Review: Stendhal Festival, Limavady

It’s the height of festival season in Belfast, what with Vital and Belsonic overlapping, and so it’s the right time to get out of the stresses of town and get some fresh air in the country. Indeed, the local festival circuit has blossomed in recent years with the likes of Forfey, Tanglewoodand Sunflowerfest, as well as others that have come and gone – we recall Pigstock, Willowstone and of course our old friend (and relatively near neighbour to Stendhal), Glasgowbury – and there is still Harvest to come at the end of the month.

The good people of Stendhal have named themselves after a condition causing palpitations (among other symptoms) when exposed to art, and have decided to minimise the risks for any sufferers, by creating a very sensible, very family friendly festival, akin to the wooded and family areas of Electric Picnic. There is plenty for the kids to do with activities organised and fairground rides, there are good pathways marked out suitable for prams and buggies and covered areas for audiences at each stage for times when the rain makes its inevitable appearance. Indeed the main stage itself is in a marquee, ensuring that there will be no problems there.

Turning to the music, Friday night features just two of the four musical stages, headlined byDuke Special, who is in fine form. The consummate showman fills up the main stage marquee, and keeps us entertained despite the power failing on a couple of occasions. At these points the crowd rises to the challenge, with torches providing a unique temporary lighting show to accompany ‘Digging’, while Duke takes the opportunity to go walkabout into the crowd.



 Earlier the same stage had been the setting for a typically unholy and incendiary display by The Bonnevilles, doing their best to conjure up the spirit of juke joints with their catchy blues. Elsewhere on the Karma Valley stage, Vanilla Gloom have entered into the spirit of things, donning capes and cats ears, declaring themselves The Stendhal Superheroes before continuing their improvement as a live act. The heavier side of the festival was revealed on this stage by night with first Dying Breed and then Triggerman thrashing out the metal and rock, proving, in the words of the latter, that “the riff holds sway.”

An early for the second day sees Cahir McLaughlin on the main stage, where he proves that his Glasgowbury appearance was no fluke, while John Deery & The Heads (minus a couple of Heads) try to ease us into the day with a gentle set, but there are no such concessions from Wyldling with their energetic art-glam-indie-rock. The same stage, essentially a large wooden shed with one side removed, changes direction completely moving to a Harp School, Opera, and stringed instruments, these, and a choir on another stage, showing the more cultured side to the festival, while the poetry stage becomes the acoustic stage, with Susie Blue demonstrating why she’s likely to follow in the footsteps of Soak.

The main stage is full of crowd pleasers in the afternoon, The Clameens with their rabble-rousing anthems followed by Paddy Nash & The Happy Enchiladas, Furlo and Rainy Boy Sleep, all engaging and holding the audience. On the other stages Amidships are given a captive audience by the weather, but are bound to have won a few more fans, especially among those who left the shelter to go and dance in the rain. The fans of Axis Of continue to churn up that same ground while Trucker Diablo re-christen it The Redneck Stage as, “it’s like something a load of rednecks like us would build.”

As for Pocket Billiards on the main stage, they continue their unbeaten record as the best festival party band around. Despite seemingly having enough members to populate a continent, they are probably the tightest band about, and could get your granny dancing like a loon.



The night is headlined by a solo set from Neil Hannon, but it’s an unpromising start as he struggles against sound problems with the piano and feedback and a festival crowd that isn’t conducive to an acoustic set. Despite this, he wins us over with his charm and humour, laughing at himself and the audience, but the set itself feels a bit stop-start as the more delicate moments are lost either because of sound problems or crowd noise. The more rollicking numbers like ‘Something For The Weekend’, ‘Generation Sex’, ‘National Express’ and ‘Becoming More Like Alfie’ hit the mark as he switches between piano and guitar, before he departs after the encore saying he can’t play anything else. Charming till the end. Just like the festival itself.

 William Johnston