- Photo by Dean Lochner.
‘Fuck the rain said Villagers’ Conor O’Brien as he headlined the first night of Sea Sessions festival in Bundoran, Donegal. He was right. Such a simple sentence has never offered more relief. Back up to a long bus trip and soaking wet everything, including the tent, and you’ll understand why. But the relatively poor weather didn’t even begin to dampen the spirit of Sea Sessions.
Having now experienced Sea Sessions for the first time it’s completely understandable why it won Best Small Festival at the Irish Festival Awards last year. It seems to be a smaller scale Oxegen, but a lot more laid back. There was very little visible trouble all weekend and even the security, usually regarded as nuisances, didn’t seem too irritated at the care-free crowd surfers.
Apart from the excellent atmosphere the festival had a great mixture of experienced and up and coming acts. Well known Irish bands Villagers and Bell X1 headlined the first two days with Ziggy Marley headlining the third and a combination of alternative rock/indie up and comers inbetween.
The weekend highlights were Ziggy Marley’s entire set (especially covering his fathers’ songs), one camper’s astonishing intoxicated backflip fall from a wall, and Meath indie rockers’ Ham Sandwich cover of Heartbeats by The Knife.
Battle of the band winners Mishap was another act that deserved much praise. Having originally missed them I thankfully I got to see them perform a smaller gig in a bar not far from the camp site. They pitched in with a few of their own weirdly wonderful tracks and and did a stunning cover of I Want You (She’s So Heavy) by The Beatles. The Kanyu Tree, (3 brothers from Salthill) pulled in a large crowd with their easy going and upbeat tracks perfectly suiting the atmosphere. You can catch them at Oxegen at 2pm on the Sunday.
The most impressive thing about the festival is it’s diversity. Apart from the two stages full of rock and pop acts, there is also an all day Beat Shack, a large half pipe display called the Rage Stage and for those drunken/lazy people who won’t leave the campsite; a party bus.
Sea Sessions comes highly recommended, particularly for those who want to attend a festival on a budget and those who are better suited to chilling out than moshing and rocking out. Bundoran’s surf atmosphere combined with the spirit of the festival is almost paradise. Almost. We are still in Ireland.
By Declan Marron.
