HWCH 2005 Launches May 26th

BrianD

The Hard Working Class Heroes epidemic kicks off on May 26th 2005 with the launch of the festival website and the national call for bands. Up and coming bands from across the country will be asked to submit their demos to be in with the chance to perform at this year's festival. The registration form will be available online at www.hwch.net from Friday 27th May and the closing date for entries will be the 27th June with the final line up being announced in July.

In only it's third year, The Hard Working Class Heroes festival has become the Irish independent music industry's most telling barometer. The best way to spot emerging acts certain to make noise in the months to follow and also to see more established artists perform in multiple venues over three nights in Dublin's Temple Bar. HWCH is Ireland's only festival dedicated to Irish bands and host venues this year will include The Olympia Theatre, Eamon Dorans, Pravda, The Temple Bar Music Centre with other venues to be announced. Organised by Wrongtapespeed Collective and FMC, all venues are close by so as to allow a real community and party atmosphere to develop over the course of the festival.

The launch, featuring exciting new acts The Rotators and The Amazing Pilots will also be celebrating the fact that since last year's festival, a record number of Irish bands have been signed to recording and publishing deals including many of the emerging acts who appeared at last years festival (see www.hwch.net for details). As part of the festival activities, HWCH hopes to build on this success this year by once again inviting music industry figures from both the UK and the US to attend the festival and are expecting to at least double the number of executives to make the trip this August.

The call for bands is expected to top last year's entries, which totalled a staggering 600 bands from which 100 acts were chosen to perform. The festival organisers will, this year, have some added surprises in store, including inviting some of the UK's emerging artists.

This initiative has been put in place in order to promote further collaboration with both the UK and other international festivals. 'As we got involved in the MUSIC FROM IRELAND brand this year (see www.musicfromireland.org for details) we thought that opening our festival to artists from other countries was nothing less than other territories do for Irish bands' says Angela Dorgan of fmc. 'We are excited to try it out and see how it works!'

Brian Carroll is thrilled that HWCH festival is staying true to its organic ethos. 'We received amazing feedback from bands and fans alike last year and felt that we needed to deliver just as exciting a festival in 2005. We are delighted to still be the only Irish festival for Irish bands on the festival calendar and the success of the showcase dimension borne out by the overwhelming success of artists from last years festival including Humanzie, Joe Chester, Declan O' Rourke, Iain Archer and Mainline to name a few. We feel sure that the artists who are selected for HWCH 05 will enjoy equal success'.

In addition to hosting performances of 100 acts, HWCH will repeat its very successful series of Music Industry seminars and mentoring sessions this year. Experts from Ireland and the UK will be joined by their counterparts from the US ensuring that once again, HWCH delivers the international music industry directly to Irish artists.

The festival will cost €25 excluding service and handling fees for the entire weekend and access to every venue will be strictly on a first come, first serve basis.

Tickets Available from Ticketmaster outlets nationwide.

www.hwch.net

dregin

What was wrong with selling them from the local outlets instead of letting ticketbástard on the bus?

foxxrok

are they not available to buy from the culture place across form charlies(um *licks lips*) in temple bar this year????

miju

money is the answer to why ticket bastad are sellin em

speaking of money do the bands have to pay for administration charges again this year???

bandit

Since when has Pravda been home to gigs??

IanluvsKathleen

ticketmaster = bad form.

were they not sold independently last year??? and their didnt seem to be too much agro getting hold of them then.

be prepared to paid around a fiver handling charges.

HWCH still rules though

Shanannigan

yeah... i'm not keen on the ticketmaster thing this year either, but it should be a good weekend all the same... lookin forward to it

Neil_B

It was a great launch.
Well done to all involved.

memaeve

Who played at it?
xm

Jiminy Cricket

The HWCH festival last year was probably the best weekend I had all year. The atmosphere around town was fantastic. The bands were even better. No hassle anywhere and unbelievable value for money. Can't wait for the next one!

scarfacemj

Is it Hard 'Working Class' Heroes or 'Hard Working' Class Heroes?

BrianD

... depends on the band!

scarfacemj

Very good answer, I was all hyped up for a rant there!!!!!