This past weekend I got invited up to shoot Disturbance Festival in Letterkenny. The inaugural one-day rock music festival took place on Saturday 20th July. 18 bands, over two stages in the Central Bar complex incorporating Central Bar and No.58 Venue, saw 200 people in attendance as headliners Girlschool, of NWOBHM fame and long-time contemporaries of Motorhead, took to the main No.58 stage shortly after 10 pm.
Running smoothly from 2pm through until 2am, the high quality lineup included the likes of Wild Rocket, Junk Drawer, Scally, Podracer and SHITHaTT as well as a host of local Donegal and North-West acts such as Dogmandu, Fierce Pit Bosses, Constant Supply and Fast Thursday between No.58 stage and the Burrito Loco Outdoor Stage, sponsored by the multiple national award-winning local burrito store.
Speaking with the guys from the promotion about the their background and how this event came about they commented “Disturbance started out life as a monthly original music night in Letterkenny, fed up with the original scene, or lack of, in the North-West of Ireland, we took it upon ourselves to organise and promote the underground Irish scene. Having grown for two and a half years and hosting top Irish and international acts, with the likes of Wheatus, Pat McManus, The Soapgirls, X-SLF, Jinx Lennon and TPM all brought to Letterkenny”
“The Disturbance Festival is now to become an annual event, with plans to grow year upon year, with ambitions to become the largest dedicated rock music festival in Ireland eventually.”
The first edition of the festival surely was a success, and their combination with Earagail Arts Festival and the local Distorted Perspectives psychedelic event running a half a km down the street proved a big hit, a combined ticket between the two events gaining much interest, adding another four bands to the evening bill in the local Regional Cultural Centre, a great sign of two organisations working together within the music scene.
Some of my highlights through the day came from indie-punk outfit Fierce Pit Bosses, with their Biffy Blyro influenced style shining through to the watching crowds outdoors. SHITHaTT, Ballina’s finest punk rock exports, blew away the Burrito Loco stage later in the evening. Scally headlined the outdoor stage and left the crowd spent with endless energy from start to finish. Indoors up in No.58, the likes of Podracer, touring their latest album Maskenfreiheit, were a big talking point, with Zeros & Ones and Wild Rocket leaving people nursing their ears having had them blown away with the sheer power of their sets following Girlschools trip down memory lane.
I asked the guys to recap the night “Overall, it’s hard to pick out any particular band from the 18 who performed. The lineup was of the highest quality, and it’s safe to say, we’re looking forward to 2020 already.”
Disturbance have some great events coming up off the back of this highly succesful showcase, event information can be found here.