FORBIDDEN FRUIT FESTIVAL, DUBLIN:Some complained about the delay for beer but when the sun came out, nothing much mattered
IT WAS a game of two halves at Pod’s Forbidden Fruit Festival in the grounds of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, in Kilmainham, Dublin – Saturday’s highs of 24-degree heat and Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips dancing above the crowd in an inflatable beach ball were juxtaposed with Sunday’s cool summer showers.
For those at the festival, the hour-long queues for beer at ill-attended bars on Saturday seemed the most pressing downside to the two-day musical extravaganza.
“Apart from the beer issues,” said Lisa Griffin, a teacher, “it’s grand. Tickets were a good price and the bands are good . . . but I spent nearly an hour queuing for the bar when I could have been listening to some bands.”
Author David Maybury agreed. “I guess it was good value,” he said of the €90 weekend ticket (excluding booking fee). “But an hour-long wait for a beer does not a happy boy make.”
By 8.30pm on Saturday, the queuing issues had become apparent to organisers and a truck was dispatched to left of stage from which cans of Bulmers were issued to those eagle-eyed enough to spot the pop-up drinks vendor.
By Sunday, the day Aphex Twin – a rare sighting on Ireland’s gig scene – brought an extra 3,000 to the festival grounds, organisers Pod added a fourth bar, serving cans of cider, and issued a statement on the event’s Facebook page, “apologising unreservedly for the long delays on the bars yesterday”.
Though the Flaming Lips were a huge draw for the crowd that gathered in Kilmainham, there was also an impression that the convenience of a city-centre festival was a strong attraction.
“It’s like a big day out at the park. I came for the good times,” said Olga Criado, a designer from Dublin. Engineer Eoin Walsh agreed: “It wasn’t the bands that made me come – it’s a weekend out, two days where you can just chill out and drink outside.”
By Sunday, enthusiasm from such acts as Dublin’s Cast of Cheers, Battles and Trinity College Dublin’s orchestra, playing Daft Punk on the main stage at 2pm, bolstered people’s spirits dampened by showers that arrived during Dans Le Sac’s rousing main stage set and abated just as Canadian indie electro performer Caribou started up.
Once the sun was out, people seemed less interested in the queues – and in the musicians. “Sunshine brings out the best in Irish people,” said Fionn Daly, a musician. “When the weather’s good it makes a big difference.”