The ongoing renaissance of the event formerly known as the Mitchelstown Music & Arts Festival continues this year with another strong line-up consisting primarily of both established and up-and-coming Irish talent.

Now operating under the more apt Indie-Pendence brand, this three day event is become Ireland's only free independent music festival – a remarkable feat given the current organisers, led by Shane Dunne, inherited large debts and an unfavourable reputation. However, they successfully turned the fortunes of the event around through hard graft, dedication, the goodwill of the local community and their own ability to convince Irish acts to give the festival and it's new approach a fair chance.

Last years event was the biggest to date with a line-up of over 40 acts that included Republic of Loose, The Chapters, The Sultans of Ping, Ham Sandwich, Vesta Varro, Director, Delorentos, The Aftermath, Fight Like Apes, Hooray for Humans and many more as well as the addition of extra stages and new Street Performers. Although the event was a success, it wasn't without one or two (unavoidable) problems, as Shane told the Cork Independent ahead of this years festival.

"Last years festival although a success overall was tough for the crew as the weather didn't really help us. It rained Friday and Sunday and the Saturday was monsoon like conditions for about 6 hours…I guess the fact that its not in a mucky field is a bonus in that situation. We did have a good time drowning our sorrows after the monsoon with the lads from the sultans after there Saturday gig last year. I'm looking forward to this year a lot though, the line-up is strong and the weather is going to be good.. I'm reliably informed."

The freak conditions aside, Shane felt the festival succeeded in what it had set out to do. Perhaps most importantly, it also taught them some valuable lessons, all of which augers well for Indie-Pendence's future. "We learned that we've gotten to a level that we can't wing it anymore, the planning that needs to go in needs to be a bit more serious and everything needs to be organised and squared off well in advance of the weekend. We've done that this year though, it should make things more enjoyable for the crew too I hope."

Their organisational skills were called upon when the festivals sponsor pulled out, forcing Shane and co to seriously reconsider the format. However, they have overcome the setback and returned with another exciting line-up of Irish talent totally free of charge, a feat made all the more remarkable given the financial adversity they had faced earlier in the year.

"We were hoping to expand things a lot this year but we lost our main sponsor at the end of February which forced a rethink, I think we've still managed to put together a serious line-up of Irish talent though with 50k less of a budget which is no mean feat. There were some pretty serious financial crunching sessions done in March/April time this year. Most of the people we deal with have been excellent though and the Late Sponsorship from Bavaria kinda pulled things out of the fire for us, they have been excellent since they have come on board, I really hope that gig-goers support their products over the weekend.