How Music Works: how BD Festival is taking full advantage of Good Friday law

Of all the offerings on the busy music festival circuit, BD Festival stands out from the crowd for one main reason. In a time when alcohol sponsorship is integral to most festival’s plans, BD Festival takes place on a day when prohibition rules. The one-day event takes place on Good Friday, the only day of the year when drink cannot be purchased.

While BD Festival takes advantage offers a cheaper festival experience, it is also at a disadvantage, say organisers Jamie Deasy and Brian McDermott, as it means selling bar rights are not possible and sponsorship opportunities are limited, restricting growth and revenue.

“It might scare sponsors off a bit,” admits Deasy of the Good Friday BYOB festival offering. “Commercialising it with sponsors is our biggest challenge.”

“It increases the risk and also makes it harder thing to get right in terms of budgeting,” McDermott continues. “The date also changes every year, meaning we have a moving target. Next year, we’re on April 14th which could be warmer weather-wise. This year, we’re still in March so preparing for a more winter-style festival.”

Barndance beginnings
The event started nine years ago as a charity gig called Barndance for 300 people on a farm in Kildare, which was kept as a secret location until the day,

“The first one was a big marquee in a field. Then we moved into the actual farm after that and had it in real barns with cowshit everywhere,” says McDermott. “We had a secret location for the early years so there’s a mystery element – you got there on the bus only.”

Initially, the festival was promoted through friends and existing contacts in Trinity College and Wesley College.

“We invited people along to a private party. Each person donated €50 to charity which meant we didn’t need a licence,” says Deasy. That soon changed.

“After it got to 1,000 people, the guards decided it wasn’t a private party anymore. ‘You can’t know any more than a 1,000 people’ they told us, so we started licensing it.

“In consultation with the guards, we found out about a dance licence, not the public dance licence that gigs operate with now, an old type of licence for that that allows you to put on a public dance the kind that used to happen in towns and villages.”

Opening the secret
This year's event, takes place on March 25th in the pre-announced venue of Glendalough House in Wicklow with an expected attendance of 4,000 people.

“Some people don’t want to get on a bus and not know where they’re going so we had to make it more accessible to the a greater number of people,” says Deasy on the decision to announce their location.

“Our last-day ticket sales are pretty low as people think if they’re not in on the secret, so they can’t go,” adds McDermott. But if they know it’s in Glendalough, then they can jump in a car and head down. It allows for spontaneity and some last-minute pull.”

BD Festival also rebranded from the Barndance name two years ago, partly to attract international acts.

“Acts weren’t too interested in playing ‘a barndance’ in a field in Ireland,” chuckles McDermott. “It’s not very glamorous for anagent sitting in a skyscraper in London to hear about that - it sounds a bit higgedly piggedly.”

Less emphasis on superstar DJs
After a hike in ticket price and higher-profile dance and DJ bookings including Leftfield, Fritz Kalkbrenner and Jamie Jones in recent years, the festival is now relying less on headline-grabbing talent and a lower ticket price of €40 (plus fees) which they say is working in terms of presales.

“We don’t think people flock because there’s a big DJ coming in from Europe, they flock because they’re going to have a good time,” McDermott suggests.

“We didn’t see a major return on ticket sales with the bigger acts,” adds Deasy. “The reviews and feedback didn’t change.”

This year’s lineup is a sturdy mix of local and international acts, favouring dance/electronic (Dimitri From Paris, Mylo, Dense And Pika, DJ Deece), rock/indie (R.S.A.G., Punchface Champions, Bagels) and returning crowdpleasing cover band Smash Hits along others.

The day’s five stages are booked by various promoters including Abstract, Bedlam Events, Techno And Cans, Venture Presents and Deasy himself.

Art installations, fire-breathers, bumper cars and local farmer market-style food stalls are on offer too. “We’ve a big emphasis on BBQ and meat because it’s Good Friday,” says McDermott wryly.

Large groups of friends
As for the festival goers themselves, being the only party on Good Friday means the festival attracts large groups of friends celebrating birthdays, hens and stags.

“We get a lot of traction for our private bus service which will bring your whole party to the festival from your house and back,” says Deasy.

Deasy and McDermott run Eventfuel, an events company who do brand activations, sporting events, corporate parties and one-day events. Recent work include the Rainbow Run, the 4th of July Festival in Donnybrook Stadium; Facebook, Accenture and Airbnb parties; and Tour De Picnic, the charity cycle to Electric Picnic.

With plenty of event management and production experience, the team recognise that good planning is a big part of the success of a day like BD Festival.

“We invested money in the site with car parks and gravel to make it work for this amount of people,” says McDermott who spends most of his time on the day outside the arena in the car parks.

“When you’ve 4,000 people in one place and suddenly they all have to go home at the same time, you need 4,000 seats aiming for home. We’ll have five buses going out that gate in three minutes. We cleared the entire venue in 40 minutes last year which we worked really hard on. That’s why people come back, it was easy to come and go and they had a great time.”

Deasy and McDermott are betting that the pressure to change the outdated law banning the sale of alcohol on Good Friday will benefit them in the long run. If the law is repealed, BD Festival will move to a full Easter weekend festival.

“It is only a matter of time,” McDermott insists.

For more, see bdfestival.ie