Lisdoonvarna LGBT weekend - how was it for you?

Sparrow_Hawk

As a poster in the previous Listoonvarna thread stated,everyone mixed very well this weekend in Lisdoon and there was a wonderful atmosphere, as is typical of the festival. In fact I thought the weekend was so good, it deserves a fresh new thread!

Firstly, I have to say I was only present for the Saturday night festivities, so I hope those who were there can provide more detailed reportings will share their experiences here.

Looking at “The Outing” site, I see the shuttle bus was €29 return from outside the George, which is great value, and very practical also. Ide imagine the atmosphere getting on that bus must have been fantastic, not having to worry about getting lost on route, driving back after a heavy weekends partying, and the general banter to be had. And yes, I am aware that such weekends involve parting with hard earned cash, and that some people do not have the money to head off for a weekend like this.

The weekend package, staying at the Hydro Hotel,which hosts all the main events + night time entertainment: double/twin/share €199 or single €239 gives u 2 nights/3 days B&B plus access to all events along with some extra goodies. And I must say there was a fantastic line up of entertainment in the Hydro for the evening, the organisers done a really really fantastic job. Brendan Courtney was there also, so I imagine they recorded a piece for TV also.

From reading posts on this tread I understand folk had images of some homophobic locals in their heads, which I do appreciate (it’s a valid and human concern), but I must say everyone was really friendly and Lisdoon was as much craic (actually even more) than it usually is in September. I say this as a semi-closeted local(ish) myself ,and hay, I met a nice girl there myself last night!

As u would expect there were some people staying in the Hydro who came to Lisdoonvarna without knowing about the LGBT weekend, so they were a bit surprised at how their weekend panned out! A guy from Tipp was telling my friend “I just came here hoping to meet a nice lady”, and when asked for his thoughts, enjoyed the entertainments and was very accepting of folk of all orientations. He didn’t have any luck with my straight friend though! Indeed there was a great photo opportunity of two old men thrown down on a couch in the bar with somewhat bewildered looks on their faces which said “what the fcuk is going on” but who didn’t have the energy to shuffle on elsewhere. I exchanged a few words with them, they were very nice guys and enjoying the spirit and atmosphere of the evening. I could tell they were categorising their evening under "world experiences" in their minds! And it just shows how rural Ireland is changing, becoming more accepting of different sexual orientations.

And folk may dismiss Lisdoonvarna is just being about a bunch of lonely middle aged country folk looking for love. I must confess I didn’t go for years as I thought along such lines, but in hindsight I realise I had bit of an attitude. Or perhaps im just getting older, also. So yes, it is about people looking to meet someone special, but don’t we all want to find love, at any and every age, and any orientation. And this, my friends, is what Lisdoonvarna has to offer. Of course if u just want to go out, enjoy the festive atmosphere, chance your luck, get sh*t faced (or not), and have a good fry-up the next morning its also the place for you.

There was a good turnout with plenty of talent and Iknow the LGBT weekend in Lisdoonvarna will be even bigger next year. Save the date in your diaries people.

And no, I have no vested interested in the festival, but if someone wants to give me money for writing this, it would be most welcome.

Seamai

Like the previous poster I too only travelled to Lisdoonvarna on Saturday. My partner and myself had booked a B & B rather than going for the official package. I have to admit that I wasn't sure what to expect, my hopes weren't very high. We've drifted a bit from the scene and our ventures out on it haven't always been very enjoyable (particularly the planned ones) but I'm must say that Saturday night was the best gay night out I had in many years.

If I had to pick fault with the event I would say that perhaps there was a bit too much emphasis on the drag element, and from what I saw not all of it was particularly good.The other one was there were some straight people there who maybe shouldn't have been, perhaps locals or other hotel residents. I'm 100% out and have no qualms about being open but it was a gay weekend and I think we could have done without the gaggles of glammed up straight drunken young women who seem to love frequenting gay venues. I also saw a situation between a straight guy and a transvestite that could have got nasty if his girlfriend hadn't dragged him away.

