Stendhal director looks forward to this weekend’s festival

THIS weekend 10,000 music and art lovers will descend on Ballymully Cottage Farm, Limavady for the 14th edition of Stendhal Festival.

Since 2011, the Roe Valley has played host to the independent event which has seen its numbers steadily grow from 700 patrons in its inaugural year to the large-scale event it is today, which will see total attendance over its lifespan hit 100,000 people.

It has welcomed a plethora of household name acts such as The Divine Comedy, The Undertones, Basement Jaxx, Ash, The Wailers, Sister Sledge and this year will add The Zutons, Hot Chip (DJ set) and Heather Small to that list.

There have been a host of challenges, trials and tribulations for the organisers behind the scenes but for Director Ross Parkhill, the challenges are worth the reward, however he believes that the current climate facing independent events is perhaps the most difficult era in the events 14-year history.

“Starting from absolutely nothing to becoming currently the largest independent, weekend camping music and arts festival in Ireland, certainly hasn’t been easy,” he said.

He added, “I would describe our current position going into 2024 as positive but precarious. We seem to have bucked the trend so far but until the final bit of bean counting is done post event, there are never any guarantees year on year that we will be in a position to run the following year.

“As far as I can see there are quite a few reasons that so many events are getting cancelled.

“There are the ever-present issues of entertainment overload in the summer, there are only so many pounds people can spend on entertainment and with more and more events popping up all over the place run by promoters who have ties with Live Nation, along with general entertainment available, it is sometimes difficult to attain advance sales. Advance sales being the second issue everyone faces.”

Despite the very challenging climate, Ross says that the Stendhal event taking place this weekend is on course to set another attendance record and he thanked those patrons for their continued support for the event.

“We have been blessed with a phenomenal crowd,” he said, “We are so, so lucky that not only do we never have any bother with the community we have grown at the festival, it’s family friendly, safe and welcoming, but importantly for us, they come back year on year and continue to support us.”

“Massive thanks to everyone who has bought a ticket to the festival this year and in fact any year, when currently the world seems to be willing to let events like ours go the wall, our guests have pulled us through some very tough times indeed.”