On 14.07.2024 the time had come: our first show in Bulgaria at Midalidare Rock in the Wine Valley.
And right at a festival with Deep Purple as the headliner.
In this interview, you can find out how the show went.
The Midalidare Rock Festival was your first time in Bulgaria.
How was it?
Ian McFlannigan: It was an incredible experience.
We’d already played the two nights before and had a difficult but pretty awesome gig at Shamrock Castle with our friends from Fiddler’s Green due to a power cut.
We then flew to Bulgaria full of anticipation.
But we didn’t really know what to expect.
And then there was this incredible show.
What does that mean exactly?
The view into the audience from the drum kit.
Jones Murphy: It started with the venue.
The Midalidare is a winery and we played at sunset with a view of the vineyards.
It was an incredibly beautiful sight.
And at the show, the crowd gave us such a friendly and simply frenetic welcome.
We don’t really know if many people knew us.
But after the show, everyone knew us (laughs).
Á propos after the show: you went into the audience as usual to have a chat, take photos and sign autographs.
We didn’t think anything of it.
We’ve always done it that way (laughs).
But then the security somehow got a bit breathless and then we realized that they were really stressed because so many people wanted autographs and photos with us.
What’s normal for us doesn’t seem to be normal in general.
But the audience was incredibly warm and simply in a good mood.
There was absolutely no reason for the security to have their pulse racing.
The headliners at Midalidare Rock were Deep Purple.
You have to let that melt in your mouth, don’t you?
I mean, to be honest, most of the songs that night were written when I wasn’t even scheduled to play.
But when you consider that the band has a history of over 50 years and has played with almost the original line-up, you know what legends we’ve shared the stage with.
Certainly a highlight in our band history.
© 2024 Midalidare Estate.
Deep Purple and other bands such as Beast in Black are not necessarily typical Irish folk punk bands.
Here is the exotic question for you.
What is it like to be a genre exotic at a festival like this?
But we realized that even the toughest metal audience can use a bit of party atmosphere.
A breath of fresh air for the ears, so to speak (laughs).
And Midalidare proved that metal and rock can work perfectly with Irish folk punk.
From our point of view, it was a perfect festival line-up.
© 2024 Midalidare Estate.
Did you get to see anything of the country?
But those are just impressions.
There was a traffic jam on the way back to the hotel and then we just opened the doors of the vans and chatted with the festival audience.
You get a bit more of the mentality and temperament of the country.
That sounds a lot like you haven’t been to Bulgaria for the last time?
In what form and, above all, when, we can’t say yet.
But we are working on it (winks his eye).