Now for what I liked about it. For starters there was a great mix from the LGBT community, all ages, all sorts and it was nice to see men and women mixing together and having a good time. I would imagine for anyone single, there were plenty of opportunities to hook up with someone and like the previous poster said lots of talent. I'm sure there was plenty of alcohol being consumed but I didn't see very much drunken behaviour. Obviously normal licensing hours don't apply in Lisdoonvarna during the matchmaking festival, we left at 3.15am and they were still serving. I liked being able to move between the two different areas on Saturday night both with very different music and atmospheres, though we settled in the smaller area as we liked the music better, plenty of 70's & 80's disco and dance with a really fun vibe.

It would be nice to see this becoming an annual event and maybe we could see some other towns hosting similar events, obviously plenty of people are willing to travel for a good night out. It's nice to see something a bit different outside the big cities, I'm looking forward to next year already!

Geomy

Seamai wrote: »

Like the previous ptourists too only travelled to Lisdoonvarna on Saturday. My partner and myself had booked a B & B rather than going for the official package. I have to admit that I wasn't sure what to expect, my hopes weren't very high. We've drifted a bit from the scene and our ventures out on it haven't always been very enjoyable (particularly the planned ones) but I'm must say that Saturday night was the best gay night out I had in many years.

If I had to pick fault with the event I would say that perhaps there was a bit too much emphasis on the drag element, and from what I saw not all of it was particularly good.The other one was there were some straight people there who maybe shouldn't have been, perhaps locals or other hotel residents. I'm 100% out and have no qualms about being open but it was a gay weekend and I think we could have done without the gaggles of glammed up straight drunken young women who seem to love frequenting gay venues. I also saw a situation between a straight guy and a transvestite that could have got nasty if his girlfriend hadn't dragged him away.

Now for what I liked about it. For starters there was a great mix from the LGBT community, all ages, all sorts and it was nice to see men and women mixing together and having a good time. I would imagine for anyone single, there were plenty of opportunities to hook up with someone and like the previous poster said lots of talent. I'm sure there was plenty of alcohol being consumed but I didn't see very much drunken behaviour. Obviously normal licensing hours don't apply in Lisdoonvarna during the matchmaking festival, we left at 3.15am and they were still serving. I liked being able to move between the two different areas on Saturday night both with very different music and atmospheres, though we settled in the smaller area as we liked the music better, plenty of 70's & 80's disco and dance with a really fun vibe.

It would be nice to see this becoming an annual event and maybe we could see some other towns hosting similar events, obviously plenty of people are willing to travel for a good night out. It's nice to see something a bit different outside the big cities, I'm looking forward to next year already!

Straight people are entitled to be there too, less of the locals and straight hotel residents shouldn't have been there. ..

It's all about inclusion, were the locals and we opened our arms to ye,we're more entitled to be there than you it's our home you're the visitors. ...

Seamai

Geomy wrote: »

Straight people are entitled to be there too, less of the locals and straight hotel residents shouldn't have been there. ..

It's all about inclusion, were the locals and we opened our arms to ye,we're more entitled to be there than you it's our home you're the visitors. ...

My apologies, maybe I phrased myself wrong, I think everyone had a great weekend and we were made feel very welcome. I wasn't taking a swipe at the locals, I'm all for inclusion and I'm only speaking for myself but when I say this but there are some straight people who come for a "gawk at the freaks" and I have a bit of an issue with gangs of drunken young straight women who can sometimes take over gay venues. You must appreciate that gay people live in world where we are bombarded with straightness at every turn. I do 90% of my socialising in what would be termed straight venues. I'm fortunate that I've long since got over any hangups I have about people knowing that I'm gay, but not everyone has come that far on their journey and deserve to have access to places where they don't feel intimidated. The matchmaking Festival goes on for over a months and the gay part of it was 2 nights. Of course straight people should be welcome but just remember that's the Hydro Hotel was gay space for a just a short while so straight "guests" need to be respect that.

Thanks , and I hope to be back next year.

