The Union Jack tree configuration has been stormed by Irish tents. There’s a French guy with a Meccano set who’s playing trumpet into a glass of water, and a madcap bunch of English geezers with dangerously oversized hair and a traditional approach to crowd-surfing. There’s swings to be swung, curry to be munched and a haunted castle to explore. No, I’m not on acid. Pitched as a ‘2 day audio-visual adventure’ the first annual Mor festival delivered a truly kaleidoscopic experience of sights and sounds and random happenings.
While the homebred highlights were too many to mention here, excellent live performances were put in by Decal, Rollers/Sparkers and the Redneck Manifesto, with inspired sets from local knob-twiddlers Spectac, Donal Tierney and Mr (my name is) Michael Morris. Ambulance played to a packed marquee on the Saturday night, while the likes of Nina Hynes and The Tycho Brahe provided some lovely melodic moments by the light of day.
Other highlights included electro-whizz-kid Lacklustre – direct from his bedroom studio in the suburbs of Helsinki to his first headlining set at Mor – and Felix Kubin, who inspired some German party mania on the main stage. Max Tundra’s one-man show brought entertainment to a whole new level with his toolbox of tricks and zany xylophonia. Not often do you see security guards busting moves as hard as punters. But it was the aforementioned Brighton trio Wevie Stonder that took the Mór Prize for Lunacy. Bloody hilarious stuff. My personal prize for Imagination in the Field of Music Creation would go hands down to Pierre Bastien & The Mecanium Orchestra. His eerie Meccano-powered fairground music filled an appropriately paranormal space in the Charleville Music Room, as the half-inflated helium balloons bobbed gently above-head. Pure creative genius.
Despite some logistical teething problems, Mór was an ambitious and thoroughly successful event. The lines for beer and amenities were long, but event security was respectful and the vibe among punters friendly. The level of castle interaction was a pleasant surprise, with punters free to lounge and peruse the art exhibition in the Charleville living rooms. All that’s left to say – bring on Mór ’04!