A Magnificent 7 – Fanciable Festivals This Weekend

No Place Like Dome – http://www.npld.ie/

Music festivals are as much about the vibe as they are about the line-up, it’s a chicken and egg thing; it’s hard to have one without t’other. The NPLD posse have got both sussed for their one day festival this Saturday at Temple House Estate in Sligo. The campsite does open on Friday evening for some campfires and acoustic offerings, but it will be Saturday before the serious shenanigans begin. The Barley Mob and The Hot Sprockets are acts that immediately jump out  at me, but expect decent rootsy and rockin’ homegrown heroes all weekend. This one is Knockanstockan’s first cousin, once removed.

Red Hot Sprockets

Dublin Fringe Festival – http://www.fringefest.com

We’re just about smack bang in the middle of this epic offering of multidisciplinary arts in Das Kapital. A gargantuan programme stuffed into venues all over the city for 18 days. This weekend Beckett will be brought out onto the streets, Mother bring 3-D Le Galaxie show to Meeting House Square to blow people’s minds and retinas (no bar though, so shove a bottle down your pants), David O’Doherty will be fixing the world, Macnas work their magic on the streets and the Hedge School will feature change agents telling you how to harness the power within. That’s only this weekend, there’s another week of this craic left yet! The eccentric, camp, gender-bending, mayhem of Briefs closed a couple of days ago, but the Aussie freaks are running a kids workshop on Saturday that promises to be all kinds of fun. Having seen their show, I’d love to see if they can totally clean up their act for the childer. Keep sketch for the Taylor Mac show that kicks of this Tuesday, it looks like being a highlight.

DO’D in the mix yo!

Harvest Food Festival – http://waterfordharvestfestival.ie/

A well established perennial in the South East at this stage, will have the smell of fine food  wafting around Waterford city. There’s an interesting “Dine in the Dark” event that will see diners blindfolded, in pitch dark, served mystery dishes by blind waiting staff. One should always be careful what one puts in their mouth though, especially in the company of tricksy Waterford folk. The Grow It Yourself crew are celebrating their birthday here, there’ll be the usual markets and mouth watering offerings from smoking barbecues and maestros of marmalade and assorted goodies. The Craft Beer village and gigs on Lombard Street will be popular, expect it to peak on Saturday night with a performance from Jerry Fish. Kildare’s Susan Boyle has been flying aropund the country with her show “A Wine Goose Chase” and she’ll be leading wine talks here; the talking will be done in between the drinking.

Graiguenamanagh Town of Books – http://irelandstownofbooks.blogspot.ie/

On a fine Autumn day, there are few finer places to be than by the canal in this Co. Kilkenny town. This weekend there will be readings, walks, talks and pop-up bookshops  and bookish bystanders scattered hither and tither. A highlight will be Ross O’Carroll Kelly’s reading on Saturday afternoon, but there’s also the Michaelmas fair thrown into the equation on Sunday. Two festivals for the price of one. My kinda town.

Valentia Isle Festival – http://www.valentiaislefestival.com/index.html

I really enjoyed this one last year. The Kerry crowd really know how to kick it up! The focus seems to have a shifted slightly this year with the decks being more prominent than the plecs. Billy Scurry is kicking off the proceedings and Belfast legend David Holmes is one of the main draws. The pair that would pull me towards Kerry most are LCD Soundsystem’s Pat Mahoney and Nancy Whang, they should be worth a look, but it’s a DJ set from this pair too. The festival fell a bit flat on the Sunday night last year, with most of the campers heading home early with work looming large on the horizon on Monday. It’ll be interesting to see if anything has been done to keep the session going through Sunday.

Shy and retiring Kerry folk

Bog Snorkelling Championships – http://www.irishbogsnorkelling.com/

For the amount of coverage that this one gets, it’s amazing that they aren’t beating the punters away with a stick. They’ve added camping and a barbecue and music on Friday night for this episode, the main event is till taking place on Saturday though. As they say around Castleblaney, this is “chape, clayne fun”. Although you’ll end up pretty manky after your stint in the bog, you’ll have a big dirty smile on your face. I’d be doing well to beat my sixth place ranking from my last attempt.

Chape Clane Fun in the bogs of Monaghan

Dingle Tradfest – http://www.dingletradfest.com/

One of the biggest weekends on the social calendar in the West Kerry town, there will be wall to wall sessions and some gala concerts in the evenings, capable of getting the most reluctant of feet tapping. Ger Wolfe is a favourite folkie of mine, his CD’s often getting a spin in Wanderly Wagon as we trundle around the country. Ger is gigging and launching his new album at this festival, definitely one to catch if you make it to Funghiville.

A Wolfe in a wooly jumper

There are also a load of planes going to be flying low over the Liffey on Sunday, but to tell you the truth, I’d rather have my dinner in the dark, catch a sprocket in a field or swim in a mucky bog.

Safe travels, don’t die.