Offally great craic at Mor

It was sexy sounds and smiles all round at the inaugural Mor festival which took place this weekend on the sun-soaked grounds of the Charleville Castle.

The event has been heralded a huge success by the 800-odd people in attendance, and today as they put away their dancing shoes and scrub off two-day layers of camping muck the general consensus is one of anticipation – bring on Mor ’04!

In what was an alternative castle carousal to the rock-studded Slane festivities, Mor was held in conjunction with the Tullamore Phoenix Festival and provided a long-overdue meeting place for visual artists, live electronic acts and other envelope-pushing types.

International artists played alongside such local music-makers as The Redneck Manifesto, Decal and The Jimmy Cake, with memorable performances from Felix Kubin (Germany), Colleen (France), Wevie Stonder (UK) and the master of the Meccano-orchestra, Pierre Bastien (France).

Finnish whizz Lacklustre played a steaming live set on Saturday night, with Dublin-darling Max Tundra taking electronic entertainment to a whole new level on Sunday. It’s not often you get the security guards busting moves as hard as punters!

The Castle provided a spectacular setting both as a music venue and as a campsite, and despite logistical problems with water shortages, event organisers staged an ambitious and thoroughly enjoyable festival.

Kudos to all the organisers, volunteers and artists that were involved in making Mor possible.