Could I get some feed back from people on all ages gigs. Everyone knows that the people who are really into music are kids aged 12 and upwards and until they discover beer music is all that interests them really and later in their teens then girls/boys come into the equation. Therefore do people think that all ages gigs are a good idea and could they take off in Ballymahon. It's an excuse to hang out/flirt with the opposite sex. For those interested in music it's an opportunity to see bands they hear about but never get to see live etc. I've wanted to do all ages gigs in Ballymahon for yonks but never had the venue really. I always thought there'd be a problem with the licence etc for Paddy's but when I asked him he said it was cool. So I plan to put on some all ages gigs in Paddys on Saturday afternoons between about 1 and 6 and hope to get people from Athlone, Longford and Mullingar and futher if possible to come. Does anyone think that this wouldn't work? I could see it taking a hell of a lot of promotion and reassuring to parents that it'd be well supervised and stuff but could we get a lot of the 16 and 17 year olds who don't go out regularly to attend. Would you attend? If the bands were good enough or because you knew the bands or would you just go anyway? The Dean Crowe Theatre in Athlone is used for all ages gigs and it is well attended so I can't see why we couldn't do the same. Mix enough local bands with touring bands and advertise it well, run buses etc. What do you think? Please let me know your thoughts.

it would be a good idea but it might be hard for parents to let their kids into a pub.....it has potential

i think itd be a cool idea,i agree with the whole parent thing though,alot off people might not be let go cos the idea off bein in a pub all day can turn theirm parents of,but i can definatly think of alot of people who would go and itd give them a chance to let their bands be heard, and not only that but they'd go anyway just to listen to some music or support their mates.
but yeh this idea has alot of potential,id be up for it
now lets smile at all that jazz!

I think that as the others have said it has potential but there is plenty of room for improvement. First of all i think you should look past Paddies as a suitable venue i know for a fact that many people aren't allowed near the place because of drug suspicions and the darkness of the pub itself. I think that the old library(Dean Egan) should be looked into. Insurance may be difficult to obtain but it would be the best venue in the town and no parents could find any problems with it.
I have another suggestion for No Ego. During the festival many 16/17 year olds cant get into the pubs to see the bands because of bouncers. I think that an underage gig should be organised(maybe even aided by the festival commitee) for the thursday or friday night(because Witnness is on saturday/sunday).This gig could even be staged outside as a stage surely wouldn't be difficult to set up in the football pitch or somewhere.
Those are my ideas anyway im positive the festival idea would be a huge success and there would be a decent crowd too cause of the amount of young people in town.

itll give the little fuckers a chance for their first beer dude go ahead wit it! the young ones will be easy pickins!!!!!!!!!!

I was chattin to my sister (she's 12) and owl bewer earlier and they confirmed a lot of my doubts about such a plan.
I could see a lot of problems getting a license to have it in Dean Egan.
I'm presuming you'd have to get a license. The soccer club had a disco thing there and that seemed pretty successful, but that's very different, parents know who's involved in that (maybe not personally, but they know that Joe Fahy and Colm Ledwith have kids so they will have some cop on) whereas most of them won't know a lot of the people involved in organising this (unless you get someone older involved)

-Or maybe you could do it as a fundraiser for something like the soccer club. That might work. They'd keep the money, organise it and you'd sort out some quality bands (and they'd have to be very high quality, kids are picky)

There's no way whatsover that parents would let kids into two paddocks because of all the junkies in there.

You'd be suprised just how disinterested people are in music. I'm afraid I would not be confident that a lot of young people would go. You say, that they hear about bands and never get to see them, but I don't know if they do hear of them. They hear of Busted, they hear of Girls Aloud, they don't hear of Skytraffic and Dummy Kid. Why would they?
They're not going to be going to see them, they don't have a cd knockin around and certainly won't be heard on the radio.

I know this seems critical but that's what I reckon.