Body and Soul reveal first tranche of acts for 2017

Metronomy, Vitalic, Lambchop, Sleaford Mods and Optimo20 line up for summer solstice festival takes Ballinlough Castle, Co Westmeath on June 23rd to 25th

Cillian Crosson, Aisling Crosson, Chloe Commins and Siobhan McGuire at Body and Soul in 2014. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons
Cillian Crosson, Aisling Crosson, Chloe Commins and Siobhan McGuire at Body and Soul in 2014. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons

The Body and Soul music and arts festival has announced its first round of acts for this year’s event.

Among the main acts heading to Ballinlough Castle are Metronomy, Vitalic, Lambchop, Sleaford Mods and Optimo20.

Also announced for the bill are La Femme, Songhoy Blues, Hundred Waters, Birdy Nam Nam, Tiggs Da Author, Anna Meredith, Formation, Idiotape, King Kong Company, A Tribe Called Red, Mammút, Elaine Mai, DBFC, Weval, Avalon Emerson, Mr TC, Miss Red & The Bug, Loah and Kelly-Anne Byrne.

Glasgow duo Twitch and Jonnie Wilkes are celebrating 20 years of their vibrant Glasgow club Optimo, and will curate a night in the festival's Midnight Circus tent, featuring many of the acts listed.

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This year the festival will be holding its capacity at 15,000, after several years of expansion. The festival has also introduced an over-20s age limit to the event.

Festival organiser Avril Stanley said: "Our intention when we first put on Body and Soul was we wanted to put on a festival that we wanted to go to ourselves. … To a degree we're curating towards a slightly older audience … but that's where our capacity to do something unique resides."

The festival takes place on the summer solstice weekend of June 23rd to 25th. Further acts and art events will be announced in the coming months. Tickets priced at €165 for three days including camping are now on sale from ticketbooth.eu. For full details see bodyandsoul.ie.