Come Here To Me!

Back in November 2011, we had a post dealing with the first outdoor rock festival in Ireland, which happened in September 1970 in my beloved Richmond Park, the home of Saint Patrick’s Athletic.

Irish Press newspaper report September 4 1970

In the end, the festival proved to be an absolute disaster. This was owing to a number of factors but primarily hysteric media reports, which focused on drugs and violence in the lead-up to the event.

“I’ve been to better wakes” was a quote from one discontented young punter in The Irish Times, which ran with the headline ‘Open Air Festival Hardly Pops’. The paper noted that only several hundred young people had attended the festival, perhaps unsurprising giving the scare-tactics in the media in the run up to the event.

Now, one of our favourite blogs has managed to upload some images from the event.

Via ‘Brand New Retro’

Brand New Retro has scanned up some great photographs from the day. Interestingly, it seems the media chose to refer to the gig in Richmond Park as a ‘rave’. The images of a young Phil Lynott are excellent.