Afterlife Festival cancelled

The Afterlife Festival, which would have brought seminal dance act Coldcut (amongst many others) to Turbotstown in Coole this weekend has been cancelled. The festival?s promoters failed to secure a licence for the festival, which was set to begin this Saturday morning September 15th and run until the early hours of Sunday morning.However, despite losing just about all of the big name acts due to the cancellation, all is not lost and a slimmed down version of the festival is to take place at an indoor venue in Dublin - McGruders in Thomas Street - this Saturday night.People who bought tickets for the event can now get a refund from the point at which they purchased their ticket from Monday of this week, or they can take a slightly smaller refund and go along to McGruders for the Saturday night event.The organisers slipped up with their licence application, as the District Court was closed for the month of August. They waited until the first sitting to ask for the licence, but their application was knocked back in the first hearing. As the court sitting was on September 5th, this gave them little time to prepare a new application. According to a statement issued on a festival forum, a previous festival in that area allegedly left the Gardaí and community not very happy. ?The Gardai objected and the licence could not came through. This is not an unusual thing to happen with Festivals and could be solved but the key here is the time so we have decided to move it to an already licensed venue,? the posting reads.The organisers then set about looking for a venue that could host all the stages so most of the acts and djs could have the chance of play their sets. They found McGruders in Dublin, and as we went to press the line-up had yet to be released. However, it is widely believed that most of the headline acts - Coldcut, Zion Train, DJ Krust, Tayo, and DJ Antaro - will not be at the new venue. Rather, the massive supporting bill of DJ?s, live acts, electronic artists, reggae sound systems and more will be appearing. Tickets for the rescheduled event are being pitched at €20. Tickets for the original festival were on sale at €70.Post Electric Picnic, the Afterlife festival was being billed as the last big party of the summer.Entertainment in just about every musical genre going (but with a major emphasis on dance music) was to be provided across four stages brimming with international and local acts, performers, top quality soundsystems, cool decoration and the unique Life crew and vibe.The line-up was hailed as one of the finest of the year. Coldcut are widely regarded as being among the forefathers of dance music, while DJ?s Tayo, Krust and Antaro are all leading spinners in their respective musical fields. Reggae legends Zion Train hadn?t performed in Ireland for over 15 years.Like the Garden Party at nearby Ballinlough, the walled gardens of Turbotstown were to provide the main festival setting. Camping was also to be provided nearby.The state house at Turbotstown was built by the architect Francis Johnston who was one of the leading architects of the day. He also designed the General Post Office in Dublin and Charleville Castle in Tullamore, which was the location of the first Life Festival in 2006. The second Life festival took place in Galway, and was hailed as a resounding success.Organisers had hoped to harvest this goodwill into Afterlife, but they had not counted on the licensing knock back. In a festival friendly county such as Westmeath, the licence refusal comes as something of a surprise, as the major concert promoters responsible for events such as the aforementioned Garden Party, Hi-Fi and the Midlands Music Festival had little, if any, problems in securing a licence for their respective events. Indeed, next summer, even more festivals are being lined up for the Lake county, with UK festival Lattitude the latest addition to the thriving Irish festival market. A festival very much in the mould of Europe?s best festival, The Electric Picnic, Lattitude is expected to set up camp in Belvedere in July. In the UK, it was hailed as the surprise success of the festival season, attracting a well-heeled crowd over its three days. It was headlined by Arcade Fire and Damien Rice.According to internet discussion forums, tickets for the Afterlife festival were selling poorly, despite an impressive deal whereby the €70 ticket could be bought for €49 in advance.