This is a festival with a difference: it's outside Dublin, has no beer sponsorship and features Irish bands. What a mix, writes Jim Carroll

It is time to go back for Mór. Last year the festival arrived on the calendar with very little palaver and quickly made its mark. Set in a fabulously Gothic and reputedly haunted castle in Tullamore, with a line-up featuring eclectic music makers from Ireland and abroad, Mór was a home-grown festival that worked from the get-go. Put together in a matter of months, it was proof that an Irish music festival didn't need beer sponsorship or imported brands to make a splash.

For 2004 a few more dishes have been added to the menu. More than 50 acts are on this year's bill, from Damo Suzuki, the former Can vocalist, and Adem, the UK electronic folkie, to such interesting Irish acts as Life After Modelling, Jinx Lennon, David Donohoe, Formica, Jimmy Behan, Miriam Ingram, God is an Astronaut and Northstation. Mór FM will broadcast for the weekend, an accompaniment to the festival's experimental theatre, cutting-edge visual tomfoolery and even yoga classes. Something, then, for everyone.

Which is just what Seamus Carroll and Michael McDermott hoped to achieve when they thought up the festival. The Mór duo, who have wide experience of the music and media industries, knew that better events and festivals were possible than what was already on offer.

"It was a reaction to these huge mass-market commercial events that tend to monopolise and dominate Ireland," says Carroll. "It was also the lack of representation of Irish music at these events that served as a motivation for Mór."

Events such as Dublin Electronic Arts Festival, Sónar, in Barcelona, and The Big Chill, in London, acted as templates for what was possible. Holding Mór in Co Offaly gave them "breathing space", they say, and allowed them to overcome the budgetary demands and timing restrictions that would scupper a similarly sized event in the capital.

It helped, of course, that the venue is such a turn-on. Charleville Castle is "the most spectacular place to platform music in Ireland at the moment" says McDermott. Not only was it the first venue the pair approached, but they found Dudley Stewart, who runs the castle, highly receptive to their ideas.

"It all seemed a bit too easy in some respects," says Carroll. "It was an incredible-looking castle, and we were being allowed to stage this event in it. But that would be to underestimate the workload involved and the incredible efforts of the people who voluntarily got the site ready."

The most noteworthy aspect of Mór is the way it pushes Irish acts into the spotlight. Domestic acts may play at other home-grown festivals, but they're usually stuck down the bill on the smaller stages.

"We're striving to represent what is going on in Ireland musically," says Carroll, "so it's more about Irish acts than bringing in lots of international acts. It is important to remember that two-thirds of the bill is home-grown. I haven't a clue how many Spanish acts play at Sónar, but I doubt it can compare to that."

Although it is not an exclusively electronic affair - "the main stage features everything from heavy guitar instrumental stuff to the Mark E. Smith weirdness of Jinx Lennon" - it highlights how much intriguing electronic music is produced in Ireland.

Yet while both quality and quantity are not in question, there seems to be a problem exporting it. McDermott sees Mór as an opportunity to address the issue. "I think Irish acts compare relatively favourably to their foreign counterparts, but the scene suffers from an insularity, and that is to do with its underdevelopment, an acute lack of support from arts bodies and not really being at the coalface of criticism or acclaim from international quarters.

"Many avant-garde or electronic European festivals feature a myriad of unknown international acts, but you'll almost never spot an Irish name. Now maybe one can argue that we're not up to scratch for performances at this level, but the sad thing is that acts aren't even being considered for rejection.

"The idea behind Mór is to have labels and acts forge relations. For example, we had Felix Kubin headline last year, and I noted a few months back he was headlining the Synch Festival, in Greece, and Donnacha Costello, who is playing Mór this year, was also over there. Dennis McNulty, who is performing at Mór, represented Ireland at the 26th São Paulo Biennale, in Brazil.

"What we're trying to do is start joining dots of association on an international map rather than the one in Dublin city centre."

Carroll views Mór as part of a new musical movement, one that has little to do with chasing major record labels or playing the venues that everyone else plays. "There are more independent labels, more gigs in unconventional places and venues and more music being produced and heard in ways outside the prescribed. Ireland always seems to lag behind other parts of Europe when it comes to music.

"The traditional deification of the singer-songwriter definitely held back progress in other areas, but there are some great bands and performers working in this country right now. Just because they don't fit into a readily marketable package is no reason to ignore them."

Developments such as Mór FM, the festival radio station granted a temporary licence by the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland, can be seen as another piece of the puzzle slotting into place. With programming assistance from London's award-winning art station Resonance FM, it will feature a Sun Ra session, reports from this year's Sónar festival, music from the Brazilian favelas and, of course, performances from Mór acts. It sounds like nothing else on your wireless and should be prescribed listening for those who make the programming decisions for 2FM, Today FM and other stations.

"Resonance FM is a prime example of radio as an educational asset, which is rarely heard over here," says McDermott. "Radio in Ireland seems to be largely just a question of divvying up an advertising pie by pumping out commercial pop. You can pick up Kelis on six different stations at once, which is how bland it's become. Radio should be more than a DJ in a booth. What we're doing is tapping into the wealth of experience distilled through fascinating programming."

What's abundantly clear is that more and more people are eager for events such as Mór and the music it promotes. People have had enough of what's on offer elsewhere and they want, well, Mór. "The festival will appeal to anyone looking for something a bit more organic and less corporate," says Carroll. "We are really trying to appeal to people from all over the country, and that appeal crosses over many interests and groups."

McDermott says: "There are pockets of Mór people everywhere, from those who listen to Donal Dineen [on Today FM\] and Dan Hegarty [on 2FM\] to a young four-piece band in Malahide who want to check out what their contemporaries are up to. There's something for everyone who wants something different.

"We can be lazily misclassified as a rave, some hippie gathering or even an elitist chinstroke, but Mór essentially is about drawing together diverse strands of creativity in the most amazing setting. It is a young festival with the fresh enthusiasm of youth involved. If nothing else it's about showcasing people's efforts in something other than a black box."

Mór is at Charleville Castle, Tullamore, Co Offaly, this weekend. More details from www.morfestival.com