The Wolfe Tones and Five headline rebranded Mullingar music festival

Folk legends The Wolfe Tones and 90s boyband Five don’t have much in common, apart from the fact that they are headlining the two nights of Westmeath’s newest music festival, Lakeland Sessions.

The rebranded event takes place over the August bank holiday weekend in Blackhall, which will be transformed into a festival site with bars, food vendors, amusements and more.

On Saturday August 3, the festival is all about ‘90s pop as Five top a bill that also includes Rednex, Whigfield, Smash Hits, Baby D and DJ Sarge.

On Sunday night, the Wolfe Tones are the headline act. Also appearing on the night are George Murphy and Rising Sons, Some One’s Sons, Fieldsy and Gary O’Brien.

The two people behind the Lakeland Sessions are experienced events organisers Philip McKeown and Derek Irwin.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, Mr McKeown says that with the fleadh moving on to Wexford after two extremely memorable years in Mullingar, and a number of other events such as Body and Soul not taking place this year, the Lakeland Sessions gives local music fans something to look forward to.

“We felt there was a huge opportunity to kind of shine a light back on Mullingar and what it can offer from a musical perspective.”

While the line-ups of the two concerts are very different, Mr McKeown says that modern music fans have broad tastes.

“I suppose the way musical tastes have gone, it’s varied. Go back a few years, people who were listening to Wolf Tones were listening to a certain genre and it wouldn’t have the mass appeal that it does today.

“The Wolf Tones have experienced a massive resurgence over the last couple of years, and then the ‘90s acts that we’ve lined up for the Saturday night, again, would have mass appeal.

“Nostalgic music is huge at the moment. A lot of various different events around the country and across Europe are edging towards that aspect of things, people looking back on those kind of acts from the ‘90s and 2000s.

“We feel we have a really nice offering across the two days we have lined up.”

The response from the public has been positive, Mr McKeown says.

“We only announced our ‘90s Saturday lineup during the week, and the response was massive, we had a huge response across our social media platforms. We’re delighted with the response we’ve got, and we expect that to ramp up as we get closer to the date.”

Weekend and day tickets are now available; see lakelandsessions on Facebook and Instagram for ticket link.