Outlands was a mini music festival which was due to take place at and in the enviorns of a fully licenced premises in Gathabawn, Co Kilkenny on the 22nd of August.
The purpose of the festival was to
- Unite the several groups of local promoters, performers and traders into one ‘catch all’ event, thus allowing each to showcase their wares to people who may otherwise not receive such exposure.
- Provide an extremely low-cost forum for interaction and meeting like-minded individuals and hearing great music for the many young people in Kilkenny who cannot afford to go to the big name festivals.
- Encourage the local tourism upon which so many local jobs depend. This has been crippled as a result of the economic downturn and the early closing rule for licenced premises in the city.
The organisers elected to have DJ’s only, and not bands. This has numerous advantages, but mainly cost – and it was imperative to keep costs down in order to be able to sell tickets for only ten euro.
DJs were chosen from a vast range of musical backgrounds, to give the mini-festival an eclectic a feel as possible, as well as to cater for all musical tastes. Rock, soul, funk, indie, old skool and dance fans were all catered for.
Face painting, a barbeque, T shirt stalls, video games and caricatures were the non-musical attractions.
Busses were organised to bring fans to and from the venue. A full team of security and medical personnel was established.
On Friday afternoon, less than 24 hours before the event was due to commence (and with a lot of the provisions already paid for and in place) the organisers were informed that a fire inspector had inspected the premises that afternoon and had concerns about its capacity to accommodate a large number of people.
This issue had never proven to be a problem with this venue in the past and was therefore totally unforeseen by the organisers. It was not their intention to cancel at the last minute, and the decision was not theirs to make.
Nevertheless, the event had to be cancelled. Refunds are available at point of purchase.
The response to Outlands was phenomenal. There is a clear demand for a low cost meeting of musical minds in Kilkenny. Judging by ticket sales, it would have been possible to sell out the event more than twice over. People really warmed to the idea.
The organisers have therefore not ruled out the possibility of seeking alternative accommodation and running the event elsewhere in the coming weeks or months.
The Outlands Crew would like to extend their sincerest thanks to everyone who has helped and supported them in this endeavour, as well as their sincere apologies to the many dissapointed festival fans that were let down at the last minute.
