REVIEW: INDIEPENDENCE ☆☆☆☆

Venue: Deer Farm, Mitschelstown, Cork, Ireland.

August 2nd-4th, 2013



INDIEPENDENCE. A small Music & Arts Festival, nominated for 'Best Small Festival' at European Awards 2013.

 'The Farm', as it's fondly known, is absolutely ideal for a festival of it's kind. 

• The ground is flat, and the earth is pretty absorbing (i.e. it'll take a nice bit of downpour before your tent goes the full Titanic). Something to do with the mountainous Galtee region it lies in.....or something that sounds a lot cooler than what I just said.
• There are lots (and lots and lots) of trees- behind which one can escape the dreaded port-a-loos, or just escape in general. 
• The campsites are spread out and well signposted, for when you've been kicked out of the main arena at 4am and you realise that everyone else went with the cheapest possible option of tent in the Argos catalogue too.

The Arena was totally diverse, there was something for absolutely everybody -

even this guy.

• The Canadian Main Stage was where all the 'big acts' played. By 'big acts' I mean headliners such as De La Soul, The Fratellis, Bell X1, Bastille, Kodaline; the list goes on.
• The Maxol Big Top Stage, a circus tent, essentially, housed the likes of Beardyman (AMAAAZING), And So I Watch You From Afar and Hudson Taylor.
• Bacardi Oakheart Arena (who, for the record, made a damn good mojito) and the Darkness Graveyard catered for the dance/house/techno lunatics within us all, the latter being more.....well, "Darkness Graveyard"-y.
• The Bier Halle- complete with Oktoberfest benches- was my personal favourite. Upside down umbrellas decorated the ceiling, the acts were mainly unsigned, up-and-coming bands (such as Walking On Cars).
• The Hot Press Tent interviewed most of the line-up in front of whoever wanted to come along could do so. (Not to be recommended when it's 2 o' clock in the afternoon, you're still drunk, and the most intelligent thing you can thing of saying to the Fratellis is 'The Fratellis are so-'*runs away*)
• There was also a Silent Disco- which you should totally consider sneaking into without headphones and dancing in the silence- it is practically an outer-body experience. Or so I'm told.

Even the food was top class.

Cleverly, I bought an early-bird ticket, so the whole weekend only cost me €70.

As goes with the territory, festivals are pretty objective. 
So while I had the time of my life, and did some pretty ridiculous stuff, and would recommend it wholeheartedly- not everybody would agree, and there were some downsides too.

• The port-a-loos were di-sgust-ing. I understand that it is nobody's fault (apart from those charming sink vomiters) but jeeesus, they were septic. 
• I was unsure/uncomfortable with the presence of the family campsite/the kids, running around with earmuffs on. I mean, really?? Is your 4 year old son going to thank you for seeing drunken twenty-something-year-old-guys declaring their love for each other in a pile of vomit and Canadian beer glasses?
• There weren't enough bad points to make my bullet-pointed argument seem necessary. This is unacceptable, please adhere to this complaint for next year.

Overall, it was sheer brilliance. The lineup, while nothing spectacular, had some real diamonds. It was the extra touches, the "festivities" that really made it stand out. Check out www.indiependencefestival.com, and keep an eye on when early bird tickets for next year go onsale.

It's definitely worth the gamble. 

REVIEW: KINGS OF LEON ☆☆☆☆☆

Venue: Boucher Playing Fields, Belfast, Northern Ireland.


The first day of Belfast's Tennents Vital Festival,  August 14th 2013, brought with it a fantastic line up, Northern accents and shoddy, shoddy weather. The bill consisted of Dublin band 'The Minutes', legendary Derry boys 'The Undertones', the old reliable supporting band 'The Vaccines', and our eponymous legends, 'Kings of Leon'.

The grounds were glorious; littered with Tennents pint glasses and plastic Bulmers bottles. (They call it Magners up there, typically complicated of them). As the name suggests, the festival is sponsered by Tennents lager, a beer that tastes mainly of poo and barley, but they put on a good enough fest so I won't be too hard on them.

