Féile - The Untold Story of the Trip to Tipp

Timing, they say, is everything. While HP Towers was flooded with memories of gigs gone by, our old pal Will Leahy was - along with with JJ Hartigan - putting the finishing touches on some reminiscence of is own. Féile - The Untold Story of the Trip to Tipp will premiere on August 3, exactly 25 years (almost to the minute!) since the first chords were struck in Semple Stadium.

For Will, the legendary festival represents a key part of his life in music. “I turned 18 in 1989,” he explains. “I came of age in a world where U2 were the biggest band in the world, and Dublin was awash with A&R men carrying chequebooks, yet there was nowhere for me to go. There was no rite of passage, like you’d have had abroad. Tracy Chapman and the Hothouse Flowers in the RDS was the rock event of that summer.”
Something had to give, and Will points out that it wasn’t merely music that saw a shift.
“There was a wave, without a doubt. The wall came down, then off we went to Italia 90, and then a month later you had this event for people of my age group. It was rough and ready, to be sure, but it was a proper, three-day, rock'n'roll event."
The catalyst of the festival, though, was not a deafening demand for guitar-wielding saviours, or even a good summer weekend out; it was the empty coffers of Semple Stadium.
“You know,” Will smiles, “when I came to the end of this project I couldn’t help but wonder; if the stadium hadn’t been in debt, would Ireland’s festival scene have taken another ten years to get off the ground?”
Ifs and buts, of course, will get us nowhere. Instead, it’s a joy to listen to Will’s meticulously crafted account — helped in no small part by awesome original recordings from the RTÉ archives — of how a movement spearheaded by Michael Lowry (yes, really), brought the midlands to a standstill with a line- up featuring Meatloaf, Deacon Blue, and a whole host of Irish acts.
“For a variety of factors – the increase of radio stations, and the proliferation of international acts – you’ll never have a period of Irish music like that again. That’s what the demand was for at the time; for instance, people today might never know how big the Saw Doctors were at that point.”
Indeed, there are a hundred stories that might otherwise go unknown; from the vehement opposition of GAA county board members to “dancing on the sacred turf of Semple Stadium” to the absolutely awesome radio segments in the aftermath of the event. If you’ve ever enjoyed a summer festival in Ireland – be it Witnness, Oxegen, Electric Picnic or any other — then tune in and find out how it all started.