SMALL PRINT:AS WE trudge through the snow and slush, thoughts naturally turn to summer and sloshing through the mud at one of the 80-odd festivals that are held around the country.
It wasn’t all rain this year, though. There were also great bands, good facilities, interesting sideshows and inspiring moments – and even a few rays of sunshine.
Now you can vote for your favourite at the fourth Irish Festival Awards 2010. Did you live and breathe Oxegen? Was Electric Picnic a feast of fun? Or are you more of a Hard Working Class Heroes head? Log onto festivalawards.ie and have your say.
Cillian Stewart of CherryCool Promotions, which organises the awards, says they are “to honour the organisers and people behind the scenes that make every Irish summer such an eclectic celebration of music, art and performance”.
Categories include best large festival (scooped by Electric Picnic for the past three years running – no surprise there), best dance festival, best one-day festival, greenest festival, family festival and best-value festival.
Festival-goers are demanding better standards on the ground, says Stewart. “You see it in the blogs. People are choosy about which festivals they go to, and promoters have had to up their game, from the standard of the music to the state of their facilities.”
Many punters would probably give the excellent Castlepalooza in Co Offaly their votes, but they can’t because it is run by CherryCool Promotions. So, out of fairness, they have disqualified themselves from the competition.
Voting is open now and continues through December and January. The awards will be held in Dublin on February 3rd.
