Festival lives up to the Hype

The Hype Festival, run by Foroige and the Attic Youth Cafe, returned for its second year on Saturday May 25.

Featuring artists such as the Original Rude Boys, Audiopilot, Storyfold and iRadio’s Fergal Darcy, the festival goers were also treated to a performance from the three winners of this year’s Longford Youth factor; Lacuna, Emily Doyle and Helen McDermott, who greatly impressed their peers with their talents on the stage.

Jim Maher Hype Volunteer Manager and Foroige Regional Youth Officer for Longford and Roscommon was delighted with the festival’s success, adding that approximately 3,500 young people attended the festival. There was plenty to see and do on the day, with three different ‘zones’ on-site; a red zone for the disco tent, games tent and “chill-out” tent, a yellow area for the inflatable theme park and the blue area where the music took place.

Happily, Jim has said that Hype will go ahead again next year, and he hopes it will once again be bigger and better. He adds that the coverage given to the festival by national media and social media has really helped its success. Jim also explained that it was a huge positive factor for Longford, saying that it’s the youth that make it positive. “On behalf of the Attic Youth Cafe I’d like to say thanks to all the local volunteers” Jim adds, “they really did Longford proud”.

The Hype Festival, which took place in the Longford Rugby club is a day-long drug and alcohol free event for youth clubs around Ireland. The festival was set up by the Attic Management Committee as a fundraising initiative with the hopes of expanding and developing a new youth centre in Longford.