Castlepalooza – July 29th -31st 2011
Review by Kevin Donnellan
Castlepalooza, Saturday Afternoon. An overheard conversations in the men’s toilet.
“The urinals are nice, aren’t they?”
“Yeah. Haven’t had a number two yet, but heard great things.”
“ I’ve had two actually and do you know what? It’s luxurious.”
If a festival was judged solely on overheard conversations then Castlepalooza would win ‘best festival ever’ hands-down. In fairness to the Tullamore based event it scores pretty highly no matter what the judging criteria.
Decent campsite? Check. Good food? Check. Varied lineup? Check. Nice setting? Check. Good crowd? Check.
The line-up is pretty Irish-centric, and we’re luckily in a position at the moment where this is a very good thing. But it does mean that there are few ‘must-sees’, acts, musicians that you may never see around these parts again. Though, in a way, even that is a positive, there are few frantic fans scrambling from the Main Stage to the Big Top Stage, generally you see who you see and you don’t get too stressed in the process.
Sometimes that meant standing in front of the Main Stage, underneath the oldest oak tree in Ireland (someone insisted it was on Sunday anyway). Sometimes it meant diving into the Big Top to get out of the rain or to have a bit more noise thrown at you. Then there was always the option of commandeering a picnic table or hanging round your tent and listening, not looking. The venue was that cosy it didn’t really matter where you went.
And that cosiness seemed to have an effect on the crowd. Yes it was initially disconcerting to get big thumbs up from strangers as you brushed your teeth outside your tent. But the place engineered that kind of ‘all in it together’ mentality. You might bond with those in a few neighbouring tents at an Electric Picnic or Oxegen but here it felt like one big happy family. Might have them all round for a barbeque soon…
Highlights? Well we arrived on the Saturday morning so missed what sounded like a well received set from Attention Bebe. On Saturday afternoon The Dying Seconds won the unofficial ‘win-over-an-initially-uninterested-crowd’ award, while the Ceili on the Main Stage picked up the Sunday prize.
The Minutes and Le Galxie nailed their headlining slots on Saturday as did These Charming Men on Sunday. Adebisi Shank also got the crowd into the Big Top on Sunday and kept them there.
But the show got stolen by two acts in particular. On Saturday it was Hudson Mowhawke getting everyone dancing with karate-chop hands, as only an Irish festival crowd can. And then, on Sunday, Naughty By Nature gave one of the most giddy, joyous performances you could hope to see. The more-the-merrier stage invasion at the end also gave the festival a nice feelgood 80’s film finale.
They were a fraction of the highlights, but even if none of the acts had performed to their best it would have been an enjoyable weekend. With a few thousand people camping around a castle and ‘luxurious’ jacks to boot how could it not have been?