Dónal Dineen’s Backstory

Dónal Dineen’s Backstory Dances have gone from strength to strength in the last year with a new residency at the Commercial Rowing Club in Dublin and a series of acclaimed stages curated by him at Irish festivals throughout 2022 making it a year to remember. The impetus to start the night back in 2015 stemmed from his desire to find a home for the kind of dance music fire that he was unearthing in his search for tunes to write about for his Sunken Treasure column in the Irish Times. It began as a place to gather together all the sounds he was collecting from every part of the world and became a place for the like-minded to revel in the joy of music and the uniquely special experience of discovering it together on a dance floor. The unerring attention to detail on the quality of the music has seen its reputation soar to become something of a touchstone for discerning dancers both in Dublin town and further afield.

The Backstory motto “All the colours, every dancing mood” has served it well and the atmosphere generated on one heady night after another has become the stuff of legend from its genesis in its spiritual home of the much-missed Jigsaw in the north inner city to its current incarnation by the Liffey Banks. It was a family affair all year long in 2022 with Dónal playing B2B sets with a stellar line-up of Irish and international DJs and for the first Backstory festival appearance of 2023 at Body & Soul he’s going to be digging deep into his box of wares for an extended journey into sound on a system like no other at the Cabin In The Woods with a smattering of special guest DJs joining him throughout the night.