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Irish Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Inside Ireland's music festival industry: `You can haemorrhage money very quickly'
Summer is on the minds of Will Rolfe and James Aiken – the summer of 2026, that is. 'We already have some headliners confirmed,' says Rolfe, promoter, curator and creative director of Pod Festivals. 'Just when everyone is getting excited for this year, we're starting to get excited for next year. You really don't get to enjoy it in the moment.' The 2025 festival season has nevertheless shaped up nicely for Pod and Aiken Promotions , its owner since 2023, and the mood is upbeat in advance of this weekend's Forbidden Fruit at Royal Hospital Kilmainham, in the grounds of the Irish Museum of Modern Art. 'It's the longest-running music festival in Dublin city centre,' says James Aiken, a Pod booker, company director and third-generation concert promoter. (His late grandfather Jim founded Aiken.) READ MORE 'A portion of the audience will go because it's the June bank holiday weekend, but there is also a large portion who we have to engage every year with the right line-up,' he says. As we talk, in mid-May, Rolfe can 'nearly touch-wood guarantee' that the 15,000-capacity Forbidden Fruit will sell out, while Pod's big camping event, All Together Now , shifted its final tickets in March – encouragingly, this is the earliest it has sold out since 2019. The three-day, four-night festival – which takes place at the Curraghmore Estate, in Co Waterford, on the August bank-holiday weekend – did this while increasing its capacity to 30,000, up from 25,000 in 2024. It took 'a little bit of time' for people to flock back to festivals like this one after the pandemic, says Rolfe, but the restart is now in full swing. Across a broad spectrum of events, the Irish music-festival scene of 2025 is defined by vibrancy and resilience. For the generations who can't afford a home, going to festivals is part of their revenge for the way life has treated them The promoters and experts I speak to stress that financial risk is always involved and identify pinch points for smaller operators, in particular. Some events fell by the wayside in the wake of Covid, as costs rocketed and disposable incomes shrank. The sector appears in good nick by international standards, however, and continues to be buoyed by ever more experienced promoters, more deeply ingrained demand and a relatively fresh flush of big-name Irish artists. 'We're world champions at going to festivals,' says Michael Murphy, a music-industry veteran who now lectures at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dún Laoghaire. When Denis Desmond, the founder of MCD Productions , 'went professional' in 1981, promoting Thin Lizzy at the first Slane Castle concert – with U2 'famously down the bill' – a switch was flicked, Murphy says. Today, Desmond's Gaiety Investments co-owns LN-Gaiety Holdings, which is a joint venture with the global behemoth Live Nation . LN-Gaiety Holdings in turn owns MCD and Festival Republic, the operator of Ireland's biggest festival: Electric Picnic. This means that while Aiken is a significant player in an Irish context, it's small compared with Live Nation. Select festivals – including the now 80,000-capacity Electric Picnic and the British music mecca Glastonbury – have such established brands that they will sell out before announcing a single name. For the rest, the line-up is critical to their survival, says Murphy. 'If you get the content wrong you could go out of business.' [ How to have a number one album, from U2 to The Beatles: An Irish expert shares his music industry experience Opens in new window ] He draws a distinction between civic-minded, community-based festivals and the for-profit kind. As an 'old punk' he can remember the 'prehistoric times' when there was simply no sponsorship of music gigs. Once festivalgoing became a rite of passage, however, it was inevitable that alcohol companies would rush to associate their brands with moments of collective freedom and elation. Economic dysfunction has, in a way, actually boosted the live-events industry. 'For the generations who can't afford a home, going to festivals is part of their revenge for the way life has treated them,' says Murphy. Other factors have helped 'brilliant boutique festivals' flourish alongside the megaevents. Not everybody wants to be corralled on to an alcohol sponsor's patch – they want freedom from the corporate element, too. The age range of festivalgoers has also widened, as people now in their 60s were able to acquire an outdoor-gig habit in their 20s in a way that previous generations couldn't. This demographic expansion is reflected in both the type of events being staged and their sponsors. The 'family music festival' Kaleidoscope , for instance, is officially 'Kaleidoscope presented by Glenveagh' Properties. The home builder's backing is 'essential to our growth', says Shell Holden, director of marketing at the events agency Fuel , which manages it alongside Festival Republic , Live Nation and MCD. Kaleidoscope, held at Russborough House in Blessington, Co Wicklow, is built to prioritise accessibility and convenience, with baby-changing areas, dedicated sensory and quiet spaces, a family cooking zone and a campsite quiet-time curfew. We are, in other words, a long way from Oxegen. Intergenerational custom also swells attendances at the Big Day Out , a one-day, 15,000-capacity 'pop and nostalgia' festival at TUS Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. The CWB -promoted event will be headlined this August by the boy band Blue. Ticket-buyers who lived through the pop era of the 1990s and early 2000s bring their children, nieces and nephews – and, thanks to the music-recycling capabilities of platforms such as TikTok, they aren't dragging them, either. 