It Takes A Village: Festival with roof over its head has successful debut
Leaving the thoughts of campsites for another day and another festival, attendees at It Takes A Village were more residents than revellers, setting up their home-from-home in one of the 172 Self-Catering Houses in the renowned holiday destination.
Instead of buying tickets, festival goers booked houses and split the costs among themselves, while yesterday saw an influx of day-trippers take in the event’s closing stages.
Acts from home and abroad played in the holiday village’s venues, bars and restaurants over the weekend.
Joe Kelly of The Good Room, the promoters behind the festival, says the reaction has been encouraging.
“I suppose it is a builder and people need to see what it is. What was slightly difficult about communicating it before doing it was that everyone here is living as a community, that’s been brilliant,” he said.
“Now people are here, they’ve been telling their friends about it, how you’re living in a house. One guy I met yesterday said he went and had a bath. There’s really nice food here, but you can also cook in your house,” he said.
Asked if the festival would return next year, Mr Kelly said they would like to bring it back in 2019.
“I don’t mean to say it has to happen next year, but it will in the sense that we’ve invested a good bit in it and the boss of Trobolgan has been totally behind the idea and get it, they see the quality of the production,” he said.
More than 70 acts including Young Fathers, Fujiya & Miyagi, Andrew Weatherall, Oh Pep!, Talos, Saint Sister, Martin Hayes and Steve Cooney, and The Altered Hours, played the all-indoor venues over the three days.
And Trabolgan’s old reliables — such as the Swimming Pool, Arcade, 5 A-Side Soccer, Bowling, and Go Karts — were also all on offer, as were history and nature walks.
Swimmers were treated to pool parties as DJs dropped tunes to accompany the sounds of cannonballs.
The holiday homes did more than house attendees, and played host to block parties and pop-up surprise gigs across the three days, while food vendors formed a market under the glass canopy that covers Trabolgan’s Main Centre.
