As the dust settles on Ireland’s premier boutique music festival, Body & Soul, we look back and, in true introspective festival hippie fashion, see what we learned about ourselves, the universe and everything….
The People Make The Festival
I’ve been going to festivals in Ireland and the UK for the better part of an alcohol-strewn decade and the one indisputable fact about every one of them is that the people make it.
You can have the best stage shows, the sickest lineups and the coolest location, but without a clued-in, discerning crowd of lunatics to party their arses off then all you’re really left with is some DJs in a field Instagramming themselves.
Of all the Irish festivals on the circuit, Body & Soul seems to attract a really cool bunch of people, which is a big plus considering your biggest concern at festivals is generally that people aren’t stealing, fight starting dickheads. Soundness is the cherry on the cake!
Optimo Are Some Sort Of Weird Geniuses
Scottish label owners Optimo’s DJ sets had escaped me until some of my pre-festival research but their set was certainly the highlight of the Friday night for me.
A set that encompassed classic 90s house, David Bowie, and even featured Motorhead’s ‘Ace of Spades’.
Weird, but somehow genius.
Cassy Is A Berlin Techno Queen
In a weekend of musical highlights, I’d have to plump for former Panorama Bar and Circo Loco resident Cassy.
When you’ve sweated yourself inside out and basically fist pumped a hole into roof of a tent for four hours out of sheer fucking techno-inspired joy, then you know you’ve just witnessed something special.
Cassy, I salute you.
Mud Is The Bane Of All Existence
You’d think being an Irishman experienced in the ways of UK and Irish festivals that I’d have come to some kind of accord with mud at festivals by now – or at least packed wellies to prepare.
But, obviously, either I’m some kind of idiot or mud is just pure evil and needs to fuck right off!
After a downpour on Saturday that continued into Sunday turned the festival site into a sort of medieval pitched battleground, this festivalgoer ended up looking like Jon Snow, except less handsome and somehow more frowny.
More straw put down quicker for next year please!
Too Many Bodies Hurt The Soul
The above heading might sound like the sort of thing you’d read on a Mormon pamphlet denouncing promiscuous sex, but in terms of Body & Soul festival it’s true.
With the increase of the capacity from 10,000 to 15,000, the festival lost some of the charm of previous years.
Whereas before the site was a joy to explore and discover hidden gems, this year it felt like it was just a little bit too big.