'Nostalgic acts can have a resurgence,' says Paul Boland, one of CWB's founders. His company aims to bring more national-scale events to the midwest region. But building 'from the bottom up' is not without its challenges. 'You can haemorrhage money very quickly,' he says. Events are promoted 'subject to licence', which requires some nerve-holding. Insurance for extreme weather has also become harder to obtain since Brexit, while the splintering of social-media usage has complicated marketing efforts. Boland is keen for the live-events industry to be taken seriously as the employment generator and sustainable economic contributor that it is. 'It brings confidence to a region as well,' he says. 'We take the attitude of The Cranberries: If everyone else is doing it, why can't we?' What Murphy calls the 'DIY aspect to Irish music promotion' will also be in evidence this summer at Orlagh House, a converted monastery in the foothills of the Dublin mountains – and, crucially, only five minutes from the M50. This is where the promoter Úna Molloy, of the agency Touring Pirate , hopes to attract 'a more grown-up' audience to Hibernacle on the first weekend in July. 'Send the 16-year-olds to Longitude and come and have premium pints at Hibernacle,' she suggests. The festival has a full bar, a 'secret stage' that pops up between acts and a raft of Irish artists on the line-up, including Villagers, who will headline on the Saturday night. Its capacity is a genuinely boutique 800. [ Electric Picnic 2025: More acts added to line-up as capacity increases again Opens in new window ] Molloy says she wants to make the experience 'a little bit magical' – and flexible, too, for the contingent with responsibilities and/or babysitters to pay. Weekend-pass wristbands can be swapped, so 'a pal or partner' can go one of the nights. Hibernacle has no sponsorship, no funding. 'It's just me,' says Molloy. Like Boland, she cites the need to keep prices contained, but it's not easy. The ticketing service Eventbrite adds a 12 per cent booking fee, and, before she can pay anyone, 3 per cent of the ticket price goes to the Irish Music Rights Organisation, in royalties; 13.5 per cent of it will be VAT. Smaller venues and promoters at the grassroots have 'really struggled' since the temporary 9 per cent VAT rate expired in September 2023, Molloy says. Indeed, in Britain, where the sector has suffered a high volume of casualties, the Association of Independent Festivals has campaigned for a time-limited 5 per cent rate. Molloy is keeping her fingers crossed. 'If people don't buy tickets for this, it's going to take me a while to claw my way back from it. But I don't think 800 tickets is beyond the beyonds.' The impact of public funding on Irish festivals deserves to be amplified, according to Angela Dorgan, chief executive of First Music Contact , the Arts Council-funded resource organisation for musicians. 'I know it's not very sexy to talk about it, but acts like Fontaines DC and CMAT had early tours supported by Culture Ireland ,' she says, referring to the State promotion agency. The 'tons' of background work going on includes Ireland Music Week, the First Music Contact-run October showcase that places up-and-coming Irish artists in front of international bookers. 'We're seeing a lot of Irish bands being booked for European festivals, which means they can tour,' she says. Nothing can replace 'eyeball to eyeball' contact between artists and audiences, Dorgan believes, but she cautions that the ecosystem will unravel if it becomes unviable for musicians. 'There are festivals that pay security staff, sound engineers, everyone, but the fee for the artist is an afterthought. We need to keep an eye on the fairness of that. You can't sell tickets for an empty stage.' With the flow of international superstar acts slowing down – 'really bad for Ireland,' says Murphy – the viability of Irish festivals is likely to become ever more intertwined with the general health of Irish music. Making a profit from festivals remains a high-wire act. 'You need to be in and around a sell-out. In the whole of the music industry, from concerts to festivals, the margins are extremely tight. So you need to be at 90 per cent, 95 per cent,' says Rolfe of Pod, which was founded by the late promoter John Reynolds. Not all major artists are chasing the biggest paydays. 