Geomy

Seamai wrote: »

My apologies, maybe I phrased myself wrong, I think everyone had a great weekend and we were made feel very welcome. I wasn't taking a swipe at the locals, I'm all for inclusion and I'm only speaking for myself but when I say this but there are some straight people who come for a "gawk at the freaks" and I have a bit of an issue with gangs of drunken young straight women who can sometimes take over gay venues. You must appreciate that gay people live in world where we are bombarded with straightness at every turn. I do 90% of my socialising in what would be termed straight venues. I'm fortunate that I've long since got over any hangups I have about people knowing that I'm gay, but not everyone has come that far on their journey and deserve to have access to places where they don't feel intimidated. The matchmaking Festival goes on for over a months and the gay part of it was 2 nights. Of course straight people should be welcome but just remember that's the Hydro Hotel was gay space for a just a short while so straight "guests" need to be respect that.

Thanks , and I hope to be back next year.

No bother, im glad you enjoyed it, I met a lovely transgender lady there, and enjoyed the company, could have sat with her for hours, and felt a connection. ...
FYI a lot of those so called straight women are the local fag hags ;-)

rainbowdrop

What was the age range there? Lisdoonvarna kinda has a rep for 'older' folk (45+). Was it for older members of the LGBTQ community, or younger people too? Like, I'm 35, would I be average age down there? Female btw

Seamai

There was a fairly wide age span there, there didn't seem to be to many really young there, I'd say an even spread between mid 20's to 60's, something for everyone and no shortage of talent

mackD

I'm pretty sad I missed this now....oh well, always next year!

whupdedo

Any of ye heading to the lgbt weekend in lisdoonvarna in 2 weeks time, seems to be a lot of interest from talking to the local hoteliers yesterday (sorry, old thread bumped:))

Seamai

I'm heading up there on the Friday for 2 nights. I've been looking at the official website and an surprised to see that there is still no programme with times. I'd like to see Brian Kennedy but don't know when he's on (last year details were available at a much earlier stage). I hope it's as good as last year though the club nights advertised (Daddi, Euphoria & Tease) aren't grabbing me. Last year Conor Behan played in what I think was the function room and that was a really great night with fantastic music. I see Jonny Woo is back this year, I wonder was I the only person last year who wondered what all the fuss was about? I've seen much better drag acts over the years.

Lmklad

I'll be there (working) say hello!

Seamai

I've been keeping an eye on The Outing's website and facebook page for the last few months and they only put the schedule up yesterday(3 days before the event). I'm disappointed to see that Brian Kennedy is on the Sunday night (I'm going Friday & Saturday) I'm sure many people will be heading home on Sunday and the place will be in wind down mode. Last last night when I looked again at the site I saw that the 2 Bear nights seem to have been cancelled which is pretty annoying for people who bought tickets with that in mind (earlier yesterday it said that they were on in Meg Maguires Pub). Perhaps the organisers should spend more time on planning this years event than patting themselves on the back for last years. Something tells me this year is going to be a disappointment.

Daith

Yup. Was thinking of going to this but lack of schedule was annoying. Pity.

Seamai

I've been keeping an eye on The Outing's website and facebook page for the last few months and they only put the schedule up yesterday(3 days before the event). I'm disappointed to see that Brian Kennedy is on the Sunday night (I'm going Friday & Saturday) I'm sure many people will be heading home on Sunday and the place will be in wind down mode. Last night when I looked again at the site I saw that the 2 Bear nights seem to have been cancelled which is pretty annoying for people who bought tickets with that in mind (earlier yesterday it said that they were on in Meg Maguires Pub). Perhaps the organisers should spend more time on planning this years event than patting themselves on the back for last years. Something tells me this year is going to be a disappointment.

