The engine behind Bundoran’s Sea Sessions - Ray O’Donoghue 

Quietly working diligently behind the scenes since becoming involved with Bundoran’s Sea Sessions in 2010 and before becoming its Festival Director two years later, Ray O’Donoghue has helped cement the popular annual surf and music festival into a veritable institution, across the island.

He hit the national headlines recently when he was appointed the first ‘Night Time Economy Advisor’ for Dublin City Council but his focus at present is laser focused on Bundoran, a location that he has had an association with, for over two decades. 

ABOVE: Cian Ducrot is one of this year's headline at at Sea Sessions 

Taking a few precious moments off site, Ray is as he describes, “in the middle of it all”, as we speak. 

The site has returned to its traditional location near the resort’s main beach, having taken a sabbatical to Tullan Strand last year, but with feedback from attendees, local businesses and people in Bundoran itself, the decision was made to head back to its heartland, bringing it, in closer proximity to just about everything.

Indeed most of his hardest work is done in advance of the festival itself.

ABOVE: An aerial shot of the Sea Sessions village in 2023 

“We are usually working on the festival a year out and sometimes more than a year,” he explained in terms of the sheer logistics involved in hosting one of the country’s most popular festivals, but added: “The week of the build can be fairly hectic as well,

Notwithstanding the perennial hunt for new musical talent each year, he would not go so far to say that it gets easier over the years but rather “you get better at it”.

His involvement with entertainment in Bundoran goes back to the days before Sea Sessions.

“I was doing stuff here before that actually, it was called ‘Coastal Beats’ which was 25 years ago, so I’ve been involved in doing stuff in the West Coast of Ireland all that time.”  

Asked what features Bundoran has to make it ‘stand out from the crowd’, he replied: “It’s a surfing town, it’s a party town, it’s a holiday town, so you have all those good vibes that are knocking around, so it is definitely unique.”

ABOVE: A night time view of Bundoran's Sea Sessions Surf and Music Festival 

On moving back down to the main beach, he said: “We had a lot of requests from people in town and businesses in town, so we gave in to the requests. Every year we change something, it’s never going to be identical to the way it was the year before and I think that any festival will do that and that is the nature of the business anyway.”

On the highs and lows of any festival, Ray said that he had observed generally a difference between events that had taken place pre and post Covid-10 pandemic, ranking the Sea Sessions of 2019 as one of the highlights in recent times.

“Being completely honest, 2019 was a huge year and post Covid things have changed with a greater emphasis on day tickets, whereas traditionally we'd been selling more camping tickets.

“I think that it might be a post pandemic symptom where they want their creature comforts more and they prefer to go for the day,” he reflected, while pointing out that the wider weekend atmosphere is something that has so many returning each year.

His own personal highlight from down the years was an unfortunate late cancellation with Rev Run of Run-DMC fame “and desperately trying to get a replacement DJ” with only a couple of days to spare. 

As a long time DJ, he decided to do it himself, getting an MC over from the UK and also a scratch DJ who put a mini troupe together for the night “and it went down a treat”.

It was a “strange but memorable personal high”, he recalled.

While he would not be drawn in relation to his new role as the ‘night time tzar’ in resurrecting Dublin’s night time life and economy, he did indicate that he would not be abandoning his interest with Sea Sessions, whatever format that may eventually constitute.

Reflecting on his relationship and knowledge of Bundoran itself, he observed:, “There is a lot of good energy there, there are a lot of good people and a lot of support from everyone in general, but there could be more support”.

Running such a high risk venture came with inherent risks. He pointed out that investment and financial support locally would continue to be a necessary prerequisite each and every year moving forward, a little nudge perhaps that such things don’t manifest out of thin air, but with an established pedigree, the future will also remain bright for one of the great events of the summer.   

Ray added that what was on offer at the festival “suits the younger generation lifestyle at the minute now” which included the likes of beach yoga, sea swims and beach sports that are run during the day as well as the array of music experiences that were also on offer.. 

“A lot of young people’s lifestyle choices now have to do with well being and looking after themselves, so it is not all about the music”. 

This year’s Sea Sessions headliners include blk., Cian Ducrot and Johnny Marr and takes place from June 21-23 and all the details as well as any tickets that may be available on www.seasessions.com.