'Some of them want to do something different, something curated, something with a little bit more soul. The economics change if there are fewer of those artists available.' June sees the second outing for Pod and Aiken's 10,000-capacity In the Meadows , which will have Iggy Pop as its headliner and co-curator. The one-day festival – which, like Forbidden Fruit, takes over Royal Hospital Kilmainham – exemplifies some of the trends predicted to shape the future festival landscape. It's a city venue, it's 'not just about the headliner' and it targets a 'slightly older' audience. 'Brand identity is going to become more and more important over the next five to 10 years. Sticking headliners on a festival bill and saying, 'That's it,' isn't going to be enough,' says Aiken. Beyond the music, minimum audience expectations for food and drink, wellness and accommodation have all increased even since the first All Together Now, in 2018, Rolfe says. He thinks that Ireland's size has prevented festivals here from becoming too genre-specific, too specialised, and that this makes for more interesting events. Bringing together people from different backgrounds 'who are into completely different things' is part of the joy of festivals, he says. 'That's an important thing in the world at the moment.' The business, as Murphy adds, is bigger than the sum of its revenues – and that's worth cherishing.
Irish Examiner
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
O'Connor denies O'Keefe a treble at Clonmel
In the week in which stable jockey Rachael Blackmore called time on her illustrious career in the saddle, chief benefactors Darragh O'Keeffe and Mike O'Connor stepped up to help Henry de Bromhead continue his fine run of form with a treble last evening in Clonmel. O'Keeffe, who is seen as a natural successor, contributed two of the three, but O'Connor also did his part and, in doing so, denied O'Keeffe a personal treble. Trasna Na Pairce put the first mark on the card for the Co Waterford stable when taking the Aisling Kennedy Memorial Maiden Hurdle in smooth fashion. Enjoying a positive, front-running ride, the type at which O'Keeffe excels, the heavily-backed 10-11 favourite settled into the race well, opened a clear advantage before leaving the back for the final time, and was in little danger thereafter. 'He's a lovely horse,' said de Bromhead. 'The owners are a new syndicate to the game, so I'm delighted for them. Gerry Hogan recommended him from Pat Doyle's. 'Rachael gave him a lovely spin in Kilbeggan. He ran well that day and stepped forward from it. He's definitely one for chasing. My plan was always to get to a fence sooner rather than later.' O'Connor provided leg two and caused a bit of an upset in getting Adaliz up in the dying strides of the Tote Never Beaten By SP Handicap Hurdle. Sharetheknowledge attempted to make all the running and looked very much as though he would succeed, but O'Connor got a great late tune out of his mount, and she got up in the final stride to give de Bromhead a double and to delay O'Keeffe's. 'Delighted for Mikey, he gave her a super spin,' said the winning trainer. 'It was brilliant for the syndicate (Syndicates Racing). I thought we were finishing up after her last run, but they were happy to go again, and she was brilliant.' O'Keeffe only had to wait an hour or so to complete his double and de Bromhead's treble, which he did aboard Belle The Tigress in the Clonmel Racecourse Supporters' Club Mares' Maiden Hurdle. Matters were complicated by the two hurdles in the straight being omitted, but the winner always looked to be travelling best and found plenty to keep Arctic Flame at bay. Said O'Keeffe: 'It's great to be coming racing with plenty of chances, and two winners this evening was great. The horses are in great form, and, in fairness, he has the whole yard in great health and long may it continue.' Connections of the runner-up - Pat Foley and Simon Torrens – earlier earned a visit to the winner's enclosure when Colleen Danu ran away with the Talbot Hotel Clonmel Handicap Hurdle. The Milan mare travelled sweetly through the race and put matters to bed with the minimum of fuss. With the two hurdles in the straight ruled out due to the low sun, there were just five obstacles to be jumped in the Tote Guarantee Available On Course & Handicap Hurdle, and so it was no surprise to see smart Flat horse Expound come to the fore. A winner on the level last week at Ballinrobe, the Denis Hogan-trained six-year-old, this time ridden by Daniel King, made all the running and picked up under pressure to put a fifth career success on his card. Gordon Elliott topped and tailed the card, winning the Clonmel Racecourse Supporters' Club Claiming Hurdle with the Paddy Cleary-ridden Voice Of Reason, and completing the brace with Carsons Dreamboat, who won the bumper under Harry Swan. Voice Of Reason was put into the claimer with a value of €4,000 and, unsurprisingly, he was claimed at that price. The finale provided the day's easiest winner, as Carsons Dreamboat, who was off the track since finishing tailed off in a maiden hurdle in January 2024, sprinted clear of his rivals to win by 15 lengths.
