PICNIC IS HERE: BARQ Reveal the Journey That Led Them Back

“I’ve played the festival a few times before,” says the Dublin musician. “Last year I was lucky enough to do backing vocals for Jape and this year I’m back again at the Little Big tent. And one of the nice things about playing on this stage is that, this time three years ago, we opened with Hozier as backing vocalists, so now it feels like we’ve come full circle to be back here again as our own band.”

BARQ has come a long way in a short space of time ever since their debut single, “Gentle Kind of Lies”, was released back in March and propelled their music to an international audience. “We’ve been gigging ever since then,” Jess explains. “And I think it’s what we needed as well because we’re very much perfectionists and very particular about our live set. So it’s really important to kind of hone in and perfect our live performances. It’s been great that the festival circuit this year has allowed us to do that. We released our last single back in May, and then did the festival circuit all summer, and once we got back to do our first gig in Dublin again the place was rammed. And that made us realise how much we’d developed and actually gotten our name out there over the summer.”

“I’m looking forward to seeing Toots and the Maytals on the Main Stage,” Jess tells me. “And I really want to see Bat for Lashes. I’m also going to attempt to head over to the Mindfield stage and see The Blindboat Boat Club lecture and Waterford Whisperer News as well.”

BARQ will be playing the Little Big Tent on Saturday at 3.25PM.