Typical: you wait weeks and weeks for news of some summer festivals to come along and then several appear all at once.
This week, promoters behind such events as Future Days, the Cork Midsummer Festival, Belsonic and Cois Fharraige announced their plans for the coming months.
Future Days, a co-promotion between indie promoters Foggy Notions and Forever Presents, will see Dan Deacon, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Low, Jape, Matmos and others performing in Dublin from June 12th to 15th.
The Cork Midsummer Festival will feature a diverse range of acts making a stand in the Spiegeltent by the Lee, including Faust, The Fall, Stanley Super 800 (playing a country and western set), Hunger Mountain Boys, Camille O'Sullivan and many more.
Belsonic will see The Flaming Lips, The Zutons and others plays in the middle of Belfast in August, while Cois Fharraige re-appears on the Clare coast from September 5th to 7th.
At this stage, it seems that 2008 will match and may even top last summer's seventysomething tally of outdoor shows and music festivals.
This summer trend is in line with a rapid mushrooming in live activity in general in Irish venues in the past number of months. Unlike 10 years ago, most international acts now touring include an Irish date or two on their itinerary.
Yet there are signs that the downturn in the economy is having an effect on the spending patterns of music fans.For example, it's noticeable that there are a considerable number of slow-selling shows by big acts who would have sold out their shows weeks in advance a few years ago.
At the time of writing, tickets are still on sale for Irish shows by such big hitters as Radiohead, Prince, Neil Diamond, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, Lenny Kravitz, Boyzone, Westlife and Muse.
It would appear that Irish music fans are now looking for value for money.
After all, why pay €70 for Radiohead when you can see three or four shows at a festival for the same price?
In the Irish pipeline
It's already been a bumper year for Irish albums, with notable releases from Gemma Hayes, Chequerboard, Republic Of Loose, Crayonsmith and Jape. Others to add to that list in the coming weeks and months include the much talked about - and blogged about - Carly Sings, who releases her debut album The Glove Thiefon June 6th.
Not all Dublin singer- songwriters sit on the folky fence and alt-pop activist Conor Furlong releases his Eternaldebut album on May 30th.
Expect to see Lisa Hannigan's debut finally making an appearance in 2008 as well. She'll be roadtesting songs from that set on her summer-long tour, which kicks off in Cork's Cyprus Avenue on June 6th.
Flaws hit the road
The Flaws were one of the brightest sparks in the class of 2007. A band who refused to let record-label incompetence stand in their way, they released their fine debut album, Achieving Vagueness, under their own steam.
Today sees the release of a new single, Out Tonight, followed by a bout of gigging, including appearances at the Glastonbury, Castle Palooza, Indie Pendence and Electric Picnic festivals.
However, they start off this run in a venue with a roof on it, in an all-ages show at Dundalk's Spirit Store tomorrow afternoon.
ETC
• Make a June Bank Holiday weekend date with Mr Scruff, the Mancunian tea-dancer who plays shows in Cork (Savoy, May 30th), Galway (Black Box, May 31st) and Limerick (Trinity Rooms, June 1st). His Dublin date will be at the Button Factory on June 14th.
• Get an advance preview of tracks from Cork-born house producer Mark O'Sullivan's new album, Fragments From a Long Country, at myspace.com/markdk7.
• Arcade Fire are moving into the film soundtrack business, supplying the score for The Box, the new film from Richard Kelly.
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