HWCH Playlist 1 - Friday, 29th September.
Info: With just over a week and a half to go until Hard Working Class Heroes 2017 kicks off, we've provided two playlists, one for each night of the festival, as well as a handy map for navigating your way around the venues. The headliners at each venue on the Friday night are sure to be big pulls for punters, with the likes of THUMPER, DAITHÍ, David Keenan, Jafaris and Jealous of the Birds all very well-renowned for their live performances, each bringing something very different to the table.
Other highlights will include Le Boom at The Grand Social who raised the roof at last year's HWCH after only a couple of months together, and haven't looked back since, pretty much playing every major festival in Ireland this summer as well as a U.K. festival bow in London. Paddy Hanna and Fontaines will be the ones to keep an eye out for at The Workman's Club, while new venues The Underground and Tramline host Katie Laffan and Hvmmingbyrd, and Elm and Loah respectively. Finally at The Tara Building right beside Tramline, aside from the immense Mr. Keenan we'll be looking to catch a rare Dublin performance by Belfast's Lilla Vargen.
New venue Tramline @ 5 Hawkins Street, Dublin 2
HWCH Playlist 2 - Saturday, 30th September.
Like Friday, Saturday has a dizzying array of talent on display, normally I would say there are tough decisions to be made, but ultimately no matter where you end up you will be unable to have any regrets about your choices afterwards. The headliners are extremely tasty on night 2 of the festival. Bitch Falcon, Sleep Thieves, BANTUM, SOULÉ and Rosa Nutty couldn't provide a more different mix if you tried, from hard rock to dreampop, electronic to Rn'B and contemporary folk, something for everyone.
In The Workman's there is a very strong opening to the night with Orchid Collective, Molly Sterling and Dundalk alternative pop act AE Mak. Floor Staff and LAOISE will be eye-catchers at The Grand Social, and when putting together the playlist for the second night I really enjoyed ROE also. One of the places to be over the entire weekend however must be The Underground on Saturday night, what a line-up. The aforementioned BANTUM headlines and will be sharing the stage with some other incredible electronic artists, Sylk who are creating quite a stir right now, Cinema and Wastefellow, and again, whilst going through acts I was less familiar with, I'm loving the sounds from Kilnamana right now.
The Underground @ 64 Dame Street
For Tramline on the Saturday night I'd recommend catching Super Silly who open proceedings at 19:45pm and also the ever entertaining ROCSTRONG who takes the stage at 22:00pm just before SOULÉ. Finally, at The Tara Building there's a strong showing of contemporary folk-pop, Aislinn Logan has burst onto the scene recently with her debut single release, as has Ivan Nicolas, and someone whose live shows are not to be missed is Maria Kelly, one of the best-known and most well-loved Irish solo artists of the past 2 years.
These recommendations are mostly based on previous knowledge of the acts, but in many ways, the whole point of Hard Working Class Heroes is new discoveries, and that will be what excites me most across the weekend. It happened last year and it will happen again this year no doubt. The main differences between this year and HWCH 2016 will be the reduction in the number of nights (2 instead of 3), acts (almost halved) and the proximity of venues to each other. Last year it was a little bit stretched making your way to The Chocolate Factory which felt outside of the hub of the other venues. Whilst the venue was fantastic, it will be easier to catch more acts this year, with The Tara Building essentially replacing The Chocolate Factory in terms of venue type.
Ultimately it promises to be a most memorable weekend due to the sheer quality of the acts on the line-up and I wouldn't be surprised if it surpasses the success of last year.
Tickets for the weekend can be purchased here and range in price from €25-€55; https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/hard-working-class-heroes-festival-2017-tickets-35351423058
For information on the annual conference which takes place on the Thursday, head over here http://hwch.net/#conference
The Tara Building
Map of venues for HWCH 2017
Orange > The Underground
Green > The Workman's Club
Yellow > The Grand Social
Blue > The Tara Building
Black > Tramline
