The family-friendly boutique festival eschews international acts this year with the budget going on the biggest and best live acts in the country. The Riptide Movement will headline The Volkswagen Main Stage on Saturday 3rd June.  Having blown the Irish music scene wide open in 2014 with their number one, gold-selling album Getting Through, a string of Top 10 singles and various sold-out headline tours, the four-piece's new single ‘Changeling’ from their Top 5 charting album Ghosts, is out now.

Following on from last year's scorcher of a weekend, the line-up also includes Choice Music Prize nominees Overhead, The Albatross, the exceptional Dublin folk four-piece Lankum (formerly Lynched), and the inimitable Kíla – due to release a new live album on St. Patrick’s Day.

The quality of the line-up doesn't end there though, with alternative legends The Pale joining the fray. Heavy rock fans will have planty to sate their appetites with New Secret Weapon , Vulpynes, and Mindriot on the card, while Musos’ Guide favourites Hvmmingbyrd and Mongrel State show the diversity of the bill.

Vantastival 2017 will take place on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th June at Beaulieu House & Gardens, Drogheda.  Other attractions will include The Volkswagen Campervan Cook-off, open mic sessions, art installations, storytelling, festival traders, a host of children’s activities and much more.  Vantastival has something for everyone, with or without a campervan! Weekend tickets are on sale now at €85 + booking fee for two nights camping. Day Tickets Cost €40.

Full first wave announcement:

The Riptide Movement, Kíla Overhead, The Albatross, Lankum (Lynched), The Pale, Corner Boy, New Secret Weapon, Cat Dowling, Orchid Collective,  Mindriot, Heroes In Hiding, Wob!, Wolff, Hvmmingbyrd, Mongrel State, Mark Geary, Vulpynes, Navá, 5th Element & Doublescreen, Elmore, Blaming Hannah, Dioscó Na Mbó, More Than Machines, Dahlia   Lōwli, Sub Motion, Vinci, Frankenstein Bolts, Graham Sweeney, Emma Lou & The Agenda, The Pox Men, Cranky Face, Sonnets & Sisters, Amoon, The Lost Gecko & Suso Youth Choir.

Photos: Kaye Kim

It's culture night in Dublin. Free events spanning high and low culture are happening all over the city but in the Button Factory there is a different type of cultural celebration unfolding. Five diverse alt-rock bands in one beer-soaked room. By the time New Secret Weapon take the stage support acts Travis Oaks and Vernon Jane have set the bar pretty high. Their warm up is loud and dissonant and, after a few last minute tweaks, they kick off right on time.

New Secret Weapon are a three piece rock band in the mould of Biffy Clyro but with the approach of Queens Of The Stone Age. An instrumental opener builds to a crescendo and the banging of the heads begins. Unusual rhythms and time signature changes make the music unpredictable and exciting. It's the sound of a band that have read the rock rulebook, then decided that it wasn't enough and have started writing their own.

It took seven years and a crowd funding campaign for New Secret Weapon's debut album to appear but after attending a Steve Albini masterclass in February they are talking about album number two only a year later. You can tell that they are sound engineers from the constant commands to the sound desk. Precise commands too, regarding particular tones.

They obviously know exactly what they should sound like and they really do achieve an individual sound. It has the kind of bass you feel in your teeth as it sets them rattling in your jaw, lightning fast downstrokes on the guitar, and a propulsive rhythm section that alternately grooves and confounds. New Secret Weapon are not afraid to rock out either amid the creative playing and original sounds.

At one point Griff's mic comes loose mid- song and starts pointing towards the floor. He follows it without missing a beat, contorting his body around his guitar. A fan clambers on to the barrier and fixes it back in place. It's a diverse crowd of hairy rockers, hip indie kids, and a tall man who has modelled his look on Nicolas Cages 'H.I. McDunnough' from Raising Arizona. He is very much enjoying the show. Two different people ask me for drugs but I think this is probably less to do with the band and more to do with a Friday night in Templebar.

New Secret Weapon are not out for world domination but for their own musical satisfaction. Nevertheless they have won no shortage of admirers who voice their enthusiasm loudly and dance boisterously. One is ejected for moshing. We see him as we exit, cheerfully leaning against the barrier chatting with one of the other bands.

The call for an encore is answered and New Secret Weapon humbly thank the carousing assembly who have packed the venue. Post-show, pushing through the rickshaws and horse drawn carriages in the city that gave the world Kodaline and The Script, it does a soul good knowing that bands like New Secret Weapon still exist. We're left waiting with bated breath for that second album.