October Nights Festival lands at Ballina Arts Centre on October 22nd featuring Babylamb, Seamus Fogarty, Uppbeat & The Masterplan.

Never comfortable with the blasphemous 'predictable' accusation, the festival draws on some of Mayo’s finest musicians and leading lights in folk song, queer pop, hyperpunk and hard rock.

Babylamb
Queer pop band Babylamb are a five piece based in Galway but with strong Mayo roots. Beat-maker Rian Stephens is from Foxford while drummer Sam Armstrong is from Castlebar.

One of Hot Press’ #HotFor2021 artists, Babylamb’s lyrics examine queerness, gender, and the political and social dimensions to being young in Ireland.

They have released three singles: Bodyright, Icky, Mister Magic. Producers like SOPHIE, and prolific lyricists like Joni Mitchell are among their influences.

Media like Nialler9, The Last Mixed Tape and respected composer & Aosdana member Roger Doyle have already sung their praises.

Seamus Fogarty
We welcome Swinfords London-based alt-folk hero Seamus Fogarty to sing songs about nuns and table-tennis.

Signed to one of the UK’s most respected independent labels, Domino records (Arctic Monkeys, Bonnie “Prince” Billy etc.), the Mayo man has released three albums to great acclaim.

Seamus first played Ballina in 2012, opening for Freddie White in Ballina Arts Centre. He has since performed at Other Voices, Ballina in 2018 as well as Electric Picnic and many of the best known Irish and UK festivals.

His performance at October Nights in Ballina is one of his only concerts in Ireland in 2022 as he works on a new album, scheduled for release in 2023.

Uppbeat
London based, Westport native Uppbeat (Finn Costelloe) brings the heavy, rap and hardcore sounds of hyperpunk to Ballina for a rare Mayo performance. This is a full band performance with Peter Carry, Lucas Lundgren and Patrick O'Donnell joining Costelloe on stage.

Uppbeat has scored five number ones in the Irish iTunes charts as well as featuring on records with superstar DJ John Gibbons. He has been featured in a number of Editorial Spotify playlists such as “New Dance Rising, Misfits 2.0 and XYZ” and his 2021 track ‘Exhale’ recently surpassed 1 million streams on Spotify. His latest single High Voltage, was released in September, with the video filmed in Mayo.

The Masterplan
It's down to Ballina's own hard rockers The Masterplan to bang some heads for the first set on Saturday. Formed in 2018, they include in their ranks Craig Whelan (vocals/ guitar); Kieran Reddy (drums); Edward Fair (bass/`vocals) and Eamon Naughton (Lead Guitar).

Influences include The Doors, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Fleetwood Mac, Arctic Monkeys, Slipknot, Enya, Thin Lizzy, so expect sparks to fly!

The Local Live Performance Programming Scheme is funded by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and administered by Mayo County Council.