AN Irish festival trailblazer has lifted the lid on running a fledgling music event – from the “chaos” of organising the huge event to bizarre dressing room requests.
Craig Hughes also revealed how scouting acts for next year’s shindig has already begun before a single note has been played at this week’s festival.
But there is also a growing trend among festival fans that is putting significant planning pressure on organisers.
Craig started a side hustle as one of the organisers of the festival back in 2022, and he has been fine tuning the event each year since.
KT Tunstall, The Stunning, Paul Brady and The Wailers are all on the bill for this weekend’s edition, along with Irish favourites Something Happens and Sultans of Ping.
Now in its fourth year, the festival will see thousands flock to the Lough Key Forest Park, in Boyle, Co Roscommon this weekend for great live music, kid-friendly activities, and wellness workshops.
And Craig told how cash flow is the biggest area of concern for such gatherings, which is why tickets for large music festivals go on sale so far in advance.
He explained: “One reason is to get cash flow coming into the business to help with next year, as you need that to put deposits down for acts and things like that.”
But Craig, whose main career is in journalism, told how a few bum notes were encountered during the initial phase of the project, first held on the grounds of Clonalis House in Castlerea.
Craig revealed: “You think you have everything under control the first year and it’s inevitably chaos as you’re trying to grapple with bringing thousands of people into a venue safely.”
Despite any teething issues, the venture has become a fully-fledged family business aiming to pull out all the stops.
Recounting its beginnings, Craig told us: “It all started when my uncle Brendan Hurley moved back from working with the World Economic Forum in Geneva, where he was putting on big events.
“He’s a sound engineer and production manager. We’re from Mayo and he said, ‘Look we could do something bigger together’, and so we did.”
TOP TIPS FOR ATTENDING MUSIC FESTIVALS
NIGHT and Day organiser Craig Hughes shared his top tips for those attending music festivals this summer.
First up, he has urged anyone planning their outfits for a festival to take into account the Irish weather.
He told the Irish Sun: “Whenever you go to a festival in Ireland you should pack for all seasons.
“We’re fortunate we have our tents but you should always have a rain jacket, but also pack for the sun, bring some cream.”
If you regularly find yourself waking up through the night to the sound of the music from the festival or your campsite neighbours continuing the party while you’re trying to get some sleep in before going again the next day, Craig has recommended investing in some earplugs.
He said: “It’s really important to bring earplugs. We have music go on until 3am, so if you don’t want to have bass ringing in your ears until the morning you should have some earplugs.”
Craig also recommended packing a good pair of shoes, good socks and of course, “your dancing shoes”.
Craig added: “We dragged in another family member as well, my uncle Dermot, who’s our site manager now.
“It’s bringing together a broad skill set – so me with the communications and media side of things, Brendan having done a lot of production management and sound engineering, and then Dermot with the site layout and service delivery side of things – and any other family members dragged in across the weekend.”
The festival has seen a huge amount of growth since its humble beginnings in 2022.
But with an expansion in popularity comes increased workload and preparation.
PROLONGED PLANNING
Planning for a summer festival typically begins 12 months in advance, with tickets going on sale in the weeks directly after the previous year’s bash.
Craig explained: “One reason is to get cash flow coming into the business to help with next year, as you need that to put deposits down for acts and things like that.
“The second is to capture that feel good factor that people have after having an amazing weekend at the festival – that’s the starting point, even at the moment we’re already looking at acts for next year, seeing who’s available and the nature of [their] touring, especially for the bigger acts, they put it out a long way in advance.
“After that, you’re looking at communications plans. We announce our first headline acts around November/December, so that’s the first big milestone in terms of planning and pushing it out there.”
NEW ADDITIONS
This year, the team have added two new stages, including a late-night DJ platform on the venue’s Moylurg Tower, which will include live animations projected onto the structure that are synced with the music.
He continued: “You’re thinking away at those new projects all throughout the year.
“Then as you come into the final stages you’re dealing with the real nuts and bolts; the logistics of the tents arriving, health and safety issues, toilets arriving.
“They really come into focus now as well as your final push that as many people know as possible that the festival is going on.”
Taking the set-up, site costs, artist fees and insurance into account, Craig and the team typically look at expenditure that runs into the region of hundreds of thousands of euros.
FESTIVAL FINANCES
And unsurprisingly paying the artists is one of the most expensive aspects.
Craig said: “It all adds up and for us insurance hasn’t been one of the biggest cost drivers but everything else really has increased since we started.
“Even artist fees have gone up, especially the big international ones because inflation has hit the cost of touring, whether that’s from them bringing their own sound engineer with them or the increased logistical costs.”
These financial constraints are a major reason why many festivals use tier ticket pricing.
