Are small music festivals in Ireland becoming a thing of the past? Organisers weigh in

The Journal

28-06-2025

LAST UPDATE
|
1 hr ago
ORGANISERS OF INDEPENDENT music festivals in Ireland have said that mounting costs are making it harder for them to keep going each year.
Earlier this month there was confusion about whether major player Beyond The Pale would go ahead, and beloved smaller festivals are not going ahead this summer, including Bundoran Sea Sessions, Body and Soul, and Wild Roots.
In Ballyshannon, Donegal, organiser Barry O'Neill says that it's currently uncertain whether the famed
Rory Gallagher Festival
will be able to go ahead next year either.
It's been a staple of Ireland's independent music scene since 2002, and was originally founded as a way to honour the late great musician, but has since grown into a real tourism highlight for Donegal each summer.
'We attract 15,000 people each year and they come from all over, so this festival has become really essential to not just Ballyshannon, but the entire North West,' he said.
Nevertheless, O'Neill says that the festival is struggling.
'We've had to launch a GoFundMe to try and secure next year, and that's not where we want to be,' he said.
The Rory Gallagher Festival in Ballyshannon.
He's calling on the Department of Culture to roll out a 'more transparent' funding model for grants, which he says would help to safeguard the future of smaller festivals .
'I know for the fact that there are festivals in the likes of Galway and Dublin that get more funding, despite the fact that they are bringing in the same number of people as us, and that's because of the city they are in.
'There is not a single TD or Senator who understands what it's like to organise an event like this in rural Ireland, and that's why I don't think there will be real change on this, but we need a more transparent funding model,' he said.
Festivals in Ireland receive grants and support through local authorities, the Arts Council, Culture Ireland, and the Department of Culture's small scale local festivals and summer schools funding scheme, which allocates up to €5000 for not-for-profit local events.
O'Neill says that requirements from state bodies around security, environmental concerns, and copyright fees from the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO).
'We're being charged by IMRO for the first time for 2024 and we're going through the process at the moment, I think it's something like 3% on each ticket. We support artists being paid, but all of these costs from state bodies add up, and the funding we receive doesn't balance them out,' he said.
'Suppliers want to be paid in advance'
Craig Hughes is the founder of Night and Day Festival which has been staged in the Lough Key Forest Park in Roscommon for the last four years, and is currently taking place this weekend, with headlining sets from folk legend Paul Brady, KT Tunstall, José Gonaléz and more (some last minute tickets
are available here
).
It has a capacity of 4,500 people.
'Costs are up around 20% from when we first started. That's insurance, but it's also the practical costs that rise each year with inflation,' he said.
Hughes said that the uncertainty around larger festivals has impacted independent operators.
Advertisement
(Beyond The Pale, a major festival that has been taking place in Co Wicklow for years, said it 'almost stumbled' close to its opening day earlier this month, but
it went ahead
in the end thanks to financial help from an operator that stepped in.)
'Independent festivals are being asked to pay for everything upfront, including artist's fees in many cases, so it can create cash flow problems,' he said.
Hughes added that the best way people can support smaller festivals is by buying their tickets early if they can.
'It gives us the ability to plan more, and more flexibility with booking acts. Thankfully, we've had great support since we've started, but across the industry people have noticed an increasing tendency for people to book late.
'Weather is a big factor for people, but we have three high top tents and most festivals have provisions in place,' he said.
'Micro-festivals are popping off'
The Another Love Story festival takes place from August 23rd to 25th this year in Meath.
celeste burdon
celeste burdon
Emmet Condon has been running the
Another Love Story festival
at Killyon Manor in Meath for the last two years. This year the festival has gone from a three-day to two-day event, which Condon said has helped with ticket sales.
'They've flown out the door this year. People want intimate to mean intimate, and they want less time commitment, so two days works for them,' he said.
Condon is now running a pop-up 'Love is a Stranger' mirco-festivals that offer 24 hours of live music, with one having already taken place in Sligo back in May, and another
planned for this Augus
t in Ballyvolane, Cork, with a capacity of 500-700 people.
'The interest in those has been huge,' he said.
Condon said that in the last ten years the Irish market has expanded massively.
'We're part of that, obviously, but as the major festivals get bigger, and this year the likes of Electric Picnic sold out in minutes, smaller festivals are getting squeezed out, and that's what we're seeing,' he said.
'Small festivals are increasingly on the breadline between ticket sales and what corporate sponsorship they can attract,' Condon added.
He said that when he started out, ALS had to sell 60% of its tickets to break even.
'That's probably at 90% now. People see people getting together listening to music in a field and assume the organisers are driving away in a Porsche, that's just not the case,' Condon further said.
He agrees with Barry O'Neill of Rory Fest that funding models need to change.
'There's good support there for small-scale community events, and the major festivals are flying it, but for smaller commercial festivals, they are caught between those two camps, and they are struggling,' he said.
He argues that smaller festivals offer some of the best live music experiences people can have.
'You really do get to know everyone by the end of it. We have 2000 people coming this year, and many of them will come away with new friends. There's something special about it that just makes it different to a huge, commercially driven event,' he said.
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
Learn More
Support The Journal