Hard Working Class Heroes declared a huge success

Held earlier this month, the Hard Working Class Heroes festival has been hailed as a success by the organisers. Over 2,000 people attended performances by 100 bands in six venues around Dublin’s Temple Bar over the three nights of the festival.

Highlights included headlining guest appearances from The Frames and Bell XI along with well-received sets from bands of the calibre of with Juno Falls, Sack, Republic of Loose and Bray Vista.

"I was extremely happy with the way the whole weekend went," said Brian Carroll, who together with the Federation of Music Collectives (FMC) organised the event. "We fell slightly short of our target as far as attendances were concerned but it doesn’t really matter in the end. We were very lucky with the weather. That combined with the accessibility the wrist-band offered made it work really well. It gave people a lot of space to move around - if you weren’t happy in one venue you could go to another. A lot of people got into the ethos of it being a festival I saw people standing around with their programmes figuring out which gigs to go to."

According to Carroll next year’s event is already in the planning stages with some more changes. "We may or may not be incorporating another stage but we’re defiantly going to keep it in Temple Bar, he said. "The fact that the venues are close together makes for a good atmosphere. And we may introduce a day pass as well as a weekend pass.. €20 for the whole weekend was incredible value for what you got. And we may open it up to international acts but we’ll have to think about that one."