Despite being forced to relocate from its traditional Clare homeland, the spirit of Lisdoonvarna was triumphant last Saturday, with 25 000 people turning out at the Dublin RDS.

Highlight performances on the mostly homegrown line-up included The Frames, David Kitt, Mundy and Damien Dempsey.

"The atmosphere all day was amazing," said Bren Berry of Aiken Promotions. "What we saw today was a real vindication of Irish music, with 25,000 people coming along to see the cream of local artists in action. The quality throughout was brilliant."

Festival organiser, Peter Aiken commented on the remarkable intimacy achieved between audiences and artists. "The audience was really into the music. Really listening," he said. "When you see 5,000 people at the second stage for Josh Ritter, you know that there's something special happening and that's the way it felt all day."

The change of location to the Dublin venue was welcomed by many, including comedian Barry Murphy. "What a great place for the gig," he reflected afterwards. "It's great to see it work so well because it's obvious that it was put together by people with a genuine love of the music. It's not just about money – which these things too often are."

The show climaxed with a typically spirited rendering of the Christy Moore classic 'Lisdoonvarna', with the audience joining in whole-heartedly on the full-blooded chorus. It was a perfect - and hugely appropriate - way to end what had been an absorbing and ultimately triumphant day of music.

So where to next year? That was the 60 million dollar question as the crowd filed out of the RDS. One way or another what seems certain is that the spirit of Lisdoon has been successfully reinvented. It's a long way from there to here – but the future for the event has never looked brighter.

Stay tuned to hotpress.com for the full Lisdoonvarna lo’ down, including reviews and full photo coverage. We’ll also be featuring video interviews and exclusive acoustic performances by Damien Demspey, David Kitt, Glen Hansard, Mundy, Colm Quearney, Paul O'Reilly, Josh Ritter [pictured above by Roger Woolman] and Katell Keineg.