Pub festival reels in the decades

Cork pubs tried to lift weekend sales with a fancy-dress festival inspired by decades past, writes BRIAN O'CONNELL

IT’S ONLY A matter of time before someone starts a “Festivals Festival”. The latest addition to the seemingly unending need to mark every weekend of the summer with a festival is the Carlsberg-sponsored Decades Festival, which took place over the weekend in some 30 bars in Cork city centre.

A number of bars in Cork devised the festival three years ago, in response to later opening hours, a trend towards home drinking, and ever tighter bar profits. The idea is that every participating bar chooses a decade and themes its night accordingly, from music to costumed staff. Regulars are asked to dress up too. A €500 prize was on offer for the best-dressed attendee this weekend.

Sixty bars participated last year; roughly half that number took part this time. And while some venues made a real effort, in too many, cheap costumes and a few DJ selections did little to engender a real sense of festival fun.

Some festival goers were underwhelmed, claiming on the festival’s Facebook page that they stood out as the only ones in their chosen venues who had bothered to get dressed up. Joanna Murphy, for example, said she had “made [a] big effort last night with the dressing up and feck-all people dressed up around”.

The Soho Bar on the Grand Parade went for a 1990s themed night, with dancers outside the venue and many of the bar staff dressed up as grunge types or wearing DayGlo clubbing outfits. Love Heart sweets and Refresher bars were dotted along the counter.

Over at the Woodford, it was back to the 1950s with a singalong movie show and lots of be-bap-a-whooping from the sound system. The staff looked great with sideburns and braces on the guys and ball gowns for the girls. Again, though, not many customers had dressed up.

Festival manager Adrienne Hickey said the concept behind the festival was to generate something extra on a night out and appeal to the inner sentimentalist in every local Corkonian. “The concept is that Cork people love to revisit old eras and also like fancy dress, pretending to be someone else on a night out. It is a growing festival,” she said.

Standing guard outside Costigans on Washington Street was a troupe of Roman soldiers, beefing up the regular Saturday night door staff with large shields, full body armour and swords. God help the poor unfortunate who tried to slip in using an older brother or sister’s ID.

“My name is Marcus Ulpius Nevra,” said one of the Roman bouncers. “My real name is Martin McAree and we’re from a group called Legion Ireland. The only people I’ve really seen dressed up are those associated with the festival. What I have on me is about four and a half stone weight and we’ll stand here now until about 1am.”

The bar went all out for a Roman-themed night, with velvet drapes hanging in the interior and the DJ playing actual Roman lute music. Respect. I counted two persons show up in togas while I was there, while inside in the smoking area, three girls had donned full Roman goddess gear for the night.

Edel Dineen wore a Medusa-type costume complete with a headpiece of snakes. “I turn people to stone when I look at them,” she said. “Halloween is more for the younger people, so why not dress up in August? It’s a good excuse to go out to pubs. This is my 10-year-old debs dress and my friend made my headpiece which cost about €2.”

Her friend, Siobhán Norton, was dressed up as a Roman Goddess. “I got my stuff in Penney’s,” she said. “It is an ice-breaker; people will come up and talk to you. So what if it is just another excuse to try to get people into pubs? It’s great fun.”