{"id":498272,"date":"2026-06-13T20:55:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T20:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/498272\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T20:55:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T20:55:31","slug":"beyond-the-pale-day-two-sees-music-fans-relax-in-blessed-weather-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/498272\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the Pale day two sees music fans relax in \u2018blessed\u2019 weather \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThis is a safe space. You can let loose. You can relax and everybody is happy,\u201d says Tura Arutura, a Zimbabwean-Irish step dancer when describing the atmosphere of boutique music festival<\/a> Beyond the Pale<\/a> in Co Wicklow<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Taking place at the Glendalough estate, the first Irish camping festival of this summer is being enjoyed by 12,000-plus music fans. Headliners include Primal Scream<\/a> and a rare performance from Mike D of the Beastie Boys ahead of his debut solo album later this year. <\/p>\n

Arutura is speaking after a week of violent racist riots which took place in Belfast<\/a>, where he lives and works. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs somebody who lives in the North, I actually get that this instability that is happening in the North, and even this flag-waving fake patriots, because men need to define who they are in a dynamic, ever-evolving world.\u201d <\/p>\n

He says that in contrast, the atmosphere at the festival is joyful. <\/p>\n

\u201cT\u00e1im ar muin na muice \u2013 I am on the back of the pig. There are people from all over the world here and we are just looking to have a bit of craic.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody is happy to compliment you and talk to people that you have never spoken to and be randomly pleasant. The weather is amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 19 degrees and sunny, and after a dry Friday evening, Beyond The Pale is an anomaly in Irish music festivals. <\/p>\n

Ali Dunworth, who programmes Beyond the Plate, the food section of the festival, says they have been \u201cblessed\u201d with good weather. <\/p>\n

\"AliAli Dunworth, who programmes Beyond the Plate, the food section of the festival. Photograph: Niamh Browne <\/p>\n

Beyond the Plate\u2019s programming includes a series of talks and workshops as well as an on-site restaurant which seriously elevates festival eats from chips and burgers to full sit-down meals by restaurants Host, Reggie\u2019s pizza and Ibile.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Beyond the Plate: Festival food goes fancy as punters book for sit-down diningOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

One logistical issue affecting the festival has been an acute lack of phone reception for data, which Dunworth does not mind. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt has that old-fashioned feeling of a good time,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am old enough to have gone to festivals when you would not have had mobile phones. It\u2019s back to that, so you bump into people and you do the old-fashioned meeting point.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Marina O\u2019Connor, while she believed the festival has been well organised, the phone coverage had proved to be \u201catrocious\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s impossible. There\u2019s no coverage. They really could do something about that. Even the security said to me they can\u2019t make phone calls because the coverage is atrocious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, however, she was delighted with the facilities, having opted to book the festival\u2019s glamping package. <\/p>\n

\"MarinaMarina O\u2019Connor: ‘I went the whole hog glamping.’ Photograph: Niamh Browne <\/p>\n

\u201cI went the whole hog glamping. It\u2019s like a retreat \u2013 not a holy retreat but a retreat,\u201d she says laughing. <\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is so kind and nice. It\u2019s a nice small festival.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her favourite act so far has been a new discovery from the Outpost tent, Roe Byrne<\/a>, whom she judge to be \u201cexcellent\u201d. \u201cSo passionate.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Beyond the Pale novice, Byrne says he was \u201cvery nervous\u201d playing the small outpost stage. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit more of a dance-y festival and coming up with just an acoustic guitar I just went into it thinking every gig is Wembley.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThis is a safe space. You can let loose. You can relax and everybody is happy,\u201d says Tura…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":498273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[122707,93,191001,61,60,10866,85925,7469],"class_list":["post-498272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-beyond-the-pale","tag-entertainment","tag-glendalough","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music-festivals","tag-primal-scream","tag-wicklow"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/498273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}