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Saturday night at the DylanFest beats all predictions

Posted Sunday, July 1, 2007

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DylanFest Success

The first ever DylanFest in Ireland was a huge success in Moville - better than anyone could have predicted.

At its peak there was a crowd of around 800 in the Malin Road to watch the Chris Winters band's last ever perfomance before they split followed by the festival Headline act The Phamtom Engineers - not bad for a town with a population of 1,465.

Grabbing a Bite

As I'd been out and about all day helping solve problems I took the chance to grab something to eat between 8pm and 9pm and didn't see much of the Chris Winters band.

I had seen them the previous evening though so I took the opportunity to fill my stomach.

Come On Up

I got a call from my sister to get up town as she said that there was a big crowd there.

By the time I got up there the light was just starting to go so the atmoshere was really building.

Missed Drama

I was told that I had missed all the drama.

I had seen from my restaurant window that there had been a huge burst of rain round about 8:30pm. It was teeming down.

It lasted for about five minutes only - but it almost scuppered the most important few hours of the DylanFest in terms of the crowd.

Very Dangerous

Rain had started coming through the roof of the trailer which made it very dangerous for the bands to play.

I know the guys in the bands having liaised with them over the last few weeks and I knew they were desperate to play.

However, they could have been electrocuted if they had continued to play.

The biggest night of the Festival could have been over there and then.

Luckily the storm abated and they were able to continue.

The Phantom Engineers

The Phantom Engineers were fantastic.

They really won over the crowd and got them going with their set of Dylan songs.

They looked as if they were enjoying it themselves.

Loads of people came up to me in the Malin Road during and after the gig and said how much they enjoyed both the night's music and the whole festival.

Next Year

There will definitely have to be another one next year - and with the experience we now have and the extra time to plan it I think it will be even bigger and better than this years.

However, like your first child (or your first anything) there is always something special about your first time for anything and even if it becomes a major festival in future years there will always be fond memories for me of the 1st DylanFest in Ireland.

By the time I was able to relax in the Bar-A-Cuda later I was absolutely shattered.

But it was all worthwhile.