The vagaries of an Irish autumn threw up one of the sunniest weekends of the year, but no surf, for the 20,000 people who descended on the west Clare resort of Kilkee for the inaugural Cois Fharraige festival.
Billed as Ireland's first music and surf festival, the organizers were forced to cancel the planned surf competition on Friday due to the small ripples lapping up on Spanish Point beach all weekend.
But the hordes who descended on the sun-soaked resort were treated to strong performances from Badly Drawn Boy, Fun Lovin' Criminals, Ocean Colour Scene, Republic of Loose, The Blizzards and Róisín Murphy.
The "chilled-out" atmosphere among the surfers and music fans ensured a trouble-free weekend.
The music and surf festival - organised by MCD and Sony Ericsson - featured Californian band, Cowboy Robot, busking around the resort over the weekend.
The band includes a number of surfers, said band singer and guitarist Kaleb Hanly.
"This weekend has been pretty cool," said Hanly. "We have just chilled out and busked, while we managed to get some surf in Lahinch on Saturday, but our manager got hit by a surf board in the mouth and we spent eight hours in hospital."
Local Cllr Patrick Keane said that the festival has provided a great boost to Kilkee at the end of the summer. "There has been a real festival atmosphere . . . the bars have been thronged running out of all sorts. It really has been great," he said.
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