Seamai

I'm back from Lisdoonvarna, I know that I'm going to come across as an awful old crank but I didn't think it was anywhere near as much fun a last year. For a start there where schedule issues, (which I mentioned already, the release od details 3 days before the event was not good enough), many of the events seemed to start late or were shortened or in some cases didn't happen at all. The comedy I saw wasn't great, neither was the traditional music (more like ballad sessions put on for tourists), however the biggest disappointment for me was the lack of variety when it came to dance music, to be honest it was rubbish, OK, I'm what most people would term middle aged and maybe my tastes are a bit dated, but last year, Conor Behan's night of mainly 70's & 80's disco went down a storm. You can keep Euphoria and there "sexy Brazilian dancers" and Jonny Woo (he'll never fill Panti's stilettos, I don't care what his CV says, he's only an amateur in my books). On a slightly different front, finding a decent place to eat in Lisdoonvarna was a bit of an issue, Sheedy's and the Wild Honey Inn were both closed, the former probably for seasonal reasons the latter because of a staff wedding, we had to get in the car and drive to Ballyvaughan the Friday night and Lehinch on Saturday night, now it wasn't the end of the world we had a car but for those that took the bus there were scant pickings.

hotmail.com

Seamai wrote: »

I'm back from Lisdoonvarna, I know that I'm going to come across as an awful old crank but I didn't think it was anywhere near as much fun a last year. For a start there where schedule issues, (which I mentioned already, the release od details 3 days before the event was not good enough), many of the events seemed to start late or were shortened or in some cases didn't happen at all. The comedy I saw wasn't great, neither was the traditional music (more like ballad sessions put on for tourists), however the biggest disappointment for me was the lack of variety when it came to dance music, to be honest it was rubbish, OK, I'm what most people would term middle aged and maybe my tastes are a bit dated, but last year, Conor Behan's night of mainly 70's & 80's disco went down a storm. You can keep Euphoria and there "sexy Brazilian dancers" and Jonny Woo (he'll never fill Panti's stilettos, I don't care what his CV says, he's only an amateur in my books). On a slightly different front, finding a decent place to eat in Lisdoonvarna was a bit of an issue, Sheedy's and the Wild Honey Inn were both closed, the former probably for seasonal reasons the latter because of a staff wedding, we had to get in the car and drive to Ballyvaughan the Friday night and Lehinch on Saturday night, now it wasn't the end of the world we had a car but for those that took the bus there were scant pickings.

Be nice if they moved around the location every year. I was put off by the location, having been there a few years ago and knowing there's very little in the village. No car and you're pretty much stranded.

Seamai

hotmail.com wrote: »

Be nice if they moved around the location every year. I was put off by the location, having been there a few years ago and knowing there's very little in the village. No car and you're pretty much stranded.

I was thinking the same thing but as it's tied in with the matchmaking festival I can't see that happening. On a more positive note any local I came into contact with very welcoming. I overheard a conversation between a man in his 80's and a girl behind a shop counter. She told him that she saw two drag queens in pink dresses on the main street. His response was "good luck to them" that made me smile and put me in a good mood.

whupdedo

Ya I can't see it being moved because it's the owner that's organising it, hopefully it will be an annual event and that they learned a lot from the last couple of years, it seemed tackier than last year, it might be still trying to find its niche, and hopefully it will take off and become a success

Seamai

Last year I was asked to fill in an online questionnaire after the event, I hope I get the opportunity to do the same this year because I've quite a few points to make. It was definitely a bit tackier this year. I noticed on the printed schedules some of the music events in other pubs up the town had nothing to do with The Outing itself, on the Friday night we were getting bored with the DJ in the Hydro so ventured down to the Roadside Inn as there was supposed to be a session down there but when we got down there was nothing going on. I'd still like to know why DADDI was cancelled only a few days before the event. The pub it was supposed to be taking place in (Meg Maguire's) was closed for the weekend. I'd also question the wisdom of moving it to the end of the festival (it might have something to do with the Limerick and Galway Pride events around that time) as some of the restaurants had already closed for the season, do they thing us queers don't eat? Sheedy's was opened the previous week. I had a run in with the owner of the Wild Honey Inn (we were supposed to stay there) who cancelled my booking a week before the event as they were going to be closed for a staff wedding (a short sighted move on their part, they could have made quite a killing between the restaurant and the guesthouse). I've never come across such rudeness. I don't have much faith in hotel restaurants and I don't think that a chip van in the car park is really going to cut the mustard.

