The Night and Day music festival unveiled its new Sol stage during the last weekend of June, quickly racking up hundreds of thousands of views and praise from around the world.
The Moylurg Tower in Lough Key Forest Park outside Boyle, sits on the site where the old Rockingham House stood before it burnt to the ground in 1957.
In 1973 as experimental architecture was in vogue a brutalist tower with a view point overlooking Lough Key was built in its place.
It was routinely featured in lists of Ireland’s ugliest buildings, but as it is a listed building it can’t be knocked.
During the Night and Day music festival, the tower was transformed into a dynamic, immersive art installation.
To see the tower’s transformation in action, watch the video here.
The festival organisers had planned to have DJs playing in the tower at this year’s festival, but a chance meeting with Ukrainian visual artist Sergey Khadjava and Night and Day Festival Director Brendan Hurley led to a jaw dropping collaboration.
The pair worked together on the Longford Lights festival together when the seeds were sown to unleash Sergey’s artistic powers on the tower.
Live visual animation was projected across every inch of the tower, which was mapped in detail advance, that was synced with the music transforming the Moylurg Tower into a trademark music stage throughout the three nights of the festival.
DJ Efa O’Neill, who played the tower on Friday night, has described it as ‘the best festival stage in Ireland’.
Other acts to play the tower in its inaugural year were Daithi, Nialler9, Mathman and Mark Wolfson.
In order to get to the platform where they perform from the DJs must first make their way through the old servants tunnels via the sunken garden before making their way up the tower. The servants tunnels were initially built to allow the servants of the Rockingham House to access and depart the building underground.
Night and Day co-founder Craig Hughes said: “We were really excited about the collaboration and how it was going to look. We knew it was going to be special, but nothing could have prepared us for what Sergey unleashed on the tower. It was breath taking. It is the start of a long and beautiful collaboration. I’ve already had lots of electronic acts getting in touch wanting to play the stage next year.
“The reaction has been crazy. Apart from the hundreds of thousands of views online, I’ve had local ladies in their 70s talking to me about it.
A series of “sunken garden sessions” will be released on the Night and Day YouTube channel and hosted on music blogger and DJ Nialler9’s website showing some full-length performances from the tower.
A limited amount of super-early bird tickets for next year’s Night and Day festival, which takes place on the earlier date of 29-31 May in 2026, are on sale now.
The festival is proudly supported by Roscommon County Council and Coillte
