Expect ‘all the LOLs’ as the Orchard Lounge by Bulmers at Body & Soul brings together the best of established and emerging Irish comedy voices, styles and personalities to create a helter-skelter of hilarity, guaranteed to raise your heart rate and have you ‘screaming’!
With this year’s line-up featuring Lords of Strut, Waterford Whispers LIVE, Alison Spittle and Fred Cooke comedy is more than ever a key strand of the Body & Soul’s unmistakable mixture of music, arts, wellbeing and gastronomy that celebrates its 10th-anniversary edition in 2019.
Street Performance World Champions, Britain’s Got Talent Semi Finalists, unlikely heroes of the smash hit RIOT and Cork’s favourite spandex-wearing lads, Lords of Strut will be dancing their way to Body & Soul this year. Witness dynamic brothers, Famous Seamus and Sean-tastic, smashing out the freakiest, funniest and sexiest routines that these high fashion dancing legends can muster.
The breezily chatty and effusively funny Alison Spittle will also grace the stage of the Orchard Lounge by Bulmers this year. Star and writer of RTE’s ‘Nowhere Fast’ and ‘Culchie Club’ and Tatler comedian of the year, Alison is spectacularly talented and highly entertaining. Her tall tales of rural life and small-town eccentrics strike a chord with anyone who grew up outside the Pale.
Fresh from stealing the show on Dancing With The Stars, Fred Cooke returns to the lounge of laughter sharing his musical prowess and wild crafted physical storytelling. Following sold-out performances in Edinburgh and Vicar Street, Dreamgun Film Reads are coming to Body & Soul Festival to amuse and exasperate cinephiles in equal measure with their skewed, joke-stuffed and wholly unrehearsed take on Titanic. Waterford Whispers News LIVE have developed their satirical wit into a stunning live show set in a newsroom in a parallel satirical universe. This is the first time WWN will perform their full live show at a festival so be prepared to grab a seat and grab your sides!
The line-up is packed with many more well-known funny faces including absurdist comic Paul Currie, unscripted laughs with Dublin Comedy Improv, one-liners with Ian Coppinger and a puppet soap opera by Fur City. Also making an appearance over the weekend are Chris Kent, Kevin McGahern, Gearóid Farrelly, Edwin Sammon, Colum McDonnell, Emma Doran, Julie Jay, Aoife Dooley, Aoife O’ Connor and host for the weekend Danny O’Brien. Comedy styles include traditional stand-up, improv, musical comedy, surrealist comedy, physical comedy and satire, so whatever tickles your fancy, the Orchard Lounge by Bulmers will have you doubled over.
Friday night brings a very special MyHouse Takeover, turning the Orchard Lounge by Bulmers into the home you know and love BUT the carpets are in a state, there’s a mountain of washing and the dishes have been left for years! So come help, please! Bring an apron, some marigolds, and roll up your sleeves for an evening of homemade madness and nostalgia. Helping us to get the jobs done will be the MyHouse DJ’s, playing the guiltiest of pleasures, the wrongest of slow tunes and all the floor filling favourites from the good old MyHouse days. Joining them will be our House band – the Smooth Sailors who never fail to deliver. You’ll remember them!
When the comedy ends for the day on Saturday and Sunday, Body & Soul’s lineup of talented nationwide musicians keeps the Orchard Lounge by Bulmers vibrating through the night. Bringing a blast of raw Irish talent on Saturday and Sunday are ‘anarchic’ performers TPM, genre-fusion meets crash humour band Post Punk Podge & The Technohippies; garage pop band Fonda; high tension wire post-punk trio Extravision; Lowlek drawing on elements of psych, rockabilly & crooner ballads; Ghostking is Dead ‘a musical prodigy, with a bone-dry sense of humour to boot’; guitar driven blends of soul from Eve Clague; old school lo-fi space pop act Nudy Boy Nature; the charms of ‘alt-wonky pop’ act Myles Manley; and Fixity a fascinating mix of krautrock and jazz, providing a hypnotic sound – both arresting and emotionally rewarding.
In the 10 years since a wave of creative energy formed Body & Soul as a stand-alone event, the team have pioneered the holistic and sensory stimulation benchmarks festival goers have come to expect from Irish festivals today…. Lose yourself in a magical immersive escape through walled gardens, natural amphitheatre and the tangle of ancient woodlands; revel in the moonlight with new music pioneers meeting legends and cult favourites; discover hidden art installations, immersive theatre experiences and impromptu spoken word performances under a canopy of centuries-old trees; speak your truth at incisive political discussions and insightful workshops; let young imaginations run riot at Soul Kids; indulge yourself at the sustainability-driven and ever-popular Food on Board, where gastronomic indulgence is catered for by some of Ireland’s most celebrated artisan gourmet producers, complemented by the clink of champagne flutes. With wellbeing at its essence since inception, Body & Soul’s The Sanctuary offers an extensive indulgence, performance and talks programme finessed over a decade, attracting top practitioners and speakers from all over the country.
Truly independent (an increasing rarity on the festival scene), Body & Soul has a deeply-integrated commitment to sustainability and in 2018 became the first ever Irish festival to receive a Highly Commended from the Greener Festival Awards. Its dedicated eco-campsite option called Us&You, where campers commit to ‘leave no trace’ doubles in size year-on-year.
TICKETS
The Final Weekend Tickets for Body & Soul are on sale via Ticketbooth on www.bodyandsoul.ie 209.50 + service fee
LIMITED EDITION Sunday Day tickets are available priced €75 + service fee
A limited number of Campervan passes are currently on sale priced €70.
Bus tickets are available now.
Family Tickets are available for those wishing to stay in the dedicated Family Campsite with children aged 12 and under. A family ticket permits entry for 1 adult and 2 children aged 12 or under. Adult tickets available to over 20s only as Body & Soul is not able to accommodate 13-19-year-olds (Adults without children are not permitted into the Family Campsite). Children Under 12 are free and must be accompanied by a legal guardian.
All tickets can be purchased with an instalment plan, allowing you to spread your ticket price over 2 or 3 payments. Event is subject to license.