the near future".

The Homelands England and Scotland festivals feature a line-up which is a definitive representation of today's dance music scene. Artists confirmed for those festivals include Fat Boy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Faithless and Peter Tong.

It is believed that most if not all of these artists will be appearing in Mosney on September 18th, with a full line-up and details about ticket prices being announced within the next two weeks.