Details are light but it’s taking place from Saturday August 16th to Monday August 18th.
Body&Soul has shared a cryptic missive about their 2025 plans. Rather than the regular music and arts festival in Ballinlough, A.Wake is to be “a final send-off” for the festival.
“Gather with us for the farewell,” the email says, and the accompanying website features a keening song, a song of grief, sung by Kitty Gallagher from The Folk Revival Project.
The site says:
“Let the body be still.
Let the soul be free.
The festival is no more. A wake will take place to honour its memory.”
Is it one last big party? A pivot to a more spiritual wellness retreat type event? Something else?
Either way, you can register your interest here.
Body&Soul last took place in 2023 before it took a “pause” last year. It ran for 13 years as it’s own festival featuring live performances from St. Vincent, Nick Cave, The Gloaming, M83, Fever Ray, The Blaze, Róisín Murphy, Flight Facilities, Caribou, Kneecap and many more.
The festival began as a wellness area at Electric Picnic, when no Irish festivals had such a thing. It stopped featuring in Stradbally in 2019.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
