Raveloid - Music festival 'as Gaeilge'

Ferris_Bueller

Last night was the launch of Raveloid in the Meeting House in Dublin. It's a new 5,000 capacity festival taking place on the grounds of Ardgillan Castle near Balbriggan. It will be a camping festival taking place on the 10th & 11th of June (although I've read elsewhere it will be a 3 day thing). The twist with this one is that it's set to be a music festival entirely as Gaeilge. Not entirely sure how they're going to implement it but I presume all the staff, bars, signage etc. will be in Irish and there will be an emphasis on speaking Irish while at it.

Ravelóid is a pioneering new music and culture festival that is to take place in summer 2016.

Every summer a wide range of boutique festivals are held throughout Ireland, all of which use English as their primary language of communication and promotion.

Ravelóid will put the Irish language at the centre of an exciting mixture of contemporary and traditional music, comedy, dance, literature, discussions, workshops and more.

The festival will take place on the expansive grounds of Ardgillan Castle, near Balbriggan in north county Dublin, and will provide full camping facilities for the 5,000 people who will attend the newest and sunniest festival in the Irish language world.

Ravelóid will be dynamic celebration of the Irish language as an intrinsic element of our identity and will provide a wonderful insight into the vibrancy and diversity of the language’s contemporary culture in 2016.

So far the line up includes Delorentos, the Riptide Movement, Kíla, Mundy, Ham Sandwich, Houthouse Flowers and more.

So what's the verdict? Would anyone here be interested?

I'm not entirely sure how it is going to work. I presume anything such as comedians, spoken word, all stalls and sideshows etc. will be all done through Irish. The music obviously won't be but I'd imagine some bands will be performing in Irish. I would think it's ambitious to have the capacity at 5,000 people but hopefully it works out for them. If they have that many people attending there would want to be a good few stages and I would think/hope they don't just have a focus on traditional Irish music.

As someone who goes to quite a few festivals and is fluent in Irish I'll be keeping an interest in this, my early worry would be that it ends up being a cheesy over the top Irish thing with a "céilí rave" and late night songs as Gaeilge around a guitar.

Terrontress

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

Last night was the launch of Raveloid in the Meeting House in Dublin. It's a new 5,000 capacity festival taking place on the grounds of Ardgillan Castle near Balbriggan. It will be a camping festival taking place on the 10th & 11th of June (although I've read elsewhere it will be a 3 day thing). The twist with this one is that it's set to be a music festival entirely as Gaeilge. Not entirely sure how they're going to implement it but I presume all the staff, bars, signage etc. will be in Irish and there will be an emphasis on speaking Irish while at it.



So far the line up includes Delorentos, the Riptide Movement, Kíla, Mundy, Ham Sandwich, Houthouse Flowers and more.

So what's the verdict? Would anyone here be interested?

I'm not entirely sure how it is going to work. I presume anything such as comedians, spoken word, all stalls and sideshows etc. will be all done through Irish. The music obviously won't be but I'd imagine some bands will be performing in Irish. I would think it's ambitious to have the capacity at 5,000 people but hopefully it works out for them. If they have that many people attending there would want to be a good few stages and I would think/hope they don't just have a focus on traditional Irish music.

As someone who goes to quite a few festivals and is fluent in Irish I'll be keeping an interest in this, my early worry would be that it ends up being a cheesy over the top Irish thing with a "céilí rave" and late night songs as Gaeilge around a guitar.

I can't speak Irish, went to school in the North and didn't have to learn it, but am considering going. The location is good for me, the line up is good and €99 is a great price.

Do you think it would be worthwhile for a non-Irish speaker to go?

It looks like a good festival in its own right, leaving the Irish element out of it.

Ferris_Bueller

Terrontress wrote: »

Do you think it would be worthwhile for a non-Irish speaker to go?

It looks like a good festival in its own right, leaving the Irish element out of it.

If you think it looks like a good festival in its own right then I recommend going, I wouldn't imagine the language will be too big of a barrier for you but I'm sure they would love you to make an effort to order a beer in Irish or whatever!

It's a really cool idea, and definitely something I would be interested in, but the lineup looks pretty bad thus far; obviously, I know a festival like this won't attract big names or anything, but would like to see a few more acts added before committing to a ticket for it. €99 to see Mundy in a field in Balbriggan - ní maith liom é sin!

