Temple House Music Festival is an ideal festival for families

Undoubtedly, Lisa Hannigan has a beautiful voice; though it has a fragility and timidity to it that can sometimes be overpowered by an over-complicated arrangement or an overbearing chord. For a voice like Hannigan's to be truly appreciated it needs to be set against a subtle accompaniment. Unfortunately, through fault of the arrangement or sound levels I sometimes found it difficult to fully appreciate the nuances in her singing. Despite my minor gripe, I still really enjoyed the performance and in particular her performance of 'I Don't Know'. Hannigan has such a relaxed presence when she performs but she tends to communicate with the audience in a shy, almost reserved way, never really engaging intimately with the crowd. However, this adds to her unique and innocent charisma on stage and renders her all the more sincere for not engaging in superficial banter between songs.

Another highlight from Sunday was hearing the latter part of Jamie Lawson's set. Admittedly, I stumbled across Lawson quite accidentally (I was thwarted on my way to acquire a beverage by his beguiling voice) but two songs stood out in particular 'A Darkness', which momentarily broke down into Rihanna's 'Umbrella', and 'Wasn't Expecting That', a beautifully haunting song with a catchy melody.

Overall, I thought the festival was a success and when asked upon leaving would I attend again I found myself reflexively thinking yes. Because of its size it does seem like quite an ideal festival for families and the organisers have obviously made an effort to incorporate this into the layout and activities available. I would certainly love to take my daughter next year.

Undoubtedly though, a greater investment in marketing and a more prominent line-up would bode well for future years. Aside from that, Temple House Music Festival has all the ingredients needed to be a great success and seems to be ploughing in the right direction.

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