Vantastival is a new weekend music festival catering for all campervan, motor scooter and music lovers, taking place over the May bank holiday weekend at Dunany Estate in Co. Louth. There will be over sixty bands and solo artists performing on three stages at the picturesque estate as well as a wide program of vehicle-related activities, Vantastival promises to accommodate leisure vehicle owners in a way that no other Irish festival does.
Organisers have booked the incumbent Irish scene big names of any festival’s inaugural year, with the likes of Kila, Jack L, Mick Flannery, FRED, The Dublin City Ramblers and Bell X1′s David Geraghty making the line-up. The festival will also showcase a large number of local acts, including Jinx Lennon, The Fontanels, I’d Fight Ghandi and The Gakk, and Navan’s own Simon Fagan.
Attractions will also include a variety of trade stalls, a holistic healing area and workshops and competitions focusing on the maintenance and display of campers and motor scooters. Some of the featured activities are a campervan cook-off, a homebrew workshop, and a ‘scrapheap challenge’ involving the renovation of two old vans 
into campers to be auctioned off for local charities. The Gramophone Disco of Electric Picnic and Glastonbury renown will provide a late night speakeasy offering vintage visuals and sounds played on wind up gramophones and classic vinyl records, and The Simon Community will also host a café in a bus serving tea and biscuits for donations.
For those festival goers who refuse to settle for wearing their civies (when in Rome and all that), there’s the mods and rockers fancy dress ball which launches the festival on Friday night and there’s even a special prize for anybody who remains in character / costume for the weekend. The Battle of the Balladeers is bound to bring a sense of nostalgia for the old country as the search commences for the best ballad singer in the land. And what a title to bear.
The ticket prices are very recession friendly at €85 for three nights camping, and earlybird weekend tickets for €65 are now on sale from the website. The festival takes place over the May bank holiday weekend from Friday April 30 to Monday May 02. Vantastival is a family-friendly event and will have a full range of children’s entertainment and activities and a dedicated family camping area. Entry is free for children under 14.
