LOUD WOMEN Fest Dublin: craic, community and a pedal steel from Nova Scotia

The odds were apparently stacked against us.

Everyone told us not to put on a festival in Dublin on this particular weekend. Electric Picnic was happening, the Aer Lingus College Football Classic had brought a stadium full of American sports-ball fans to the city, and Bon Jovi were descending on Croke Park the following day. Hotels cost approximately one million pounds. Sensible people, we were told, would be elsewhere.

Fortunately, the sensible people were wrong.

A beautiful crowd gathered downstairs at Fibber Magee’s on Saturday for the first LOUD WOMEN Fest Dublin, wisely choosing a day of brilliant bands over standing in a rainy, muddy field, watching weird sports ball in a stadium or, indeed, Bon Jovi.

And we’re very glad they did.

First up were I, Doris, presenting a specially adapted two-Doris disco set: the power of several missing Dorises harnessed into one small stage box, with Doris and Doris playing borrowed instruments (huge shout-out to Roxanne from DASH! for lending Lucy Doris her extremely groovy keytar) and providing the traditional cheerful and educational opening to proceedings.

Technology! Menopause! Bass! What more could anyone need at lunchtime?

Taylor D followed, flying the flag for BIMM Dublin no less, with a confident, hugely enjoyable set that immediately demonstrated just how much exciting music is coming out of this city.

Holy Show kept things moving beautifully with their dreamy, shoegazey sound, filling the room with exactly the right amount of gorgeous noise.

Then came Bill Ricky, all the way from Nova Scotia, who had somehow managed to transport a pedal steel across the Atlantic but had somehow failed to transport a bass player. Enter Cassie Fox, hastily recruited for bass duties and consequently terrified and thrilled in roughly equal measure.

Bill Ricky were phenomenal. One of those festival sets where you could actually feel the room being won over song by song, until seemingly everyone, including our wonderful sound engineer Dean, had become a new fan.

We absolutely cannot wait to see them again at LOUD WOMEN Fest London at Rich Mix this Saturday.

FOSFÍN were another brilliant reminder of just how strong the local Dublin scene is.

DC Dolls were enormous fun, bringing bags of personality and exactly the kind of energy a festival afternoon needs.

Dose were excellent scenes all round. We already loved them, and loved them even more after discovering they had very kindly opened their home to our visiting Nova Scotians too. Full marks for excellent music and international band hospitality.

Next came Second Idol, who had travelled all the way from Sydney and were somehow functioning on a potent cocktail of jetlag and adrenaline. They were incredible: fierce, commanding and completely worth crossing half the planet for.

Their heroic LOUD WOMEN adventure continues this week, with Edinburgh on Wednesday, Liverpool on Friday, LOUD WOMEN Fest London on Saturday and Brighton on Sunday. Catch them while they’re on this side of the world.

And the evening was beautifully rounded off by LOUD WOMEN Fest alum Molly Vulpyne, returning to the fold and sending everyone home extremely happy. A perfect ending to a day that reminded us exactly why we keep doing these ridiculous things.

More than the music

One of the things that made the day particularly special was having some brilliant activist organisations in the room with us too.

Danielle from Alliance for Choice and Lauren from the Abortion Rights Campaign both spoke beautifully about the incredibly important work their organisations do for abortion rights, access and reproductive freedom, and why that work is still so necessary.

We were also delighted to have Aoife from Safe Gigs Ireland with us, an organisation doing vital work to make gigs and nightlife safer and more welcoming for everyone.

We’re enormously grateful to all three for being part of the day. LOUD WOMEN has always been about much more than putting bands on stages, and it felt very special to be able to give space to organisations doing such important work too.

Team LOUD WOMEN Dublin, we love you

And the bands were only half the story.

A gigantic shout-out must go to our newly assembled Team LOUD WOMEN Dublin: Aoife, Kristi, Cír, Daniela, April, Marlena, Willow, Laura, Noelle, Naoise and Orla.

Most of us had never met before that day and yet somehow, within a matter of hours, everyone had mucked in, got the job done and become family forever.

That is how this thing is supposed to work, and we love every single one of you.

Huge love too to the amazing Alise Elberga, who came all the way from London via Northern Ireland and brought her mum and uncle along for the adventure, and to Dorn, who couldn’t be there on the day but did loads to help us get everything together beforehand.

And a special mention has to go to Gary from Lady Lazarus, who appeared at Fibbers and thoroughly confused us because we were fairly sure he lived in Berlin.

Turns out he does.

Not only did Gary turn up, he brought an entire stag do with him, who provided some excellent post-festival bants. We look forward to considerably more Gary, this time accompanied by the rest of Lady Lazarus, at LOUD WOMEN Fest London this Saturday.

Dublin, we love you

Most of all, Dublin, you were an absolute joy.

Everyone we met was warm, funny, welcoming and incredibly generous. Fibber Magee’s was a brilliant home for the festival, the bands were wonderful, our new team were heroes and the crowd made the whole thing feel very special.

And, naturally, there was an ’80s night afterwards.

Really, what more could you possibly want?

We came to Dublin hoping to put on a nice gig. We left with a load of new friends, a new LOUD WOMEN family and a very strong desire to come back and do it all again.

Thanks for the craic, Dublin. We love you.

More photos, videos and Dublin memories coming very soon.