Events, Festivals and News

13th Le Cheile Festival Oldcastle July 30th-August 2nd

13th Le Cheile Festival: 2010 Festival Update

The 2010 Le Cheile Festival is about to kick off! 
This year’s Le Cheile Festival promises one of the strongest and most unique line-up’s to date. As Oldcastle readies itself for the August Bank Holiday invasion, ticket sales are growing steadily and selling fast.

From its genesis, the Le Cheile festival has been unique in its structure. Originally formed from a group sitting around having a pint and wondering where they could get somewhere to play in Oldcastle, the ideal has mutated, expanded and now finally settled into a festival for true music and art lovers. The idea was simple, to bring people together in an environment where each could enjoy as many genres of music as possible, without having to spend fortunes doing so.  From this acorn we now have the present day formulation.

In the early days, with the co-operation and use of the premises in Crean’s Bar, Oldcastle, Noel Finnegan and brother Derek toiled and sweated to run a weekend long festival for North West Meath. This quickly grew to larger venue requirements, and the show moved to the Show Hall on Church Street, and then back to the venues which are in use today.  Now, the festival is run in three very different and uniquely suited venues. 

Crean’s Bar hosts our Marquee Stage, this year run in conjunction with Phantom Radio, and is the main rock venue for the weekend. Act’s listed to play this year include Fight Like Apes on Friday 30th July, then the excellent Bats and Enemies from the Richter Collective label headline on Sat 31st, followed by Noise Control on Sunday and the excellent Weapons Inspectors to close on Bank Holiday Monday 2nd August.

Caffrey’s Redroom is a truly amazing acoustic venue, and one we discovered quite by accident only a few years ago.  The excellent and unexpected acoustics were a huge bonus to this intimate venue, and the talented Lisa Hannigan was the highlight of last year’s line up. Lisa commented, ‘This is the first time I’ve actually played a gig in Oldcastle, and that room was just amazing, the crowd’s are so close, and the sound is brilliant’ Looking to follow up this year, is the cream of Irish talent. First up on Friday night is Mick Flannery, one of the country’s most driven and insightful singer-songwriters.  On Saturday evening, we have Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club, with their very unique style of bluesy tunes. Sunday night will be given over to the dulcid tones of Jack L, returning to Oldcastle after a long absence, and promoting his new ‘Best of....’ album.

Our third venue is the gorgeous setting for our Comedy, which will take place on Sat 31st. The Oldcastle House Hotel, still locally referred to as the Ceile House, was once the pub of local TD Michael Lynch, and was host to some legendary and talented musicians. This coming Bank Holiday weekend, we open up the Oldcastle House Hotel to some of Ireland’s best emerging comedy talent. Headlining will be Fred Cooke. You may know Fred better as ‘Fergus’ from the Spar ad’s, or from his time as the whacky barman on RTE 2’s The Cafe’. Fred brings his unique style to Oldcastle, as a Le Cheile virgin, despite only being from nearby Kells. Expect some Kells-Oldcastle rivalry and some blistering comedy from Fred. Support on the night will be in the form of Rory O’Hanlon, and Ciaran Lawless.

Le Cheile Festival always tries new things, and offers its customers experiences unlike any other festival up and down the country. Intimate venues, knowledgeable music fans, staggered stage times to allow all acts to be seen, and the proximity of fans to acts is unparalleled.  This year sees the development of an idea that was teased out last year. An extra stage, for local and new acts, is to be set up in Crean’s for acoustic acts to get their tunes out to a wide and varied audience. This stage will also offer labels an extra chance to scout acts that are unsigned, and who knows, the next big thing could be launched directly from Le Cheile, and lets be honest, they’ve got form in this regard. The Coronas, Turn, Director, and The Frames have all cut their teeth at Le Cheile over the last 13 years.

With a huge boost to the locality and a steady stream of visitors to the region, Le Cheile continues to bring the very best to Oldcastle again this year. Tickets are realistically priced and available online at www.lecheile.com; on our sponsors site www.e2music.ie , and also at their outlets in Navan and Mullingar. Alternatively if you wish to purchase tickets from the venues, tickets are available there. Full details available at www.lecheile.com.