music to wrap your ears around

 

 

Our Fancy Pants men of music have been getting their sounds out and about online and we want to make sure you get an earful to get you in the pre-party dancing mood.  

Donal Dineen has a stellar 3 hour DJ mix from a Christmas gig for the super Lower State lads in Galway up online for you to wrap your ears about right here.  Course Christmas was a while ago so if you want to get a more up to date sense of what he;s spinning these days just listen in to Today FM from 12-2am Mon- thursday or check out the playlists on the website.

In the live corner we have Neosupervital who is getting an album ready to drop later this year, and a single to come first in the summer, but has still found time to stick up some new demo tracks for you to dance about to on his myspace. Go here and have a listen to Do What you Feel for starters.

So we have tunes, and we have bright evenings, and soon we will have a party. Huzah!

Ace Release Party DJ for fancy pants

You might remember a little while ago we flagged up a brilliant new gig night from The Release Party that happens in Limerick, Galway and Dublin and seems to be made of exactly the same stuff we are: dancing, laughing, partying, kissing, chatting and having fun – doom and gloom aside. Well we are delighted to announce that Release Party founder David O’Donovan will be DJ-ing his ass off for us in the castle on May 2nd.  

David is behind countless other groovy things in Limerick and beyond and knows his music Nigella Lawson knows cakes- intimately and with great gusto. He’s been bringing the Release Party joy all over the country this year as the testimonials on their fb page bear out, and he now he’ll be bringing the Release vibe to Sligo. Expect music designed to get you on the dance floor, get you smiling and keep you there.

David will be joining Donal Dineen and Neosupervital on the roster of Fancy-Pants-Music-Men-Designed-to-get-you-Dancing.  See our tunes talent post for more info.

the release party

 

We just want to big up The Release Party and bring it to your attention. This was started by some brilliant heads in Limerick that we know to be the purveyors of totally cool and fun independent things. The Release Party, much like ourselves, are about sticking it to the recession and having a good time with good people and great music and little else. Sounds like just the thing.

So if you’re in Dublin, Limerick or Galway do yourself a favour and head along. They sound like wicked nights, and perfect for Fancy Pants heads.

tunes talent

This year we are taking a feather out of the caps of Lykki Li and Lady GaGa (and their imploring of us to get our respective grooves on ) when it comes to designing your fancy tunes.  In times like these the best remedy of all is to get those feet moving, heads tapping and body shaking – in the good way – and think of little else.

Donal Dineen did such a stellar job of keeping us on our feet till dawn last year, that we have to have him back. We want the night to go on into the wee hours and then on some more into the dawn hours, and he’s unquestionably the best man for the job.  More funky tunes a promise.

If you want to catch a slice of Dineen action before May you can listen in to his Today FM show at midnight Mon- Thu (or is that technically Tue- Fri?) or his new monthly residency at Odessa Club which kicked off Sunday March 1st with the stunning R.S.A.G.

Joining Donal on the decks will be the very brilliant David O’Donovan. Now Dave is a man that knows his music like no other, and music to dance to is his speciality.  He’s part of the 8ball team in Limerick who are behind all sorts of brilliant things- the most recent being The Release Party which brings a brilliant night out to Limerick, Galway and Dublin. see our post for more info>  

Course first you need some stomping live tunes to get your groove on to after dinner, and we’ve lined up another tip top irish live act for you this year in the electro pop shape of Neosupervital.  Superlative purveyor of neosuperpop for the purpose of dancing, and other related activities, mr. vital has a debut album under his belt and a new one in the offing.  Most recently heard as the soundtrack to the super sexy kitchen drama Raw (with archive tune Back to What) more sexy songs can be heard on the NSV myspace HQ.  Having won over The Human League crowds as their support last year we have no doubt the Fancy Pants crowd will be a neosuperdoddle.

Sunday brunch?

So we’ve sorted it with the  Castle that we can also have exclusive access on Sunday 3rd May for a sort of Fancy come down. It’s just so hard to let go and the weekend is a long one with a Bank Holiday on the Monday so I’m thinking why the hell not.

