The Pre-work music festival

September 8, 2014 – Interesting people interviews

Foxy Sinead catches up with the guys from the Morning Gloryville raves.N.B: contains no scaldiness.

Could you tell us a little bit about yourselves, what’s your background? Are you both from England?

Ed and I are both from England and we have both been here in Dublin for over 10 years now.  Ed is married to a lovely Irish Girl and I’m still looking for my Cailín!  We both work in the not for profit sector as fundraisers and I’m also a yoga instructor.

What made you guys start the morning gloryville pre-work music festival? 

Ed was introduced to the London event by a friend. Ed contacted the London team about bringing it to Dublin and then asked me to come on board as he knew I had a passion for Yoga and in his words ‘had witnessed my awesome event planning skills and steely determination!’. Ed and I then went to Morning Gloryville in London and were literally buzzing for about a week afterwards. We knew then that it had huge potential in Dublin. The first two Dublin events sold out and everyone who came along  quickly realised that they felt so good for doing something so bonkers before work and the buzz had been spreading since.

In a country that is heavily saturated in drink culture did you have doubts about the project at first? 

Yep, absolutely.  Everyone was very sceptical about whether or not this would work in Dublin. People were admiring our bravery but questioning whether enough Irish people are early risers or if we could compete with late night drinking culture but we have been pleasantly surprised! I think people are really enjoying the mental health benefits of feeling so liberated as they dance their cares away as the sun comes up, completely sober at 7am before heading to work. We don’t know exactly why, but Dublin has really embraced Morning Gloryville. Funnily enough the first event was around the back of Coppers so we had a few stragglers looking in whilst we were setting up! But then we had sober people queuing from 06:15 and by 07:30 we had a pumping dance floor that looked like something in Ibiza! We realised then that Dublin needs this more than anywhere.

The pre-work music festival has been so well received. It’s refreshing to see something social not involving drink culture really take off. How do you guys feel in the wake to such a positive response?

Delighted but we aren’t complacent we know people love the event and to keep them coming we have to provide fresh content so we are constantly looking for new ways to make this event even more magic.  Watch this space.

The pre-work music festival has been travelling around do you think you will ever find a permanent home for it? 

We don’t want the event to get much bigger, we want to focus on making it better so we will be announcing a permanent home soon.

Do you have any further improvements you might make or add to the pre-work music festival?

We have big plans to improve the Morning Gloryville experience with every event! Our aim is to find as much magic in the morning time as possible. But our lips are sealed for now! All we can say is there might be actual Unicorns at the Episode #3.

From first-hand experience you guys are both great mascots/motivators for the event.  Outside of the yoga rave what do you guys get up to? 

Sleep for a few days then plan the next Morning Gloryville.

What is your favourite place for a bit of inner peace in the city?

Chris: Being on my bike heading ‘out ‘of the city towards the mountains is my spot.

Ed: Iveagh Gardens which somehow remains a peaceful hidden gem in the heart of Dublin 2. Also close to Coppers!

Morning Gloryville has already launched in 12 cities this summer including New York, Amsterdam, Bangalore, Barcelona, Brighton, Melbourne, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo and Zurich.

If you fancy attending the next one, here’s more information about it. UNCE!

Words: SBK Fox