Irish Examiner
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Rachael Blackmore: Queen of Cheltenham will be badly missed by the sport she changed
Rachael Blackmore, the most successful female rider of all time, announced her retirement from race riding on Monday evening. A statement put out on social media brought down the curtain on the career of a lady whose success has been as great for the sport as it has been for the jockey herself. From the time she rode her first winner, aboard the Shark Hanlon-trained Stowaway Pearl at Thurles on February 10, 2011, she was destined to be a success, but just how far she could go was to unfold in a stellar career which saw her smash through glass ceiling after glass ceiling. Having started off with Hanlon and then having taken the brave decision to turn professional in 2015, she brought her success to a whole new level through her association with trainer Henry de Bromhead. With her own determination and class, and the help of the Co Waterford trainer, the Killenaule, Co Tipperary native rose to the very top of the sport and became the first lady rider to win one of the championship races at the Cheltenham Festival when guiding Honeysuckle to victory in the first of two Champion Hurdles, in 2021. She ended that meeting with a remarkable six winners, which earned the leading rider at the meeting award, but that was just the start of something truly special. Already long-established as a leading light to those familiar with the sport, she introduced herself to the much wider world just three weeks later when becoming the first lady to win the world's most famous race, the Aintree Grand National, aboard the de Bromhead-trained Minella Times. That success transcended the racing world to such an extent that she was crowned RTÉ Sports Person of the Year and BBC Sports Personality World Sports Star of the Year. Less than 12 months later, in another Festival to remember, she set more records, becoming the first lady rider to win racing's blue riband, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, aboard A Plus Tard, and did so just days after recording a second Champion Hurdle win aboard Honeysuckle. That season meeting also included a Grade One novice chase success aboard Bob Olinger. She did not know it at that time, of course, but that fellow would hold a special place in her career as he would become her 18th and final Cheltenham Festival winner when winning the Stayers' Hurdle at this year's meeting. In doing so, he completed the set of championship race success for herself and trainer Henry de Bromhead. It is neither fanciful nor blindly romantic to suggest she was the queen of Cheltenham, as anyone fortunate enough to have been at Prestbury Park on the Tuesday of this year's meeting will never forget the reception she received when Air Of Entitlement, a relatively unheralded mare, earned her a return to the Festival winner's enclosure after a pulsating finish to the mares' novice hurdle. Standing on the shoulders of the likes of Caroline Beasley, who was the first woman to ride a winner at the Cheltenham Festival, Gee Armytage, Nina Carberry and Katie Walsh, to name but a few trailblazers, Blackmore was an immensely tough jockey, whose brave and positive riding earned her a place amongst the best riders of her generation, male or female. Winning a jockeys' championship proved a bridge too far but while she faced the might of the Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott stables, like everything else she did in her career, she gave everything in its pursuit. In the 2020/2021 season she won a remarkable 92 races in Ireland and that took her to second place in the championship, eight behind champion jockey Paul Townend. It was her second time finishing runner-up to Townend, having also done so two years earlier. In bowing out after 10 years as a professional, with 524 winners in Ireland alone, she leaves a huge hole in a sport which owes her an eternal debt of gratitude. As racing navigated choppy waters, Blackmore wrote all the right headlines for the industry with her brilliance in the saddle. This truly is the end of an era.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Yahoo
Man in his 20s killed and two injured in single-vehicle crash in Ireland
A man has died and two others have been injured in a single-car crash in Co Waterford. The collision took place on the L1020 Old Tramore Road, Ballycoardra, at around 2.20pm on Saturday. One of the occupants of the vehicle, a man in his 20s, was pronounced dead at the scene. Read more: Second teenager dies after search and rescue operation in Co Donegal Read more: Body recovered from water after search and rescue operation off Irish coast involving 'two young men' His body has since been removed to a morgue where a post-mortem examination will take place. The driver and another occupant of the vehicle, who are also in their 20s, were taken to University Hospital Waterford with serious but not life-threatening injuries. A technical examination has been conducted by Garda Forensic Collision Investigators and the road has reopened to traffic. Gardai are appealing for witnesses and people with footage of the incident to come forward. For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.