I’m picturing someone hopping on the decks through Brunch with chill out tunes to ease the heads, trays of Bloody Mary’s, a big screen for marathon sessions of Flight of the Concords or archery and croquet outdoors for the adventurous. If it is as beautiful and sunny as last year then a picnic on the lawn or a BBQ on the Home Farm is definitely the way to go.  All us fancy organisers will definitely be there for day 2, so if you want to join us just let us know and we’ll big up the plans some more.

Cheap Fancy beds

Want to sleep in a Castle? Course you do so we’ve worked out some super cheap rates for this year…just €55 per person, per night B&B! so that means that you could stay in Markree for 2 nights + pay for Fancy Pants dinner/party for just €210. Or stay for the one night for about €155 all in! 

Prices are per person, not per room, and better yet- Brekkie on Sunday will run on till 12.30pm to cope with hangover heads. We pointed out that if we go to bed at 6am then breakfast at 12 seems utterly reasonable.

We also have exclusive use of the Castle for Sat & Sunday night so if you want to make a weekend of it please do, and do let us know if you do as we’re up for organising a few tunes for brunch, or live music, or croquet and afternoon tea or bloody mary’s and a Flight of the Concords marathon or whatever.  If there are enough bods about we’ll make it happen.

If the Castle is sold out, or if you’re more modern than gothic then check out the Homefarm which looks entirely more urban than farm.  Self catering 1-3 bed apartments 5 mins walk across the estate from the Castle Doors and special rates on averagae of €50 per person per night….plus we’ve arranged for you to get your brekkie at the Castle too as an added bonus.

For full rates and contacts see our accommodation page, or if you want to stay off the estate you’ll find other options on that page too.

Markee have asked us to point out that these are just for Fancy Pants and are significantly reduced (as you’ll know if you stayed there last year) from the rack rates.

fancy pants party manifesto

*Fancy Pants Castle Party will be back to rock the castle once again on Sat 2nd May 2009*

We’re back. And just in the nick of time. 

For a disgraceful second or two we wondered if the Fancy Pants Castle Party would ride again. We were suffering from a dose of the “doom and glooms” and wondered if it was appropriate, if people would come out, if it was expensive, if people could afford it, if it was responsible to be partying in a castle even. 

When the word responsible crept in that’s when we realised the politicians were starting to get to us and it has to stop…the politicians, the journalists, the bankers and every other grey suit on doom and gloom overdrive. Enough. We are bright young things with brains in our heads and we will be just fine thanks. We work our asses off and we deserve to party, so party we will. 

Last year we started up the Fancy Pants Castle Party as a way to have a good ole shindig that focused on the good things in life: great people, great music, great food and great fun in great looking threads. There were no diamonds, no foie gras, no champers, just fancy folk getting their groove on. And get our groove on we did. There was dancing till dawn, set ups, make ups and marriage proposals (well, A marriage proposal). The weather was cracking and the crowd was hands down the most fun folk I’ve met in an age. So screw the grey suits, we’re going again.

Fancy Pants Castle Party ’09 will be over the May Bank holiday weekend once again on Saturday 2nd May. We’re finalising all the usual details but you can rest assured it will be as fun, if not more so, than last year.

We do recognise that it might be a bit tougher on the pocket this year so here’s the deal. We will do our best to keep the costs as low as possible once again and to flog every last ticket we can. We still want the proceeds to go the irish cancer society and we hope we’ll raise €6.5K again, but we recognise we might not and that’s okay- every little helps these days. 

So we’re handing the reins over to you a bit. Last year the tickets were 110e per person. This year we’re giving a price guide and you can give what you can over that. Tickets range from €90-110. Anything over the 90e that you pay goes directly to the charity so you can figure out what you can afford. If you want to pay in a few instalments that’s cool too- once you get your deposit in quick smart – we need to know an idea of numbers by April 1st to know if this thing will fly.

It does mean we’ll be pimping the raffle a bit harder this year though, so any leads on great prizes please send them our way. 

But most of all – just come. We want to make this an annual thing to kick off the summer. Tell your friends- but only the great ones- and let’s get fancy all over again.