Easter 2014 marks the 5th outing of Airbound, Ireland’s most exciting exported festival. Having gotten its start in the rather more exotic surrounds of Petracane, Croatia, Airbound is unique in its quest to keep the inclusive and personal atmosphere of the festival alive by paying close attention to what keeps the punters coming back. Since making London its most recent home the Airbound team have put on sell-out boat parties, after parties and all-day Sunday discos with a loyal crowd that always seem to come back for more.
Dave Redmond of Night Flight has been working on the festival since its inception in 2009 and has been closely involved with shaping Airbound’s trajectory since its inaugural outing on the high seas of Croatia. One of the recurring themes with Airbound is that the people who attend seem to have respect for both themselves and their surroundings. It was this fact that initially led Redmond and his Bodytonic cohorts to think about creating a festival of their own: “In 2008 friends of ours from Manchester called the Unibombers were running a festival in Croatia called Electric Elephant and they booked myself, John Mahon and Billy Scurry to play. We went over and brought 80 – 90 people with us and fell in love with the place. We also got on exceptionally well with the people that ran the space. Afterwards they said to us, ‘We love your crowd, they’re very respectful!’ and, as ever, the Irish make an impression wherever they go so they invited us back to do something ourselves.” From the sell-out first year in the sunshine the guys quickly realised that the events scene both at home and abroad was taking a nose-dive due to the recession. But rather than let that ruin a good thing they made the decision to take the festival on tour and it soon found a natural home in London: “We tried to find somewhere a bit closer to home and we had also thought that Airbound would be a bit of a nomadic festival that wouldn’t just be tied down to one site specific place. It was more to do with the thinking behind it as opposed to the place and London was quite an obvious choice.” Downsizing from open-air beach parties and clubs to a different terrain also posed a challenge but Redmond was keen to keep one particular element, the boat party, “we decided that we’d take one of the best aspects of the original festival for London and for me personally, that was the boat party. I think the reason it works so well is that no one can leave! It’s that commitment that this is the next four hours of your life, people really seem to revel in it!”
2013 saw Airbound’s biggest year yet since it began its London residency. The Dixie Queen left port on the Thames with 700 partygoers on board and while the event was a huge success, Redmond felt that the growth of the event was beginning to compromise the feel what of Airbound was trying to create. He explains, ”In doing that, while it was great to have that scale, it kind of lost something of what Airbound was all about… the community. The boat itself was a massive ballroom and it looked spectacular and it really reminded me of the Titanic when I saw it, which was a terrible omen! In getting too big I think it lost a bit of its magic. Other years you’d probably spend equal time out on the deck taking in the sights and inside dancing, whereas last year because it was so big and they had this giant ballroom you almost felt as if you could be in a club…well anywhere.” You have to admire the team’s dedication to keeping the spark of what makes Airbound so special consistent without trying to expand into a larger, more commercial model. The tickets for the event itself are ludicrously cheap, with this year’s weekend ticket coming in at £25 at first release, an almost unheard of deal when you think of Electric Picnic’s eye-popping prices. What’s especially interesting about 2014’s festival is that the line-up is entirely Irish. For a festival that has been putting up big names for the past 4 years, it seems an odd move but as Redmond points out, “The festival has a following and a lot of the people who come will come year in year out and I see it already with those that have bought tickets…they’ve already been to two or three. Some of the international acts have been amazing but the feedback that we’ve gotten afterwards a lot of the time has been that the Irish people were the best. I don’t know whether that’s a coincidence or not but I think that’s something that should be taken note of and rewarded if it’s a running theme.” Redmond is also keen to make clear that downsizing and shifting towards a native lineup isn’t just a bid to tighten the purse strings: “That isn’t the reason behind it at all. This year we’ve got acts from Kildare, Cork, Waterford, Galway, Wexford and there’s a huge spread of where they’re coming from. For me that represents brilliant but different music from all of those spots but it still costs money! Especially people like Lasertom and Adult Rock, their live gear costs quite a lot. But why aren’t we investing in them? These are people that are bursting their bollocks all year to get their music out and we have a great chance to give them a platform over here and I know personally, I’d much prefer to pump money into that than to pay someone a flat fee of €1,500 to play for two hours at a festival. We have a responsibility in doing what we do to take the best of what is happening in this country and show it off to a foreign audience.”
This year’s festival will see 375 people – and not a single person more, they’re very strict – take to the Thames on The Dutch Master with music over two floors before alighting in Hackney for an after-party in Autumn Studios, the same place that BLOC of BLOC Festival fame have been hosting their parties. After a Saturday off to refresh and recuperate there’ll be an all-day party with a gourmet brunch spread from 2pm in the Horse & Broom, Shoreditch to finish off festivities. If you haven’t managed to catch an edition of this homegrown wonder yet then make 2014 your year, and why not? You’ll get a boat tour of London, support Irish music and still have only spent the equivalent of a couple of double G&T’s on home shores.
Words: Emily Carson