Tribal Wardfare

Apparently, Lisdoonvarna cancelled DADDI two days before due to the venue being flooded. I know that it was on the DADDi Facebook page but I don't know that Lisdoonvarna updated their site.

Seamai

I was talking to a friend last night who was unable to go to Lisdoon for the weekend, a friend of his who went (I don't know him) said that he left early on Saturday night because the place was "full of fat, bald old guys" (this guy is 29). I've always know that ageism exists on the gay scene and while I'm neither fat nor bald, I'm not in the first flush of youth. I've been negative in most of my post's above but one of the things I liked about the weekend was that the age profile wasn't too young. (I'd say the average age there was somewhere in the mid 40's), which make a change from places that are over run with skinny, camp twinks. Just remember guys and girls, if your spared you'll be old yourself someday, life doesn't stop at 30 or 40.

LegacyUser

I was in lisdoonvarna at the weekend for the LGBT matchmaking festival. This is the first time I have ever done anything like this before and what made it even more nerve racking is that I went on my own. I have to say I got a very warm welcome from the hotel staff and the outing team and was well looked after till the minute I left.

The weekend was full of great entertainment which I really enjoyed and got evolved in as much as I could. I never thought that on the Sunday evening that I'd be sitting drinking with Catherine Lynch who was great craic.

There was a great mix of people of all ages which was great. I unfortunately didn't find love but I did make sum amazing new friends.

I have to say that the whole weekend was very reasonably priced for the current financial situation and I can't wait to book again for next year.

Thanks once again to all the people at the outing and the hydro hotel. ðŸ˜႒ 👠x

Use your vote

Seamai wrote: »

I'm back from Lisdoonvarna, I know that I'm going to come across as an awful old crank but I didn't think it was anywhere near as much fun a last year. For a start there where schedule issues, (which I mentioned already, the release od details 3 days before the event was not good enough), many of the events seemed to start late or were shortened or in some cases didn't happen at all. The comedy I saw wasn't great, neither was the traditional music (more like ballad sessions put on for tourists), however the biggest disappointment for me was the lack of variety when it came to dance music, to be honest it was rubbish, OK, I'm what most people would term middle aged and maybe my tastes are a bit dated, but last year, Conor Behan's night of mainly 70's & 80's disco went down a storm. You can keep Euphoria and there "sexy Brazilian dancers" and Jonny Woo (he'll never fill Panti's stilettos, I don't care what his CV says, he's only an amateur in my books). On a slightly different front, finding a decent place to eat in Lisdoonvarna was a bit of an issue, Sheedy's and the Wild Honey Inn were both closed, the former probably for seasonal reasons the latter because of a staff wedding, we had to get in the car and drive to Ballyvaughan the Friday night and Lehinch on Saturday night, now it wasn't the end of the world we had a car but for those that took the bus there were scant pickings.

I attended the Outing at the beginning of October and I'd like to give some feedback here also.

First thing is that there is nothing (and I mean N O T H I N G) in Lisdoonvarna. There's a Spar and a Centra and not much else!

It's an awkward location to get to, especially by public transport. It's an expensive weekend package for accommodation and festival events. The Hydro Hotel, while pleasant and has some good points certainly wouldn't set the world alight.

The festival schedule only came out a day or two beforehand. Am I right in saying you needed a smartphone to read the website? The actual printed schedule wasn't particularly clear either.

On the plus side there was a great range of ages and a good mix of guys and gals. Nobody would feel out of place there. Zrazy did a great gig on the Friday night (You Tube their song "You make me happy").

A 70s/80s disco would be mega! I heard "contemporary updates" of Michael Jackson and George Michael songs played in Club Euphoria - you can't beat the old ones!

Overall the Outing weekend lacked something. In my view it needs much more work and thought and much sharper, smarter scheduling.

And have it anywhere other than Lisdoonvarna!