The best new Irish bands, lakeside views and not a corporate sponsor in sight. Knockanstockan is a long way from Oxegen, writes LAUREN MURPHY
AS RURAL Irish villages go, Ballyknockan is pretty nondescript. Known primarily for the granite quarry that dominates the Wicklow skyline as you approach from the north, it’s a stop-off picnic point for the countless coaches ferrying tourists around the Blessington Lakes area. But for one weekend every July, an area of farmland between the hamlet and its neighbouring village Lacken is taken over by scores of bands, a generous serving of catering trucks, tens of campervans and a couple of thousand music fans. That’s when independent festival Knockanstockan rolls into town.
This year marks the festival’s fifth anniversary, something of a milestone for an event that still exists without any corporate sponsorship. Co-founder Peter Keogh can’t help but proudly grin as he surveys the small kingdom he calls his own for three days every summer. The Dubliner relishes pointing out where each of the stages will go as we traverse barbed wire fences, marshy streams and rusted gates to reach the festival’s new Faerie Field chillout area, a dip in the land, ringed with hawthorn trees and dotted with bemused-looking sheep (which will be removed before festival-goers move in next week, we’re assured). There’s no doubt that it’s an area of supreme natural beauty, bordered by a heather-clad mountain on one side and the glittering waters of the Poulaphouca Reservoir on the other.
“I was in a covers band at the time, and we were doing a gig here at the local tractor festival,” says Keogh, sitting on a bench outside the sunny Ballyknockan Inn, where the first Knockanstockan festival was held in 2007. “After playing the gig and looking out at the lake, we thought ‘This would be a great spot to put on a festival.’ And so Keogh and his friends decided to transplant the group of bands they’d come to know via their Primal Jelly Social Club gig nights in Dublin to a rural community for a three-day music and performance arts binge.“We’re musicians ourselves, not businessmen, so we wanted to create a festival that would focus on celebrating Irish music without the sole objective of making money.”
The inaugural festival proved so successful that 2008 saw Knockanstockan move a short distance down the road to its current home. The land is used for grazing cattle and sheep by farmer Phillip Gallagher for most of the year, and also hosts a small activity centre to augment its income. “We camped in his top field in 2007 when the festival was here at the Ballyknockan Inn, and we basically took it from there,” explains Keogh.
“He’s delighted to have things like Knockanstockan on his land. As he was telling me before, the farming isn’t doing as well as it used to. In order for him to keep his land going, he needs to have the activity centre and stuff like the festival to develop his site.”
“The work he’s done over the last few years for us, with the barn [where the gear is stored beside freshly sheared sheep’s wool] and the new veranda [also known as the VIP area, where the farmer and his family can enjoy proceedings from a comfortable distance] and just clearing the land. There’s no way that the festival could work without someone as helpful as him,” says festival booker Graham Sharpe.
Keeping it local is Knockanstockan’s main ethos, and the communities in Lacken, Ballyknockan and Ballynastockan have been very amenable to the festival. Each year the majority of performers are Irish although Sharpe says bands from Italy, France and the UK have applied to play in 2011. “Last year we got about 300 submissions, this year we got over 600.
“It was really easy to pick the first 60 or 70 bands, but trying to fit the last 30 was torture. I’ve been having nightmares of getting taxis with bands I’ve said no to, it’s horrible,” he laughs. “I wish we could fit a lot more on the bill, but it’s just not logistically possible with our current set-up.”
There’s no budget to pay performers, so a reliance on goodwill is essential. Last year, Belfast band And So I Watch You From Afar travelled to headline Knockanstockan “just for petrol money”, and there’s a dependence on volunteers to lend a hand to the core organisation committee, too. Like Keogh and Sharpe, they all give up their time for free.
“It’s not just to help us out, though – it’s an amazing place to play,” Sharpe says. “You’re playing to receptive ears, genuine music lovers. The people who come to Knockanstockan are there because they love music, as does everyone who works at it. It’s a mutual respect thing. What we’re trying to do is to fill the gap that the lack of airplay for emerging talent has left.”
“We definitely couldn’t do it without the volunteers,” agrees Keogh. “It takes probably a hundred volunteers to do stewarding and production. The reason our production levels are so high is because we get a lot of sound engineering students who help with stage management and changeovers. It’s a learning experience for any volunteer, particularly if they have an interest in the industry.”
The past five years have provided a steep learning curve for the organisers, too. Buoyed by the success of their enterprise in 2007 and 2008, the following year “got away from them”.
“We underestimated what we were taking on in 2009, and it was a big slap on the wrist for us,” says Keogh. “We had too many bands, too many stages, so many people here, and we just didn’t have the production end locked down. Last year we put that right, everything ran so smoothly.”
This year, there’s a dedicated campervan field, as well as a larger family camping site, a flea market, an expanded chillout zone and an art trail in conjunction with NCAD. There’s also a selection of quirky performance artists as well as musicians, which included a Stormtrooper Burlesque show last year.
Keogh and Sharpe, who help to fund the festival by organising gigs throughout the year and selling handmade compilation CDs, aim to keep things as relatively small and as perfectly formed as possible.
“I think the smaller festivals are the answer,” nods Sharpe. “When I was 18 or 19, it was all about going to Witnness. That’s changed a lot. Why would you go to a festival and pay €300 or whatever to see the Foo Fighters again when you can go to Knockanstockan, pay €75 for the weekend, and see a new generation of Irish music?”
Knockanstockan takes place from next Friday, July 22, to July 24. knockanstockan.ie
5 to watch
We Cut Cornersbreakingtunes.com/wecutcorners
Lisa McLaughlinmyspace.com/lisamclaughlinmusic
The Spook of the Thirteenth Lockmyspace.com/ thespookofthethirteenthlock
The Last Waltz Ensemblemyspace.com/lastwaltzensemble
Attention Bé Bémyspace.com/attentionbebe