Irish Examiner
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Tots to Teens: Choose sustainability with these plantable pencils that grow into herbs
Imagine if there were something you could do with your pencils after they had been worn down to stubs other than chucking them in the bin. MJ Jacob, the Waterford-based artist behind has a suggestion — Plantable Pencils. These are graphite pencils that can be planted once you finish using them. They come in packs of four, and you can choose either herbs or flowers. If you opt for herbs, you will receive a pack containing thyme, sage, coriander, and cherry tomato seeds. And if you select flowers, your pencils will grow in to forget-me-nots, daisies, carnations and sunflowers. The pencils are on sale for €14 from Family rules This list of family rules by Dublin-based Fab Cow has us feeling all warm and fuzzy. The award-winning business, run by artist Francis Leavey and his partner, Bernie Cryan, celebrates the kindness, respect, affection, acceptance, and love that make having a family so special. It's one of a range of prints, cards, and paintings created by Leavey and sold at It costs €29.95. Making memories Children have the funniest thoughts and ideas. It's worth taking the time to jot them down for posterity, as they will inevitably lose some of their quirkiness as they get older. This 3-Year Journal for Kids allows you to preserve those memories for years to come. Two pages are devoted to each week of the year. One asks children to answer a question. For example, they might be asked to name a favourite song. The other page sets them an activity or task. They could be asked to draw or describe their dream meal and then try to cook it with an adult. The following year, they will be asked to answer the same questions and complete the same activities and tasks. This allows parents to observe their children's evolution over the three years. The journal will inevitably become a cherished memento for parents and children. It's designed by Emma Jane Leeson, an Irish mum who has written a range of books, which are available from The journal is sold through the website, alongside other gift ideas, and costs €24.99. Festival of creativity If you're looking for family-friendly fun this May bank holiday weekend, you'll find it in Glenbower Woods in East Cork. Greywood Arts, the organisation that runs community and educational programmes in Killeagh, is hosting its May Sunday Festival, which celebrates local creativity, history, and ecology. The festival runs from Friday to Monday, May 2 to 5, and will feature lots of free events. There will be nature walks in the woods, interactive art performances, children's yoga sessions, live music, children's workshops in art and creative writing, an opportunity to build dens in the woods, bike rides, and more. Visit for the full lineup. Books galore Lismore Castle and town will provide the enchanting setting for a celebration of books, stories, illustration, and imagination this Saturday, May 2. The Co Waterford annual Towers and Tales Children's Book Festival will feature a range of readings, workshops, and other events with some of the most popular Irish and international writers and book illustrators. These include Sarah Bowie, the author of the bestselling Nina Peanut is Amazing; Leona Forde, writer of the Milly McCarthy book series; and Chris Judge, the author of the popular Evil Duck and the Feather of Fortune. Other events include book swaps, doodle walls, circus performers, and book clinics, which involve children talking to the book doctor about their favourite reads and being given a prescription recommending other books to explore. Visit Read More Tots to teens: Learn the simple signs parents can use to communicate with their babies
