Gallery & Report: Forbidden Fruit 2015 site preview

The Bulmers Forbidden Fruit Festival gets underway today, bringing a weekend of eclectic musical goodness to Dublin and, this week, Hot Press visited the grounds of Royal Kilmainham Hospital for a sneak peak at the site. Now in its sixth year, the festival appears bigger, better and more impressive than ever.
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Festival booker Declan Forde discussed the growing popularity of the festival.
“We had to expand the capacity of Forbidden Fruit by 40% and we are expecting it to sell out on the Saturday and Sunday. It seems to be going from strength to strength, getting a bit bigger every year”.
Festival organisers are expecting 14, 000 in attendance over the Bank Holiday weekend.
The site layout has been increased to accommodate the larger capacity. It features a new Live Live Stage with a focus on live acts such as Baths, Fatima & Eglo Live Band and Blooms on Saturday. The Comedy Stage has also been increased in size and turns into the Someplace Else Stage by night. In addition to the Bulmers Good Time Lounge launched last year, there is now a Forbidden Spirit Cocktail Bar. Offering tempting cocktails such as Orchard Mule, Apple Mojito and Pink Lady, it will be hard to pass up these scrumptious drinks over the weekend.
The Lighthouse Stage is the third largest on site and has also swelled in size “We’ve had to expand it this year because of the popularity of Jamie XX, who is headlining on the Saturday night, proceeded by Mount Kimbie DJs and Floating Points. Generally we have more left of center, electronic stuff, being headlined by Dusky, featuring Matador and Adam Beyer on Sunday amongst others, generally a techno vibe, all electronic.”
In addition to the regular blend of electronic and indie acts, Forbidden Fruit offers a wide variety of hip hop acts this year with Earl Sweatshirt, Joey Bada$$ and Wu Tang Clan taking place on the original Main Stage on Saturday night “We try to have cohesion and turn it into an all out party weekend – guitar stuff, hip hop and electronic”.
The site preview finished with a set from Dublin-Cavan four piece Heroes In Hiding, who performed tracks from their new EP Decorated Absence. The folk rock outfit will perform the new Live Live Stage at 14.30 on Sunday. Followed by fellow Dublin indie rock duo Sleep Thieves, this new stage is not to be missed.
Bulmers Forbidden Fruit Night will take place each night after the festival in various venues in the city centre. Nicholas Jaar will play a DJ Set in the Button Factory on Friday, while Groove Armada plays at Pygmalion Powerscourt on Saturday and Adam Beyer & Matador take residence in Hangar on Sunday.