The Dublin International Game Music Festival

The Dublin International Game Music Festival
The iDIG Music Fest - Click on the image to go to our website!

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

The Whys and Hows of I DIG Music Fest, (The Dublin International Game Music Festival).

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Why Dublin and Why now?

The story so far:

Representing the music I recorded for Blizzard Entertainment as guest conductor for "Video Games Live," and as the original conductor for "The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses," I got to tour the world and perform to hundreds of thousands of game music fans.  

Almost every time I did a post-concert "meet and greet," I would come across some Irish fans. 

Inevitably the question would be asked:  “Can you please bring the show to Ireland?!”

Even when I was performing as far away as the Sydney Opera House - the number of Irish gamers living in Australia that came to the concert was sincerely moving.  

Naturally, I tried, but the timing was never right to bring the music home.

Twitter Grass Roots

On 27 March 2014, I took it to Twitter and asked:

If we were to create a game music festival for Dublin, would you go?”

Within a couple of minutes a game journalist from Dublin named Chris Rooke, who had interviewed me in London, got in touch and said “how can I help?!”  Numerous messages followed.  I had hit a nerve somewhere.

I was suitably impressed by Chris's talent and quick Irish wit when he had interviewed me, so we immediately asked him to join the team as "associate producer."

With Chris and the other fan's overwhelming enthusiasm and support, Craig Stuart Garfinkle and I decided to take matters into our own hands - create something truly special for the Irish game music fans!    This is home we’re talking about, so let’s up the ante.   Why not create an entire festival celebrating our musical colleagues and give Irish gamers a great time?!

Back Stage at Video Games Live

The seed was planted, but it was backstage at the Video Games Live concert last June at the Nokia Theater that it really began to grow.  During the concert I was once again sharing the stage with some of my favorite friends and fellow composers.  I started twisting some very pliable arms and asked:  “Hey Guys, why don’t we do this in Dublin?!”

That question was met with a few “hell-yeahs” a couple of “count-me-ins” and an auto-tune-busting cacophony of  “ make-it-happens.”

The game was on!  

Oh and that pithy journalist, Chris Rooke - did you know what you were getting into?

Where we are now

The tickets went on sale October 15th.  It's happening!  Three days of celebrating game music as only real Irish gamers can, is just six months away!

This is a project led by a passion for passion and propelled by the good will of our colleagues, the gaming community and our best Twitter friends (you know who you are!).

From now until April 2nd, Craig, Chris, and I, as well as our ever growing army of volunteers, will do everything in our power to build the best game music festival we can imagine!


Eímear, October 15th, 2014