Review by: Barry Healy
Photo’s by: John Squires
Charleville Castle, Tullamore was the venue for the much-lauded Castlepalooza Festival now in its fifth year running.
From the moment you arrive to the car park the staff is friendly, chatty and helpful which is a welcome change for any festival goer. It is a characteristic that would thankfully continue throughout the weekend. Charleville Castle is definitely one of the big pluses to this festival with its idyllic surroundings adding greatly to the relaxing and intimate vibe, however with space at a premium much of the camping is pretty cramped and there’s a shortage of toilets when you need them.
One of the great things about the smaller Irish festivals such as Castlepalooza is their willingness to showcase home-grown acts as well as international names. It’s an opportunity grasped with both hands by The Cast of Cheers in their first festival appearance. The Swords quartet literally came out of nowhere earlier in the year with debut ‘Chariot’ proved exactly why they are one of the most talked about bands in Ireland with a blistering show which included ‘Decepta Bug’, ‘Tip The Can’ and ‘Goose’, their post-punk/rock delighted the crowd.
Up next was their Richter Collective label mates Adebisi Shank. It is very hard to put their set into words, it was on another level altogether. From the moment they opened with new track ‘International Dreambeat’ the crowd was entranced by the sheer musical brilliance and palpable energy on show from start to finish. It was an absolute master class in live performing, guitar riffs, big drums, synths, vocoders and crazy basslines a plenty. Things are looking good for the release of their second album later this year.
Easily the biggest crowd of the weekend was for Fionn Regan as numbers swelled at the main stage. As he took to the stage it was obviously going to be a different prospect than the previous two acts. He emerged alone with only his guitar as company beginning with some beautiful plucky acoustic folk numbers. The Wicklow native already had a captive audience but when his backing band arrived on stage marking a turning point in the evening. In swapping the sombre acoustic folk for the decidedly rockier new material he along with his band came to life, playing the Dylan-
esque numbers like ‘House Detective’ and ‘Violent Demeanor’ from his latest album ‘The Shadow of an Empire’. It’s said time flies when you’re having fun and nothing could be truer, no sooner had begun and it seemed they were being cheered off to rapturous applause before Regan remerged for a brief encore.
Following an earlier rise on Sunday morning it’s again easy to see what makes Castlepalooza so enjoyable, beautiful location and 2,000+ happy punters are here for a good time without the messiness of bigger festivals. It’s this and the bubbly, cheery vibe which compensates for a lot of the hanging around waiting for things to happen and some rather pedestrian acts, not a complaint which could be levelled at Kildare’s Band on an Island who wowed punters in the tent with their now well honed folk-rock sensibilities. High points of the show are the fantastic rendition of ‘Back Disco’ with the accompaniment of Claire Prendergast and set closer ‘Folk Songs’ which sees the lead singer end up finishing by singing amongst the surprised crowd.
In keeping with the folky sentiments it was over to the main stage to catch The Lowly Knights. The Belfast ensemble boasts a surprising array of noise makers and as they begin to chop and change instruments there are feeling
s this is something a bit different, even if this hampered the overall flow of the show. In true folk tradition they filled in with some friendly banter and the buzzing atmosphere wasn’t to be quelled as they ran through tunes from there EP’s, old and new with memorable renditions of ‘I Don’t Know How to get Through to You’ and ‘You Can’t Help Who You Love’.
The biggest surprise of the weekend came in the shape of Liverpool band Wave Machines for whom little was known in these quarters. They along with stand in guitarist overcame some serious sound issues to deliver an outstanding show full of arty-indie-rock which steadily drew a large crowd of appreciative revellers to arms.
Castlepalooza is a worthy and much needed addition to the festival calendar, definitely one of the best festivals in the country – great security, friendly staff and a good atmosphere from the 2000 or so punters. See you in 2011 Castlepalooza.
