Hard Working Class Heroes (HWCH) 2018, will take place between the 27th and 29th of September, in Dublin city centre, is Ireland’s annual music showcase and conference, and the festival for discovering your new favourite artists. Every year the HWCH brings the global music industry to Ireland to showcase new and emerging Irish music in some of Dublin’s best live music venues. Tickets can be purchased here.
On Thursday 27th September, the opening night, a targeted networking social event will take place in the Chocolate Factory where all the international delegates will have the chance to meet with their Irish counterparts and artists attending the HWCH conference. The conference will take place at the Chocolate Factory across the three days with over 20 panels and workshops with Irish and international delegates. While 24 international industry delegates have already been announced, the festival is announcing a further 16. The live showcase will take place across Friday the 28th and Saturday the 29th of September across five city centre venues including: The Workman’s Club, Tramline, Tengu, Doyles, and The Grand Social.
HWCH can be seen as the first step on that path for many bands. Alumni includes; Le Galaxie, Villagers, the Coronas, and Hozier, among a myriad of others. Speaking about how satisfying her job is, HWCH organiser Angela Dorgan, said: “More recently, to watch a very scared Hare Squead have their first gig two years ago and then get a record deal after last year, it’s just lovely. We’re so familiar with all of these acts and we get to kind of see them grow up over one or two years, and that’s so satisfying. It just makes me so happy and proud of what we’re able to produce here, and also to remind ourselves that these bands are writing these songs — all we’re doing is literally building the stage. They do all the rest of the work, and it’s great to see all of their hard work for themselves pay off more than anything else.”
HWCH made the annual call for bands to apply in June and had a massive response with over 600 bands applying via First Music Contact’s platform Breaking Tunes. The bands were chosen independently by top international and Irish music industry professionals. This years line up includes the likes of Molly Sterling, p e a r l y, Pillow Queens, Wild Youth, and True Tides.
“What’s frustrating is we know the talent is there, we see it every single day, we’d just love to bring everyone together to make sure that talent gets all the attention it deserves, and also that the sector can grow and that we can grow our own music industry so we can sustain careers here and develop careers here and not have to export our careers all the time and our really great artists. That they could have a realistic expectation for living in music and stay at home at the same time, says Dorgan.
Hard Working Class Heroes began with 40 Dublin bands playing in a single venue in the Dublin in 2003. Since that debut, HWCH has grown and developed into a much bigger and more wide-ranging event now incorporating a 3-day music conference with live music still being HWCH’s chief attraction.
