Consisting of a day-to-night programme of events that offered something for all audiences, the Boyne Midsummer Festival Drogheda showcased the very best that Drogheda has to offer and how well the town can play host to a variety of festivals. The festival team made up of Drogheda Festival, Droichead Arts Centre, Scotch Hall, Love Drogheda BID and the Drogheda Tourism Cluster were supported in their delivery by Failte Ireland and Louth County Council.
“Louth County Council was delighted to support the Boyne Midsummer Festival,”Q added Sabhbh Ni Mhaolagáin-Tourism Officer for Louth County Council. “The festival was a great success with footfall through the town up significantly over the weekends, providing an overall economic boost to Drogheda. It was a great showcase of what Drogheda has to offer from music, food and community engagements. An excellent addition to the calendar of events in Drogheda.”
The Boyne Midsummer Festival saw the streets of Drogheda ring with music as Friday’s activities included Busk at Dusk, where several buskers took up prominent places on Drogheda’s streets to play to the crowds, despite the unhelpful weather.
Storm clouds gathered along with the crowds for Jerry Fish’s sold out Stowaway Session’s performance in the shadow of the splendid Viaduct on night one, but not even the rain could dampen the hi-jinx and frivolity on the setlist. Drogheda’s own SJ McArdle provided appropriate support from his acclaimed Port programme.
Another highpoint of the weekend was the welcome return of Music at the Gate after a four year absence, which saw unprecedented crowds bask in endless sunshine, enjoying the finest in local and national traditional music.
“Collaboration is the name of the game going forward for Drogheda” commented Sarah Taaffe-Drogheda Festivals Chairperson, “the festival steering committee were a great group of people to work with. Its wonderful to have Music at the Gate back and we will only expand on this and look forward to next year.”
This was a much bigger production than any of the previous gate sessions, and the first band was a Dublin trio by the name of Cheap Thrills. Tough call to be on first but they warmed up the slowly increasing crowd that by the end of the night had reached well over 200 strong.
Tracey Martin’s Local dance studios Kidkast were next up with a 25 minute performance of a medley of ABBA songs that was well received by everyone which leads me to believe there are a lot more ABBA fans out there than anyone will admit to! Vocal performance of the night has to go to Ally Brett for her performance of ‘The Winner Takes It All’.
At 7.30 Declan Garry AKA ‘The Faa Side’ took to the stage with a selection of songs that had everyone joining in from the offset.
Closing act for the evening was Dabilla a local two piece comprising of Bettystown man Oisin Dillon on guitar and vocals and event organiser Darragh Ó Héiligh from Marian Park up the ‘faa side’ on Uilleann pipes, percussion and vocals.
SJ McArdle and Jerry Fish” commented Collette Farrell of the Droichead Arts Centre. Coming off
Following on from the success of their Spring project, the Droichead Arts Centre brought back the Night Moves Trad Trail on each of the evenings over the weekend, with trad sessions in bars and venues across the entire town including Odd Mollies, The Punt, The Mariner, Barney Macs, Nelly’s, Sarsfields and The Weavers.
Family activities, a petting zoo, children’s workshops, live DJs, magicians, facepainting, balloon modelling, funfair rides, music performances and more took place between both Scotch Hall and West Street with huge crowds of families enjoying the activities.
Following a week of bad press for the town, this is the tonic everyone needed.
Trevor Connolly, Love Drogheda BID CEO, the ratepayers organisation, noted how the collaboration efforts of all festival partners is resulting in bigger and better events for Drogheda, which will all lead to positive outcomes for the town:
“The Boyne Midsummer Festival has resulted in over 44,000 festival attendees across the town, with an average footfall increase of 80% between the town centre and Scotch Hall versus the same weekend the previous year.
“The impact that such community-orientated festivals have on the local economy cannot be understated, but just as important is the impact they have on the local community and the sense of pride in the town,” he says. “The festival schedule included a diverse programme of events, attracting audiences of all ages and showing what Drogheda can deliver on. Love Drogheda BID were delighted to be a part of it and a massive congratulations to the entire delivery team.”