You think you have everything under control the first year and it’s inevitably chaos as you’re trying to grapple with bringing thousands of people into a venue safely.”
Craig Hughes
As one of the main drivers for cash flow, enticing punters to purchase tickets sooner at a reduced price helps bring money in early, and gives organisers an estimate of how many attendees can be expected.
But the rising trend of festival fans buying their tickets closer to the event date has had an impact on planning, as it’s difficult to prepare accurately without a full grasp on the official number of tickets that will be sold before it takes place.
Craig explained: “That might mean you may plan for less people and have to go sold out even if the demand is actually going to be greater.
“It also means that you can’t spend as much on an artist budget or an extra art installation that you would have because you’re worried that the numbers weren’t going to pick up at the last minute, and that of course impacts on cash flow as well.
“A lot of festivals will have a cash-heavy month in the month beforehand because all your infrastructure has to be paid for in advance of the festival, so if someone is buying a ticket on the weekend of the festival, that cash is no good to meeting those demands that fall beforehand.”
FESTIVAL’S FUTURE
For Night and Day Festival, the goal now is to reach 5,000 attendees per day – and they’re hoping to come close to it this year.
And the location has been a massive help towards achieving this goal.
He explained: “We’re very lucky with our location in Lough Key Forest Park because there is so much infrastructure there already.
“If you think about going to a festival, they have to bring in all the toilets and all the showers – Lough Key is a purpose built campsite all year round so we have indoor toilets, indoor showers and electric and water hookups on pitches [for camper vans].
“We’re also looking to tap into mains power on the site so we’re hoping to be completely generator free in a couple of years and expand beyond the 5,000 attendees in the next few years.
“However, I don’t see us getting up to the lofty heights of Electric Picnic with 70,000 people.”
ONLY OPTION
Sea Sessions announced this month that the festival was taking a break for the year, leaving Night and Day as the only major camping music event in the west of Ireland.
But this smaller and independent festival has plenty happening for attendees that some of the bigger offerings don’t.
Craig, whose day job is political editor of the Irish Daily Mail, explained: “You can arrive by boat which you can’t do to any other festival. We also have expansive family-friendly offerings.
“We’re an over 20s festival but if you’re under 14 you can come in on a kid’s ticket. We have a full immersive program with workshops, kids yoga, circus skills and things to keep kids entertained.”
FOCUS ON IRISH ACTS
Another difference is the focus the organisers put on Irish acts, while including some international talent.
They want to shine a light on homegrown talent and even host a competition for up-and-coming musicians where the winner gets to play at the festival.
“A lot of festivals will have a cash heavy month in the month beforehand because all your infrastructure has to be paid for in advance of the festival, so if someone is buying a ticket on the weekend of the festival, that cash is no good to meeting those demands that fall beforehand.”
Craig Hughes
Craig explained: “We have some international acts every year, but we have a really strong focus on Irish acts.
“There really is so much great Irish talent that isn’t highlighted enough – so what we look to do when people come to Night and Day is to have a sprinkling of big international acts, but also introduce them to new music that they wouldn’t have heard already.
“Our goal is to put on a world class event. We’ve spent a lot of money on having high production value. We put a really big emphasis on production and having high quality standards.”
LINE-UP CHOICE
And Craig also shed some light on how organisers pick a lineup – and it doesn’t just come down to who the biggest acts are at the time.
It involves looking at what types of venues artists have played before, looking at their Irish listeners on Spotify, along with followers from Ireland on social media.
When putting it all together, it starts from the top – beginning with the largest headliner and working the way down the line-up.
But Craig said it’s not always a foregone conclusion that the headliners you want will actually play the festival.
He revealed that certain times while planning, bigger acts have been booked elsewhere in the time it takes to nail down the specifics.
He revealed: “That’s kind of the nature of this sometimes. [There was one act we wanted but] we couldn’t agree things in time and they got booked elsewhere, so you have to not hesitate when you’re going forward with these things, but I think that’s just the nature of the beast.”
BIZARRE REQUEST
To date, the festival hasn’t encountered any bad experiences with the artists they’ve booked.
Although, Craig did reveal one quirky request that they received from a performer.
He explained: “Sometimes you get some unusual requests from artists, regarding what should be left in the dressing room and what they want when they arrive on site.
“Emma Langford asked for a picture of a dog – it doesn’t have to be your dog but what she wants is to have a picture of a dog left in her dressing room, which I always thought was really fun.
“Thankfully we haven’t had anyone who’s been too dramatic just yet but maybe that’ll happen when we start bringing bigger superstars to Lough Key.”
- KT Tunstall, The Stunning, Lisa Hannigan, Paul Brady and Something Happens play Night and Day this weekend. For more info see nightandday.ie
