The return of the Great Friday Festival

FESTIVAL season kicks off in earnest this weekend as the fifth Great Friday Festival returns to a field near you in the Limerick area.

The venue for the day-long festival is being kept shrouded in mystery but, for a mere €30 music fans can see 16 bands and 12 DJs from the local music scene perform on stage in an open-air venue.

More than 350 fans attended the Great Friday Festival last year, and capacity this year has been increased to 1,100, with about 900 tickets going on sale to the general public. The ticket price covers the cost of bus travel to and from the event, which, as it is being held on Good Friday, is a ‘Bring Your Own Beer’ style event.

“The first band will be on at 12 o'clock and the event finishes at midnight, so it is 12 hours of madness,” explained Cathy O’Flaherty general project manager with Great Friday Event Management, who are running the festival.

“Buses will go every half an hour from Arthur's Quay and there will be more to bring everyone back when it is over.”

The success of last year’s event, which was the first Great Friday gig to be held in a festival-setting, prompted the organisers to return this year.

“It was brilliant last year, apart from the cold everyone had a great time. The neighbours invited us back and the guards commended us and everyone had a great day,” explained Cathy.

There is also a charitable element to the festival, as it is one of a number of events that Great Friday Event Management host every year to raise money for Worthy Cause, a Limerick-based charity that runs projects in the Siam Reap area of Cambodia.

“We are giving a large percentage of the profits to Worthy Cause and the rest will be reinvested into doing this again next year,” explained Cathy. “We do a Fall Prom every year and we raised about €5,000 this year for them. So far we have built a self-help community centre and a new school, and the money pays for doctors to visit the site and care for children based there.”

Some of the acts playing at this Friday’s festival include Walter Mitty and the Realists (pic above), Snowman, The Fewer the Better, Ten Past Seven, Fox Jaw Bounty Hunters and Nick Carswell and the Elective Orchestra. Tickets and further information is available from www.greatfriday.ie or from Baker Place, Limerick.

FULL Line-up and times:

GREAT FRIDAY FESTIVAL 2009
LINE UP FOR MAIN STAGE
12:10 – 12:40 Hundred Flower Campaign
12:50 – 13:20 Blackstar
13:30 – 14:00 Nick Carswell and the Elective Orchestra
14:10 – 14:40 The Overkills
14:50 – 15:20 The Out Last Knights
15:30 – 16:00 Clurichaun
16:10 – 16:40 Idle Hands
16:50 – 17:20 Lights Over Phoenix
17:30 – 18:00 I Caught Fire
18:10 – 18:40 Syllian Rayle
18:50 – 19:20 The Fewer the Better
19:30 – 20:00 Fox Jaw Bounty Hunters
20:10 – 20:50 Ten Past Seven
21:00 – 21:15 Benoit and Walter Mitty
21:15 – 22:00 Walter Mitty and the Realists
22:10 – 22:50 Snowman
23:00 – Close DJ Kav