So last night in the sugar club was the Irish Festival Awards, This was the first time the Awards were held in a venue and not just announced via the power of the interweb.
We trotted along on the night to see who would be victorious. Glasgowbury and Arthurs Day and Electric Picnic did well on the night with Glasgowbury taking home a massive 4 Awards.
Winners – Irish Festival Awards 2010
Best family festival – Glasgowbury
Social responsibility award – Hwch
Best street spirit – Spraoi
Best service – Glasgowbury
Best alternative act – Florence and the machine
Best Irish act – Bell x1
Best headline act – Kings of Leon
Best rock act – Kasabian
Best dance act – 2 many Dj’s
Best small festival – Glasgowbury
Best mid sized festival – Galway Arts Festival
Best large festival – Electric Picnic
Best one day festival – Arthurs Day
Best traditional festival – Temple Bar Trad
Best dance festival – Life
Best new festival – Arthurs Day
Greenest festival – Electric Picnic
Best value – Festival of World Culture
Best line up – Glasgowbury
Dark room notes finished off the awards with a performance.
I’d like to finish this with just a few notes that i made on the Awards that maybe CherryCool might pick up on and possibly improve on next year. As we do genuinely think the Festival Awards are
1) A great idea
2) Have potential to be great
But i found on the night a couple of things that were a bit off that i feel with a bit of love and care can turn the event into a real winner.
First off, i felt the event was massively rushed, having been told doors at 7.30pm, Kicks off at 8pm i thought early start, must be a lengthy night. The Awards started at 8.30pm and Finished at 8.50pm
So not including the set from Dark Room Notes at the end, the awards were over and done with in 20 minutes, not really any suspense, we rushed and churned through each award as if they had to be done by 9pm at the latest.
This speed led to a lack of atmosphere, people were fairly quiet when the time came to cheer and people were loudly chatting among themselves which unfortunately in the venue and acoustics of the Sugar Club meant that it became difficult to hear what the person announcing the Awards was saying (at least down the back where i was situated it was)
Michelle Doherty who presented the Awards seemed like a good host but again she was more of a revolving door as she brought people on to present awards, they quickly said who won and left.
Another Issue i feel the Awards have is the method of picking nominee’s, in some categories there were LITERALLY 30-50 Nominee’s, it made me feel like it was no problem for anyone to get on the list. It also led to another time saving element of “there’s the massive list of nominee’s on screen, im not going to name them, and the winner is…..”
I feel based on precedence that a 5 Item Shortlist serves much more use in these cases and with only a few on the shortlist another aspect could be added to the Awards, they could add visuals or video and audio for each nominee and have that play as the presenter announces the nominee’s.
The only visuals going were an image of the list of nominee’s in the background. This could be massively expanded upon to make for a more visual feast.
Finally i feel that there was a large non representation from winners. From the silly awards like Best Headline Act, Best alternative act, Best dance act, Best Rock act, with winners who would never have been at the awards and literally all that was said was “obviously X couldnt be here, so we’ll move on” But even Best Irish Act, Bell X1, no representation.
This AGAIN led to quickly passing through awards and brushing off in-attendance to pickup awards. There was more in-attendance for other awards. This led to by and large, Electric Picnic, Glasgowbury, Arthurs Day and Spraoi were represented.
This again is another item i think needs to be addressed, The whole event could be padded out into a more prestigious event, with a band playing a song or 2 every 4 or 5 Awards and Media Video or Audio for the Nominee’s and Video or Audio from the winners who cant attend. With the internet, such video’s could easily be recorded and sent over in 2 minutes.
By and Large i feel critical, but i do bear in mind this is the first awards night held for these awards, so it can only get better. I do feel it has a lot of potential, i really like the idea and the people running it, CherryCool know how to put on a good show, Castlepalooza is a rocking festival (and a crying shame they cant be including in the nominee’s because they run awards and festival, fairness and all that)
Im hoping i’ll be asked along next year, and im hoping next year will be an even better affair.