Jim Carroll on music

The seasonal exodus is under way. This morning, a couple of thousand Irish music fans are waking up in Barcelona after the first night of the Primavera music festival.

Between now and the end of the summer, the same scene will be repeated at other European festivals, from Glastonbury to EXIT, as Irish fans go abroad in their droves to get their festival kicks.

Of course, the number of Irish fans heading abroad is small enough compared with those who will attend Oxegen and Electric Picnic. The 65,000 people who were in Punchestown last July have not decided en masse to do Benicassim instead this year.

However, there is no doubt that festival tourism makes a dent in the size of the audience for domestic events. In a time when sold-out festivals and gigs are a thing of the past, any slippage in numbers must be viewed by promoters as a cause for concern.

So why are Irish music fans heading abroad? After all, when you factor in travel and accommodation costs, there’s not much in the way of savings to be made by going foreign. It’s not like shopping at Aldi or Lidl.

But the appeal of a foreign festival is about more than just cash. A festival such as Primavera offers a bill of acts you will never get in Ireland, because the demand for those acts is just not there to justify the same booking policy.

If you want to see Pavement, Broken Social Scene, Liquid Liquid, Thee Oh Sees, Sleigh Bells, No Age, Moderat, Les Savy Fav, Diplo and Harlem on the same bill, you really have to pack your bags for Catalonia.