Terrontress

Ferris_Bueller wrote: »

If you think it looks like a good festival in its own right then I recommend going, I wouldn't imagine the language will be too big of a barrier for you but I'm sure they would love you to make an effort to order a beer in Irish or whatever!

Obviously I've picked up a word or two by living in Dublin, both spoken and a bit of vocab I've read. And if I were to learn how to order a few beers and a burger in Irish then I'd imagine the organisers would be happy at having increased someone's knowledge of the language one round at a time!

Ferris_Bueller

Deleted User wrote: »

It's a really cool idea, and definitely something I would be interested in, but the lineup looks pretty bad thus far; obviously, I know a festival like this won't attract big names or anything, but would like to see a few more acts added before committing to a ticket for it. €99 to see Mundy in a field in Balbriggan - ní maith liom é sin!

I agree, the line up is very bland IMO and I don't think it will attract many people by the line up alone. They weren't going to be attracting big international acts but there are a lot of Irish acts they could get that would add to the line up considerably, someone like Le Galaxie or King Kong Company would make me a lot more interested as at the moments they seem like quite run of the mill acts to me anyway.

Terrontress wrote: »

Obviously I've picked up a word or two by living in Dublin, both spoken and a bit of vocab I've read. And if I were to learn how to order a few beers and a burger in Irish then I'd imagine the organisers would be happy at having increased someone's knowledge of the language one round at a time!

Definitely, as long as people are happy to make a small effort I'm sure they would be delighted!

Terrontress

I'd probably be happy to pay €33 each for Kila, Hothouse Flowers and Delorentos at a venue, and then you've got the festival around that. If the weather was good, I think €99 is great value.

Thinking about ordering a beer or burger in Irish, the people selling them will probably be the normal festival bar set up, just another stop on their summer agenda.

Also, Euro 2016 starts that weekend. I'd planned to watch the opening ceremony etc.

Peter File

Unless all the acts sing in Irish it can hardly be called an Irish language festival. Seems to be an excuse to get lots of funding from Irish language organisations

Koptain Liverpool

Terrontress wrote: »

I'd probably be happy to pay €33 each for Kila, Hothouse Flowers and Delorentos at a venue, and then you've got the festival around that. If the weather was good, I think €99 is great value.

Thinking about ordering a beer or burger in Irish, the people selling them will probably be the normal festival bar set up, just another stop on their summer agenda.

Also, Euro 2016 starts that weekend. I'd planned to watch the opening ceremony etc.

Doubt 5000 others would though.
I think the last time I saw Kila I paid no more than 15...
I agree that the lineup would need to be improved for this to prove attractive. It could be as simple as getting one decent current act to headline. The cheap tickets would then mean that plenty of people would probably head along

Queenalocin

Anyone here had any more thoughts on Ravelóid? I've been asked if I fancy it as a bonding trip with my 17 year old daughter. It could be fun and the line up is good.

The Hill Billy

Deleted User wrote: »

...€99 to see Mundy in a field in Balbriggan - ní maith liom é sin!

You've never been to Ardgillan then? As a music venue it is quite awesome if they position the stage on the 'front lawn' with crowd looking down on the stage from a natural amphitheater, & the Irish Sea & the Mountains of Mourne as a backdrop.

@Queenalocin - From the program info I've seen so far I'd say you'd have a ball with a 17yo. Lots planned for all age groups.

Peter File

Under 2,000 tickets sold so no surprise that it was cancelled.

Ferris_Bueller

Not too surprised that it was cancelled. It had a very weak line up and it was relying on the niche of it being as Gaeilge to sell tickets, I doubt there were many music fans who purchased tickets based on the line up. The timing of it probably wasn't the best either, with other festivals such as Forbidden Fruit, Body & Soul, Sea Sessions, BARE, Interlude, Life all happening a few weeks either side of it, plus the euros are on, and the leaving cert is on during it too. Would like to see it tried again but I would say on a smaller scale with a more adventurous line up.

Jijsaw

Sad to see this has been cancelled, I won tickets to it and was really looking forward to going
They said it'll be back sometime in the future probably on a greatly-reduced scale.