SEBP Panda Graffiti by Askim.
- It’s official: Mantua 2008 > Mantua 2007. There may have been a few organisational problems again this year, namely the lack of a main stage until the magical “Stagecoach” float turned up in time for Múm but in every other aspect of the festival, it was a complete success. The people of Bellinagare I spoke to were very happy to host the festival and the local pub/shop owner was delighted with the mobile cinema, which nobody at the festival seemed to notice. Also, the line-up was delayed and chopped and changed all over the gaff. Plus! There was a special appearance on my face, of the rarest of summer novelties – festival sunburn. It kinda hurts and I’m dayglo red.
- Friday was looking like it was going to be a complete washout when we arrived. Putting up a tent in the rain is not recommended. Thankfully, Saturday and Sunday were largely rain-free days.
- Múm were due to play at half past midnight but the mobile truck which was brought in to replace the main stage was only just ready by then. Nearly two hours later and the Icelandic band finally played. They took ages to soundcheck but were in jovial mood and played with steam from the crowd swirling around them. Their set was rather pleasant but compared to everything else going on, it was a little bit tame. Patches of brilliant melody and song but I tottered off to bed towards the end.
- The Rootical reggae tent was omnipresent no matter where you were on site. The constant rumble of bass coming from its soundsystem was disorientating for many and the planned stoppage of all music on Saturday to allow mass in the nearby church to take place also had the added bonus of giving my ears a rest from reggae for a bit. I don’t hate reggae, I just don’t want to hear it for three days straight y’know?
- The Alphabet Set tent was the place to be for me. The best line-up and the best stage going with LED strip lights and all sorts of lighting at the back of the stage. It looked like a row of six Johnny 5 replicas. Various Production were superb as was Cotti.
- Tardis – the bar decked out like Newgrange also hosted a superb beatboxing showcase from White Noise and Murrough.
- There was a strange proliferation of Reggae everywhere on Saturday afternoon which was annoying. Saturday’s Highlights were Sarsparilla, SEBP, Clark and a smashing, smashing set from Ed Devane.
- Sunday was where everything came together. A varied line-up with some stellar performances. Fringe and Nouveaunoise kicked things off nicely. Plus, the Binocular Soccer was amazing!
- A decent spate of bands on the Dionysus stage included Adebisi Shank with stage invader (below), Terrordactyl and Bats. Missed RSAG, Ily a K and Jinx Lennon (who played a day earlier than scheduled).
- Went to the pub in Bellinagare in the afternoon for a pint of Guinness which was some nice relief before I caught some of BLK JKS’ set which wasn’t very exciting to be honest. The Infomatics were great though as was the total headfuck Egyptian Lover – electro, hip-hop and rude lyrics played by an overbearing man in a patterned shirt. Splendid.
- DJ Halfdutch was knocking them out in the Tardis bar before and after Daedelus. She’s seriously an underrated DJ. I’m pretty sure she dropped a messed up Sugababes sample during the set at one point.
- Daedelus was totally amazing. He was dressed in a Victorian-style jacket and was playing with his customised Monome box. His movements were hypnotic. Seriously, I’ve never seen anyone press buttons with such stylistic aplomb. The set consisted of heavy electronic beats and with snippets of songs from Love to Make Music To fleeting in and out. There was also a bit of Nirvana’s ‘Drain You’ and Portishead’s ‘Only You’ in there too.
- When I got home last night, I went straight to bed for 12 hours but I’m still wrecked. Great festival though. To everyone I met there – thanks for saying hello. There was a general great vibe there even if the feral hippy children were running around the place all day. I may revisit this post later when I can think (and write) straight.
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, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
2007: “the horrible relentless drum and bass tent (I like drum and bass just not 24 hours of it!)”
2008: “I don’t hate reggae, I just don’t want to hear it for three days straight y’know?”
2009 (possibly): “Dubstep is great but do they have to play it for 4 days without a break?”
heh heh. maybe. you can have too much of a good thing you know.
No joyriders on tractors this year? Bah, Mantua is just like Oxegen these days 😉
[quote post=”1383″]No joyriders on tractors this year? Bah, Mantua is just like Oxegen these days ;-)[/quote]
Fraid not. But there was a dreadlocked festival worker who seemed to spend the whole three days in a JCB moving toilets when people got used to them being there.
when are you going to stop going on about the tractor in 07? it just perpetuates negativity.
Mantua 08 Rocks.
Fair play to Mikey and crew for doing the DIY thing.
Great festival this year! Much better organisation. Haven’t spoke to anyone who had anything negative to say about it, perhaps except the Dubstep/Raggae overload on Saturday, which was quashed exceptionally well by the likes of Ed Devane, Fran Hartnett and Clark.
Other shouts to the Gramophone disco, PCP put together a great tent, and one of the best sets of the festival.
The Low-end was a showcase of great Irish based DJs working together to bring the bass, Miles Iwes, Sixfoot Apprentice and many others providing the beats.
Biased of course, but Solen put in a great set after Shackleton on Sunday night, though the music stopped at 3.30am, the party kept on till Monday afternoon, with smiles, highs and some nudity.
I hope that next year it’s the same site, maybe without the teleporters creating teh mud tracks.
