Ireland looks set to welcome another festival to our already packed line-up next summer. Jim Carroll broke the news last night on his On The Record blog that MCD are planning a brand new summer festival to debut next year. Longitude, as it will be known, will be a sister festival to UK festival Latitude, with both festivals running concurrently and sharing acts. Latitude is scheduled to take place over the weekend of 18th to 21st of July next.
According to OTR sources, sites such as Fairyhouse Racecourse in Meath and Belvedere House in Westmeath are being mooted as potential hosts.
The brand new festival will compete in the 'boutique' festival market against the likes of Body & Soul and the new nationwide incarnation of Forbidden Fruit next year. Its six week proximity to Electric Picnic will be grounds for concern among MCD head honchos that it might siphon off some ticket sales which otherwise might have gone to Electric Picnic, a festival which MCD has a stake in.
MCD have made no official comment yet despite our efforts to contact them but it will be interesting what relationship - if any - Longitude will have to Oxegen which was, up until 2011, the shining light in the MCD summer arsenal. Ireland's largest festival took a gap year in 2012 and the announcement of a new MCD festival will surely prompt questions as to Oxegen's long term viability.
In the same blog post Jim Carroll suggested that MCD are also planning a two day electronic dance music festival for next summer too. Could MCD be attempting to split its regular Oxegen audience in two, with the more 'boutique' element being catered to with Longitude and the more dance-oriented fans having a brand new EDM festival aimed at them?
More on this as we get it.
