Pick of the week
The busiest festival weekend of the year is upon us, and a trio of small but mighty outings, old and new, are getting set to shine across the country. The first-ever Beatyard takes over the old ferry pier in Dún Laoghaire for two days of music, food, gaming and loads of other distractions in the coastal town. Highlights include sets by Sister Sledge, Neneh Cherry, Four Tet, Slum Village, Lindstrom, Barrington Levy, Horse Meat Disco, Eamon Harkin, JG Wilkes, DJ Marky, Craig Charles and loads more.
Meanwhile, down in Cork, Indiependence, running from today to Sunday, takes place in Deer Farm, Mitchelstown, Co Cork. Marking the festival’s 10-year anniversary, this year’s impressive and wide-ranging line-up includes Columbia Mills, Elastic Sleep, All Tvvins Ash, Kodaline, Basement Jaxx, Mark Lanegan, Jape, Dandy Warhols and HamsandwicH, as well as a host of non-musical entertainment.
Also celebrating 10 years on the go, the three-day Castlepalooza Music & Arts Festival kicks off in the sultry surroundings of Charleville Castle inTullamore, Co Offaly today, and promises to be bigger and better than ever with some new stages and areas added to the mix. Another impressive line-up includes Hercules and Love Affair, Of Montreal, Aeroplane, Late Nite Tuff Guy, Alex Metric, Jape and Fight Like Apes, Benny Smiles, Florence Olivier, I Have a Tribe and Cave Ghosts.
Thank the festival gods it’s a three-day weekend.
WIG-OUT
Belfast Music Club
The Hudson Belfast 10pm Adm free hudsonbelfast.com
Before they head to Dublin for this weekend’s Beatyard festival (see right), Optimo’s JG Wilkes (above) and Mister Saturday Night’s Derry connection Eamon Harkin team up for what has all the makings of a wild night in Belfast. As one half of Optimo, Wilkes has been turning out superb sounds and good vibes in clubs and on record labels for years. Harkin, meanwhile, is the king of New York clubland at the moment, thanks to his MSN partnership with Justin Carter, a hook-up that has produced some sterling parties, record releaes and a new urban haunt in the shape of the Nowadays bar.
PRIDE
Mother
Savoy, Cork 10.30pm €10/€8 savoycork.ie
It’s Pride weekend in Cork and no better way to mark the occasion than the first visit to the southern capital from new-school Dublin clubbing institution Mother. Over the past few years, the Mother gang have taken their house and disco swagger from their cosy Dublin residence to the likes of Forbidden Fruit, Body & Soul and the Electric Picnic. Expect a lot of whooping and hollering when the Motherduckers land in Cork.
THEATRE
The Shadow of a Gunman
Abbey Theatre, Dublin Ends Saturday 7.30pm (2pm matinee Sat) €15-43 abbeytheatre.ie
This is your last chance to see Wayne Jordan’s clean and swift production of O’Casey’s early play, the first of his Dublin Trilogy. “I have no connection with the politics of the day,” insists Donal Davoren, the poet and aesthete who has been mistaken for a gunman. (He wishes.) But what is this version’s connection with the politics of our day? This Abbey and Lyric co-production isn’t entirely sure. It’s another time of division, certainly, but not violent rhetoric, mercifully. Instead, this staging seems more inclined to side with the aesthete, through pleasingly artificial visuals and wry, age- oriented comment. It’s a light undertaking for a play that casts a long shadow.
