Forever Young Festival 2023 - The best party of the summer returns!

By Reporter
Published 7th May 2023, 17:16 BST

The best party of the summer returns on the 14th, 15th and 16th of July on the luxurious grounds of Palmerstown House Estate, Co Kildare. Forever Young Festival - It’s the Time Of Your Life!!!

The fastest-growing festival in Ireland returns with a bang for its third year. 2023's Forever Young Festival, where the 80s come alive, will take place on July 14-16 at Kildare's beautiful Palmerstown House Estate and showcases some of the greatest artists of the 1980s.

Take a trip back in time for three days in style and relive your youth! Erasure’s Andy Bell alongside UK pop duo Bananarama are set to headline the festival alongside a mysterious, soon-to-be-announced Friday night act (see below for the full mouth-watering line-up). 

Each year, folks bring their camping chairs, reunite their old gangs and feel forever young over the weekend, watching over 30 iconic original bands from the late ‘70s to the early ‘90s. This year includes Billy Ocean, ABC, Tony Hadley, Go West, Soul II Soul and many more. These artists are at their peak, with most celebrating four decades or more in the business, and sound better than ever.

“Bananarama put on a brilliant show last year, we wouldn’t normally have an artist from the previous year back this quickly, but it’s a special occasion, a worldwide 40th-anniversary tour!” says Festival Organiser Dr Sharon Alston, smiling as she spoke from her home in Co. Laois. "So many people wrote to us after 2022 and said, ‘We’ve got to have Bananarama back!’. And with Neville Staple from Fun Boy 3 joining us, it will be extra special."placeholder image
“Bananarama put on a brilliant show last year, we wouldn’t normally have an artist from the previous year back this quickly, but it’s a special occasion, a worldwide 40th-anniversary tour!” says Festival Organiser Dr Sharon Alston, smiling as she spoke from her home in Co. Laois. "So many people wrote to us after 2022 and said, ‘We’ve got to have Bananarama back!’. And with Neville Staple from Fun Boy 3 joining us, it will be extra special."

Announcing the Line-up so far, with more acts to be announced, already Forever Young sets out to retain its ‘Best Line up in Ireland’ status featuring: 

Erasure's Andy Bell | Bananarama | Billy Ocean | Tony Hadley | ABC | Soul II Soul | Tom Bailey | Midge Ure | Go West | Jason Donovan | Hot House Flowers | Cry Before Dawn | Cutting Crew | China Crisis | John Parr | Blancmange | From the Specials - Neville Staples | From The Jam | Jerry Fish | Stray Cats -Slim Jim Phantom  | Modern Romance | Heaven 17's Glen Gregory | Jaki Graham | Propaganda's Claudia Brucken | Lotus Eaters Peter Coyle | The Farms Peter Hooton | M- Robin Scott | The Doctor | Qween + more to come!

This is a high-end adult party weekend par excellence like no other… A truly unforgettable musical experience. A mixtape weekend where colleagues, friends, and family can reconnect with their youth, pull on their leg warmers and ra ra skirts, don the shoulder pads, roll up their suit sleeves along with mirrored aviator shades, and enjoy the 80s all over again. This is a trip in a time machine, and true to their era, a classic DeLorean and Knight Rider ‘Kit’ car welcomes you at the main arena entrance. Guests also get to enjoy the vintage atmosphere and the nostalgic thrill of the '80s gaming world at the retro gaming tent with Space Invaders, Pac-man, and original arcade games that set the foundation of all gaming.

Forever Young has on-site camping, luxury glamping, campervan and caravan pitches available. With high-end flushing toilets and hot showers, glamping with home comforts - including beds, duvets, power, pamper parlours, golf buggies that give lifts around the site, there is an experience to suit all requirements and budgets. For those who can’t or won’t camp, an array of hotel packages and transport options take all the hassle and confusion out of booking your weekend. This mixtape school disco weekend is not by any means only for the festival crowd. It’s all killer, no filler, with era-defining hits for all tastes, all day.placeholder image
Forever Young has on-site camping, luxury glamping, campervan and caravan pitches available. With high-end flushing toilets and hot showers, glamping with home comforts - including beds, duvets, power, pamper parlours, golf buggies that give lifts around the site, there is an experience to suit all requirements and budgets. For those who can’t or won’t camp, an array of hotel packages and transport options take all the hassle and confusion out of booking your weekend. This mixtape school disco weekend is not by any means only for the festival crowd. It’s all killer, no filler, with era-defining hits for all tastes, all day.

