Forever Young Festival - it’s the time of your life!!

placeholder image — Forever Young Festival - it’s the time of your life!!

In its third year, the fastest-growing festival in Ireland is back with a bang. Taking place at Kildare's Palmerstown House Estate, the Forever Young Festival in 2023 will showcase some of the most legendary artists of the 1980s. Enjoy a three-day trip back in time and relive your youth! A mouth-watering line-up featuring Andy Bell of Erasure, Bananarama and Squeeze is set to headline the festival.

It is a weekend-long celebration of original music featuring over 30 iconic bands from the late '70s to the early '90s. Over the weekend, folks bring their camping chairs, reunite their old gangs, and feel forever young. There are many other artists to look forward to this year as well, including Billy Ocean, ABC, Tony Hadley, Go West, Soul II Soul, etc. With most of these artists celebrating 4 decades or more in the business, they 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 smiles, speaking 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: already Forever Young

sets out to retain its ‘Best Line up in Ireland’ status featuring: –

Erasure’s Andy Bell | Bananarama | Squeeze | 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

This is a high-end adult party weekend like no other... An unforgettable musical experience. This mixtape weekend will give colleagues, buddies, and family a chance to get nostalgic, put on leg warmers, skirts, shoulder pads, and mirrored aviator shades, and relive the 80s. At the main arena entrance, a DeLorean and Knight Rider 'Kit' car welcome you to this time machine.

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’ & ‘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’.

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.”