I forgot to mention Sixfoot Apprentice and Solen. I never made it down to that Gramophone tent. 🙁
So ye had the “Stop the music for mass” thing too?
I was amazed last Saturday night when the soundchecks had to stop and the sound was cut in Mitchelstown. Stage manager just said “Half seven mass” and that was that.
when are you going to stop going on about the tractor in 07? it just perpetuates negativity.
What’s negative about a tractor?
I love the whole stopping for mass thing. Only in Ireland. Egyptian lover 4eva.
~~when are you going to stop going on about the tractor in 07? it just perpetuates negativity.
What’s negative about a tractor?~~
This shite website:
http://www.cornishtractorclub.co.uk/
What isn’t negative about tractors?
http://www.anfearrua.com/images/upload/NEPP_TractorRun1_sm_2.jpg
Can anyone tell more bout Solen, thought they did a great set. Finished me off nicely on sunday night
What happened Super Extra Bonus Party. Got to the tent bout 6.40 on saturday but their set seemed to have finished?
we hadn’t even started by then mate.. delays mean’t that we didn’t actually start until around 8.. and mass mean’t that our soundcheck was.. interesting.
Solen – http://alphabetset.net/release/abcsp007r.html
http://www.myspace.com/solenband
Cheers Nialler
Yeah, thought it was much better than last year. Really liked the site. We drove across the country in horrible rain, but arrived in sunshine to put up tents at 6pm Friday.
I really enjoyed Múm, thought they were well worth the wait, and they were the nicest people in the entire world. Nouveaunoise and Infomatics were great alright. Daedelus was amazingly good fun, though the chop-change vagueness of the line-ups meant that I didn’t catch Halfdutch in Tardis as promised.
I kinda liked the reggae tent. It was massive and never seemed to have more than 10 people in it, making it the perfect place for us to play frisbee on Saturday. Though we later sent 2 people to first aid with our flying disc antics.
Generally lots of fun, lots of dancing and endless good people (apart from angry crusty woman on Sat). Quite liked to Gramaphone Disco, ended up there in the wee hours most nights.
Does anyone know the name of the DJ who played in Tardis after Dr Fudge on Sunday night?
I’m from Roscommon and am really proud to go every year and support the mantua festival.The cinema was a nice touch i seen a great black and white flick called The killers there.i was disappointed their was no chill-out area all that boom boom get’s annoying after a while, i like to get my bones rattled by a good bass beat but not all day everyday, I seen a great group Friday night called killinaboy on the Dionysus stage but the sound engineer let them down,half their mics didn’t work they are a great bunch of lads spent the best part of Friday enjoying tasty cold beverages in their company. all in all it was a tip top weekend the best I’ve had since last year except for the numerous people who had tents robbed and the people being abused by the drunk foreign security guards, I’m all for security but they are either working or drinking not both. any thats my rant over. I’m already looking forward to next years festival hopefully with a soothing chill-out area to relax the kacks between the big bass drums.
wow…amazing weekend, best mantua yet.
various productions and cotti on friday were class. so good that i couldn’t even tear myself away to see mum. the gramaphone tent was excellent every night, great buzz in there.
on saturday i mainly floated between the wobble tent and the alphabet set tent. ed devane played the best set i’ve heard him play yet, and then clark and fran hartnett blew me away! was well impressed by sunken foal later on too.
had ridiculous amounts of fun on sunday in the !kaboogie tent. fuckrewindz, deadman, the nihilist, ronan dunne… all class sets. had a bizarre moment when fight boy started off his set with a gabber version of the bosco theme tune…ended up dancing beside 2 small kids!!!
had a great laugh playin my set later too. it can be downloaded from here…
http://www.divshare.com/folder/374092-3db
….then it gets hazy.
twas cool to catch major grave again at a food tent on monday night. followed by the soundest people in the world making everyone some “special” rice pudding for free. heroes! finally got outta there on tuesday afternoon. roll on next year!
Howdy folks, had a ball at this years festival, lots of work for us but well worth every minute. I missed everything else..
Thanks for all who made the effort and apologies to anyone who was moved last minute or missed a set as a result. Overall it went pretty smoothly. Lessons are learnt every year, so its only going to get better, thats the aim anyways 🙂
Big thanks to all the crew involved on our setup doing lights and sound and general run around.
Loads of amazing live bands, electronics and dj sets. Plenty of photos on the way, will post here when i have 700 edited down to a decent size of quality ones!
WARNING
negative tractor vibe alert
http://www.townshiproads.com/images/sick_tractor.gif
oh yeah, free solen ABCNET release on our website via the right column or via the audio section link, 30 minutes of electronic goodness => http://alphabetset.net
Solen also have a 12″ still available on alphabet set records, check a preview here
http://smokelessfuels.blogspot.com/2008/04/solen-new-release-on-alphabet-set.html
eh…make that a 10″ 🙂
Here’s my set, thanks for the favourable words!
http://alphabetset.net/audio/mantua08/Ed_Devane-Live-Mantua_Festival-020808.mp3
hey wanna update the binocular soccer link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2lNHfk1NRM so folks can actually laugh at themselves!!