The Forever Young Festival exploded onto the scene in 2019, winning awards for "Best Medium-Sized Festival" and "Best Line-up" in its first year of operation. Post lockdown - July 22 - attendees adored the opportunity to finally get out and party in the sun. It’s impossible to put into words, but something very special happens at Forever Young, the attendees described it as ‘a field in Kildare, that just overflows with thrills and love, the best weekend of my life’. As we return in 2023, we hope to see you there! 

Festival founder and organiser, Dr Sharon Alston recounts: “I wanted to launch a new animal welfare charity; Ireland didn’t have any ‘80s festivals. I’ve been to loads - they’re brilliant fun, I thought it would make the perfect fundraiser. It gives people an absolute shot of something money can’t buy: to lift you up and make you feel young again.placeholder image
Festival founder and organiser, Dr Sharon Alston recounts: “I wanted to launch a new animal welfare charity; Ireland didn’t have any ‘80s festivals. I’ve been to loads - they’re brilliant fun, I thought it would make the perfect fundraiser. It gives people an absolute shot of something money can’t buy: to lift you up and make you feel young again.

Forever Young 2023 will have a bigger stage, VIP, Gold and late-night areas, and more entertainment than you can shake a shamrock at. We’ll be showing the All-Ireland semi-final matches in the Big Top tent, so you won’t miss a single thing.” 

The Forever Young team are always on hand to help with any queries, adding a nice personal touch to the fun.

LINK TO TICKETS: https://foreveryoungfestival.ie/tickets/ 

A festival with a heart and a conscience, Alston is proud to partner with two important charities.

“The festival was set up to provide funds for a new animal charity, Animal Welfare and Veterinary Care Ireland, but ISPCA is our charity partner on site,” says Sharon, herself a veterinarian. “All the collections and donations on-site benefit ISPCA Ireland, but all sales profits are donated to AWVCI, a new charity providing national low-cost veterinary care as unusually in Ireland there is no national provision for this. These clinics are desperately needed. We have our first site lined up ready if we raise enough money after this year’s festival. We aim to have five hospitals across Ireland in five years.”placeholder image
“The festival was set up to provide funds for a new animal charity, Animal Welfare and Veterinary Care Ireland, but ISPCA is our charity partner on site,” says Sharon, herself a veterinarian. “All the collections and donations on-site benefit ISPCA Ireland, but all sales profits are donated to AWVCI, a new charity providing national low-cost veterinary care as unusually in Ireland there is no national provision for this. These clinics are desperately needed. We have our first site lined up ready if we raise enough money after this year’s festival. We aim to have five hospitals across Ireland in five years.”

Not only does the festival address emergency care for pets, but all single-use plastics are also fully banned from the site, meaning everything is either reused or recycled. This helps to keep the grounds immaculately clean while cutting down on material waste pollution.

Alongside outstanding tribute acts filling in the breaks between artists, the ‘Stars in their Eyes’ competition returns this year. Festival-goers submit an audition tape in the hopes of performing their karaoke classics with a live band. 

“I will not be singing! But if I did, it would be something like Alison Moyet to suit my deep voice,” Sharon grins. “The entries for Stars in Their Eyes just amazed me in 2022. It was so hard to whittle it down to the acts we had on Stage 2 over the weekend. The standard was just incredible. The chosen contestants are delighted to get up on stage and sing with a live band, for a chance to win a bumper prize. It’s what dreams are made of for some people, so it’s lovely to bring it back in 2023.”

Alston has her own links to the music industry, having been immersed in the gig scene as a teenager herself - while her dad has a connection to none other than Paul McCartney.placeholder image
Alston has her own links to the music industry, having been immersed in the gig scene as a teenager herself - while her dad has a connection to none other than Paul McCartney.

“I was quite a wild child. I went to see loads of gigs and bands while I worked as a vet nurse as a teenager,” she laughs. “My dad was a Liverpudlian. He moved to London and worked as a door-to-door salesman in insurance. He landed a good job in a company where he grew his position and his portfolio, and ended up with clients like the FA Cup and Paul McCartney!

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