FNG21

FNG21
10-12 September 2021

Rapidly changing national health guidelines being published in response to the precarious nature of the Covid-19 virus made it unclear whether in-person events and festivals would be possible in 2021. Digital events were, at the time, ubiquitous and we felt the need to break away from this mould. After reviewing countless pieces of dense documentation and closely liaising with our stakeholders, we completely re-structured our festival so that we could directly connect audiences and artists in one of the first in-person festivals since the announcement of nationwide lockdowns in 2020.

This festival was incredibly important to us, for many people this would be their first experience of truly live music in over a year. To emphasise the importance of this reintroduction to live music we looked towards the texture of Limerick City when devising the artistic theme and visual identity.

In devising the visual identity of the festival, commonplace textures that could be found across Limerick, such as stone, glass, steel, and brick were our primary sources of inspiration. We modelled 3D letterforms that would be embued with these textures and we took 3D scans of broken bricks and injected them with vibrant colours. This brought everyday objects into a fine art space, prompting audiences to rediscover the texture and timbre of our city augmented through art. The texture of our city, and all the imperfections that come with it, played a central role in our 2021 festival.

The only way to make an in-person festival a reality would be a drastic change in the format and structure. Previously our festival would be structured as a music trail, during which attendees would travel through the heart of the city over the course of three days. This amount of movement was not possible under the health guidelines at the time. So instead of moving the audience we moved the artists.

This was our only ever-ticketed festival, and though the tickets were free, they were also limited to ensure we met the strict venue capacity limit. Once on sale all tickets sold out in less than ten minutes. On the weekend audiences set up at one table and throughout the day a variety of artists travelled across the town, played at a venue and then moved to the next venue and audience. It was still a trail, but just for the artists. Alongside this, we also hosted our first digital event for those who couldn't make the festival, a bombastic performance from the infamous scratch DJ, Naive Ted.