The Dublin Community Blog

As Roseanne stated in her comment last week, the weekend definitively has not enough days. And I would even go so far as to say that this year the October has not enough days. After last weeks HWCH-Festival, and the 10th Darklight-Festival before it, tomorrow marks the beginning of another staple of the Dublin event calendar: this years Dublin Electronic Arts Festival.

DEAF returns with our most extensive programme to date, including films, gallery installations, workshops, live gigs and club events. We ask you to glance through the programme at the more than 150 events on offer, confident that you’ll find something in there for you

Again I am astonished by the broad palette of events: not purely electronica-based standards such as DJ-Sets and club performances (though there are aplenty), but also exhibitions, installations and screenings.

Dublinblog was able to talk to Festival Director Eamonn Doyle about the highs and lows in running such a festival. Having started in 2002 as a spinoff of Eamonn’s D1-label and meant to be a platform for Irish electronic acts, the festival has developed into a showcase of Irish and international artists, and is most definitively going beyond the limits of the word “electronic” in its title. Though lacking a big commercial sponsor, the line-up this year is one of the biggest and most diverse ever; and handing over certain parts of the planning and booking to local promoters has helped to increase the choices of shows and events.

Some of Emaonn’s favourite picks this year include:

- The opening night of the festival featuring the young Austrian artist Soap & Skin.
- David Rodigan at the Sugar Club, described by Eamonn as the “elderly, school teacher-type godfather of (UK) Reggae and Dancehall”.
- The only D1-feature at the festival, the Naphta album launch.
- “New Spaces for Music” – a series of live performances staged in unusual spaces around Dublin, including shops, empty offices, a van, an apartment and a train station.

By all means go and you’ll be able to find something extraordinary for yourself to see, and please support the artists and the festival itself.

My personal picks this year include California’s finest Isis; Relay, a sound project initiated and curated by John Lambert (aka Chequerboard); Goldie’s History of Metalheadz set and last but not least the Egyptian/Middle Eastern documentary short films at the Odessa Club.

Isis – Not In Rivers But In Drops from Kostas Tsikrikes on Vimeo.