Lisdoonvarna Festival, Co Clare Ireland 1982

From Mama’s Boys to Jackson Browne, thousands of music fans flock to Lisdoonvarna Clare to enjoy a weekend of music and mud. Zenith Productions, who organise the festival which is now in its fifth year, say that this year the festival cost a quarter of a million pounds to stage. It took sixteen articulated trucks to bring all the necessary equipment onto the site. The 140-foot wide stage is the largest ever erected in Ireland. Lisdoonvarna, famous for matchmaking and now the festival. While numbers were down on last year, organisers estimate that between twenty and twenty-four thousand fans showed up for headline act Jackson Browne. The facilities at the 1982 festival were improved on previous years with the inclusion of a festival village, With everything from T-bone steaks to the Hare Krishnas. Toilet facilities were also improved with 118 cubicles, all “fit for a king”. For the fans, the festival is not cheap with a weekend ticket costing £20. In 1978 the price of a weekend ticket was £5. Weather is always an issue at Irish outdoor festivals. Once again this year it rained and it wasn’t long before the festival site had been turned into a virtual quagmire. Featured in this report is a performance by Dave Edmonds and Mama’s Boys. People travel to Lisdoon for the music but part of the fun is the camping and the festival atmosphere. On Saturday night, there was “the biggest fireworks display in Ireland’ accompanied by the music of Handels Messiah. Jackson Browne, the headline act, and star attraction, then took to the stage. On Sunday morning, festival goers awoke to queue for the water taps and a breakfast of burger and chips. An RTÉ News report broadcast on 13 July 1982. The reporter is Andrew Kelly. The fifth Lisdoonvarna Festival also featured bands such as UB40, Wishbone Ash, The Chieftains, Stockton’s Wing and The Atrix.