The festival generally caters to all tastes, and consists of three days, each headlined by (and I'm being hugely stereotypical here) a popular band that have been shoehorned into satisfying a wider target market. A rock/alternative day (KOL), soft pop/indie(Snow Patrol), and lastly a bit of techno(Avicii)- for the diehards like. See where I'm going with this? As a whole package, it lacked personality. Not to mention the OUTRAGEOUS downgrade in quality of acts from 2012 to 2013. 2012 saw the Foo Fighters, The Black Keys, The Stone Roses and Florence & the Machine headlining- the lineups are barely comparable.

LUCKILY, I am an extremist KOL fan. Therefore the day was going to be the best of my life regardless of what happened. The rain, the portaloos- the discovery of the "she-wee" (don't get me started), my boyfriend drunkenly trying to end partition- NOTHING could have ruined this day for me.


The Minutes kicked off. Nothing groundbreaking, the crowd was sparse, we sat with pints on the grass feeling like something was on it's way; the calm (The Minutes aren't calm, at all, but the 'metophorical' calm) before the show.

Next, The Undertones had us all on our feet. The crowd was starting to fill out a bit, and nothing spreads the love more than a couple of rounds of "I WANNA HOLD YA- WANNA HOLD YOU TIGHT, AND GET TEENAGE KICKS RIGHT THROUGH THE NIGHT-" and god love him, Paul McLoone does his name justice.

The Vaccines, a band I've seen a lot live over the last few years, really are influenced by the crowds interest. When the crush is on their side; they can be electric. Alas, it just wasn't working out for them that day in Belfast; wrong crowd (bad craics), and people were really only waiting for the big boys to start performing.

Finally, Kings of Leon hit the stage; and, my gosh; it was a sight to behold. They sound even better live (if that's possible). The set was top class, and the setlist was gorgeous. It seemed as though it had been planned in accordance with intervals of the rain getting torrential. The heavens opened as 'Radioactive' osciallated through the grounds- and I doubt I'll ever again feel so completely necessary amongst a crowd of 13,000 people ever again.

I have heard people say that KOL are a disappointment to see live because of their lack of interaction with the crowd. Well, I can tell you that that is absolute cadswallop- I bet Caleb even knew my eye colour by the end the gig.


They were spectacular. Honestly.

My name is Jess; and I am a Gig Pig.

My name is Jess; and I am a Gig Pig.

The first step is admitting it.

It'll take courage, willpower, familial support, and an acceptance of your ATM being constantly overdrawn. 

Not sure what I'm talking about? Never fear; Jess is near. Who said internet diagnosis was unreliable?

• Have you used the expression "They might never play in *insert city where said band will most definitely reappear at* again!!?"
• Do you find yourself equating restaurant meal prices to gig tickets?
• Have tried to make someone go to an event with you that you described as "that guy that plays that thing with the hair and the eyes in a venue only 4 hours and 2 buses away from our house"??
• Is your alcohol consumtion indirecty proportional to how much you like what you're listening to?
• Do you have recurring nightmares that that album you've been listening to on repeat just won't sound the same live?
• Do you feel anxious that somehow everyone else knows that your last question refers to AM and that they'll judge you for it?
• Do you feel IRRATIONAL ANGER towards GIG CUDDLERS that LITERALLY COULD HAVE STAYED AT HOME and CUDDLED THERE instead of in the front row?
• Have you ever sympathetically offered to take over for the barman for a few minutes, 'cause he was really missing out on a fantastic night, it didn't seem fair, his manager wouldn't have noticed, and no, I didn't need to be escorted out by security; I was just trying to be nice.
• Do you choose to ignore that almost everyone in the music industry is a knob and choose to accept that, actually; if he ever met you, Glen Hansard would be totally interested in your university course, and actually; Winston Marshall really fancies you.
• Have you had regular doctors appointments/funerals on Friday mornings for the past while now?
• Is your love/hate relationship with ticketmaster.ie really upsetting the feng shui in your flat?

(I'm sorry, I take back that last one. Just don't cut me off. I need the hit, come on, I'm sorry, just don't cut me off. I don't care about your ridiculous booking fees, I just wish you'd  advertise at the actual price, not the profit you're making on it. But please, don't cut me off, I'll have the money soon, I swear.)

If you have answered yes to any of the above questions....then I think you and I will get along just fine.