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Definitely going to try get to this. Never got to see Nevermore and they were a big band for me, amazing guitar work. 
Do you think it will sell out quickly? Only get paid at the end of the month.

A proper festival here with camping would be so hard to make work. There's a lot of logistics and legal red tape you have to go through if you want to have any hope of making it legit and repeatable, you can't just book bands and throw a stage together and let people camp next door. Festivals all over Ireland doing more popular music fail every year.

I hate to say it but metal fans are too picky to get good behind a real festival. You see people who have never gone to the Siege even though it runs twice a year, is free, has everything from Rock to Experimental and everything inbetween. It's indoors and has ran for about 30 times now. If you book a kickass camping multi day festival here people will complain about the bands or find other ludicrous excuses to not go. You see so many metal heads walking around in metal shirts and they haven't a notion of going to anything that's not the biggest bands.

We aren't helped by the fact that we're on an island at the edge of Europe so bands have to ferry/fly over. Bands don't want to come here on a one off show, they tend to come as part of a tour schedule so getting a lot of bands for an ideal lineup is really unlikely. I'm not sure if it's the case but I heard Sunstroke was being ran around the Download season and I've heard bands have now got an exclusivity clause that prevents them from playing Ireland an UK around those dates making that happening on the same scale unlikely.

I've a few HB guitars. Years ago I got a cheap telecaster. It actually feels nice enough but the bridge is quite cheap on it and the saddles rattle a bit even after I've adjusted them loads of times. I put some duncans in it and it sings but I really don't play it all too often anymore. Not stellar but you'd be happy enough playing it.

I recently picked up one of the newer fusion teles and it's leagues nicer. Crazy specs for the money, ebony board, stainless steel frets, locking tuners. I picked it up used for 200 quid and it's pretty crazy for the price. Fit and finish is perfect, this one has a trem and splittable humbuckers so pretty versatile. I'm not crazy about the pickups right now but they aren't terrible.

I also have a super cheap nylon harley benton acoustic I got from thomann years and years ago and it's still going strong. I even used it at a gig once and made more for that show than the guitar cost. Lovely thing to have lying around.

I've still got my bigger amp, full size 5150 and a 4x12 but barely ever use that the last few years. I've done a few shows with a mooer baby bomb poweramp and a HX stomp instead of my big pedalboard aswell and it was fine. It wasn't as cool or fun as a big pedalboard and amp but it got the job done fine and I doubt anyone in the audience gave a fuck! It's nice to have such an easy load in aswell. I was worried the power amp might not be loud enough but never had an issue getting heard at the few rehearsals and shows I've used it. I will pick up one of the Harley benton pedal poweramps eventually as it's more power and takes a kettle lead.

For cover gigs I do I just run my guitar into a pedalboard with the hx stomp on it and DI that into the PA. These are low stakes gigs in a bar every month or so and it's great. I walk my guitar and rig to the shows, everyone in the band DI's and we can drink away and have a grand time.

Building up and tearing England down
Rich man and the poor man

Building Up... isn't their tune. Dunno the second one.

I'm pretty sure neither of them are 'their tunes', I could be wrong but I think they've only written 4 or 5 songs across their two albums. They're a folk covers band basically.

While I do prefer bands writing primarily their own material there is a strong tradition of covering and re-imagining tunes in Folk and Trad music.

Some great recs in this thread so far.

The classic big bands for me that are required listens would be Genesis, Rush, Yes, King Crimson, Pink Floyd. You can branch out from there Camel, ELP, Gentle Giant, Can, Alan Parsons Project, Caravan, Marillion, Kansas. There's the more modern stuff Porcupine Tree(and the 2 Steven Wilson albums with the prog ban), Spocks Beard, Opeth, Big Big Train, Dream Theater. I like some of the newer bands that sound kind of vintage like Wobbler and Astra. There's rake loads of heavy "prog" stuff but some of it is just Djent or math stuff and wouldn't take much inspiration from classic prog rock.

I find the best thing to do is narrow down what kind of prog stuff you like and start branching out from there. A lot of prog is really long and can take time and repeated listens to get really into but there's also so much of it you won't have the time if you try listen to everything. I'm a big fan of the Canterbury scene stuff and more "normal" prog stuff and have less time for the kraut stuff that's a bit wilder and more experimental.

Hoping to get to this next year if I can. Heard great things from friends who've gone over the years.

I don't mind the likes of Lankum and The Mary Wallopers. They seem properly into music and have an air of authenticity about them, they deserve the successes they've had. Amble and Kingfishr are utter tripe for the masses though and I'm bewildered at the level they've reached in such a short time. They are just generic garbage that does seem to be cashing in more on the recent Irish trad/folk revival that's been happening the last few years.

Interesting seeing them take a bit of a chance with Fontaines. I think they're only the 3rd Irish act outside of Thin Lizzy and U2 to headline Slane? This will probably sell fine. Hayley Williams has a big following and this will draw in a big crowd just for the occasion, people are just going mad for big gigs these days. Would be interested seeing who else gets dded to the bill if they have the likes of Madra Salach on there already.

Enjoyed the weekend. Was plenty busy again on saturday, great crowds for all the bands really.

I'm thinking of getting a resale ticket for this, haven't seen Opeth in a few years now. I've a few mates headed but the prospect of getting stuck seated next to a gobshite for 80 bucks is really unappealing to me and will 100% ruin the show.

I picked up a ticket for Amsterdam. A few friends are planning on making it so should be good craic. Didn't think they'd ever be back on the road so will be glad to see them live again.

I've played in bands for over 20 years now and can't really see myself stopping. We don't get to meet up and jam as much as we used to in any of my bands but we're all seasoned enough now to keep working away and get a few shows a year. It's always a great laugh when we do meet up and we fall back into the swing of it in a few mins. Would be nice to get more music released but these things always take time and people have family and work taking up so much of their time.

As for not loving some of the aspects, I've learned to try and enjoy the gigs even if they aren't always the best show of your life. Sure long drives and bad crowds can be a bit of a slog. I just treat them as a night out with mates and I pretty much always have a great time. As for equipment lugging around, just get the new light stuff. No real need to be dragging around mad heavy tube heads and massive cabs if you don't want to. You can get super lightweight tiny heads and light weight cabs that will get you through any gig and sound great. I barley ever take out my big amps now. It's nice to have them but they aren't a requirement like they used to be.

Anyway I plan to keep going until I can't, wouldn't know what to do if I didn't have some gigs or jamming to look forward to!

Had a great time on Friday. Sallys was hopping and there was a great buzz in the Roisin aswell. Was only around for the night but looks like the rest of the weekend went well also.Great to see Galway doing well and hope to catch it again next year.

Had a great time at this, the crowd was going pretty crazy for the bands which you love to see. Seems like a thriving community for the heavy stuff in there. I was playing with Trenchknife, which was a blast, the PA nearly got taken out from moshing at one stage but it was all good! Was in from the first band until Congenital Abnormalities but we had to hit to the road then. I'd seen Fraught and Ancient Malice in the last few weeks but would have liked to stick around if I could have.