Are These Jenny McGovern’s Electric Picnic Tickets?

Hairy naked dudes and The Strypes, much fun in Cavan. If you want to be in with a shout of getting your paws on a pair of weekend tickets for Electric Picnic, here’s the craic – Are These Your Electric Picnic Tickets?

Tell us all about it Jenny…

It was never going to be easy to fill the gaping hole that was left by the All Ireland Fleadh, us Cavan folk had it for three years, three…we were spoiled. But somehow, despite the odds, Blessfest did it.

Blessfest, the brainchild of the lovely Paula McQuillan is a three day mini festival of music and spoken word. Although it was a ‘blessing’ that it happened that is not where the name originated. The location for the event was “Blessings Bar” a pub with a sizeable beer garden situated smack bang in the centre of main street, Cavan town. The marquee had been resurrected from the Fleadh and once again provided shelter for the masses. I realise it doesn’t ooze of glamour, but rest assured what it lacked in size it more than made up for in craic.

It began on Friday 2^nd August with a ribbon cutting, an event in itself, as the giant novelty scissors refused to cut the flimsy material, a couple of lads intervened to ceremoniously rip the ribbon and so began the inaugural Blessfest. The audience were treated to readings from Cavan writer Philip Doherty’s upcoming play, “The Birthday Man” a cast of Dublin actors including Rex Ryan (son of the late Gerry) enthralled the crowd with rousing monologues. The live music then kicked off with much loved Cavan band The Shuck Dodgers- hard to define into a musical genre the Shucks’ are a wild mix of crazy country, jazz, funk and reggae with a dollop of some truly amazing harmonies. The combination of Shane O Connor’s banjo, John O’ Grady’s buttery smooth vocals and Shane Carrol’s 80s glam rock howls whipped the crowd into a dancing frenzy. Yet that was relatively tame in comparison to the events of Saturday night..

Saturday saw another Cavan favourite “Whiskey Ur the Divil” take to the stage, ah yes trad, for a couple of hours the Fleadh was back. This was trad played with passion and more than a hint of soul, the band has too many members to even mention, in true trad form anyone who can play an instrument ended up on the stage. Then it was the turn of Monaghan lady Clara Rose and her band, Clara has a captivating voice, harsh yet smooth and by golly can she hit those high notes! The headline act on Saturday was the one and only “Chris Difford and Friends “- yes the man from 80s band Squeeze. There had been whispers and rumours about who is friends might be, would he reform Squeeze right there and then on a small stage in the middle of Cavan town? Well I’m sorry to disappoint all you Squeezers but that did not happen….

The excitement was palpable as Difford entertained the crowd with the classic “Up the Junction” he then invited his friends on stage and who should saunter up but four teenagers dressed in snappy suits. Ross, Pete, Evan and Josh took to the stage to the deafening screams of the audience. They dueted with Difford on the aptly named “Cool for Cats” before the Diff told the crowd “I’ll leave you to the professionals” Brooding guitarist Josh McClorey then took to the mic to proclaim “Just so everybody knows, we’re The Strypes, and we’re from Cavan.” For over two hours the lads worked the capacity crowd into frenzy, blazing their way through a ridiculously tight set with the audience shouting each and every lyric right back at their hometown boys. Even though they’ve played festivals all over the world this has been chalked up as their favourite and arguably their best gig to date. Mingled throughout the sweat drenched masses, watching with pride, stood their families and old school friends, it was clear that The Strypes were home.

So how does anyone top The Strypes’ secret homecoming gig- well not just anybody could…but Dublin rockers The Hot Sprockets came pretty damn close on the Sunday night. However the Sprockets had a couple of obstacles in their path, firstly the Cavan V Kerry all Ireland semi final had taken place in Croke Park earlier that day and so a sizeable chunk of Cavan had flocked to that…. a lot of people had stayed at home to watch the match. Inevitably after Cavan’s loss there were a lot of people who decided to drown their sorrows in the pub. This lead to a fair few drunken idiots in Cavan Jerseys acting the bollox. One lad who was being particularly lecherous and handsey with a friend of mine received a stinging slap from her and was forced out of the marquee. The girl in question is a dainty, doll like creature so to see her frog marching a drunken buffoon out of a packed tent was particularly hilarious.

Where was I? Oh yes, the second setback the Sprockets faced was that they were playing at 9pm- which at a festival is painfully early, as I’ve already mentioned a lot of people were still making their way home from the match in Dublin, so the crowd was relatively small before the Sprockets took to the stage. However when they launched into their blistering rendition of “Country Dirt” the marquee swiftly began to fill up. They treated us to a whole host of songs of their upcoming second album and won the crowd over by professing their love for Cavan. They concluded their set with a ferocious version of “Soul Brother” – the music video for this which was filmed in Cavan by the uber talented Finn Keenan.

Cavan band “Kinda Blutack” had the daunting task of following the Sprockets’ set and they finished the festival in spectacular style.  The band is a crazy mishmash of talented Cavan folks, saxophones, trumpets, guitars, keyboards, drums, whistles, nakedness…. Part time musical wizard/ guitar maestro Daragh Slacke had the audience at his beck and call. In true festival form The Hot Sprockets had stuck around to see the final act rock the stage. Using a mic stand as a prop “Kinda Blutack” instigated a limbo competition and at one stage it was The Sprockets Vs Kinda Blutack in a limbo to the death…. who knew musicians were so flexible.

We’ll never know if it was the heat from the crowd the sheer speed at which the band were banging out tune after tune or the Guinness that coursed through their veins but inevitably, the Blutack boys began to shed their clothing… leaving us with topless hairy men adorned with ties and sunglasses- And with that delightful image Blessfest 2013 drew to a raucous conclusion. Roll on 2014!