The Occasion At The Castle came on the back of many folk/rock festivals that took place across Ireland in the late 1970s and early 1980s such as Ballysodare, Lisdoonvarna, Loughrea, Gorey, Dalymount, and Carnsore to mention but a few. It is said locally that it cost £120,000 to stage.
It was a welcome boost for the town as there was talk that the future of the Castlebar International Song Contest, which had been a huge success since the 1960s, was in doubt. Considering it was a new venture for the organisers, it went off relatively well with approximately 13,000 attending over the weekend. There were no bar facilities on the site and organisers felt if they had been serving alcohol, the festival would have been a bigger success. The following year they applied for, and were successful in obtaining, a license.
The line-up for that year included Ian Dury, The Pretenders, The Undertones, Stockton's Wing, Moving Hearts, Clannad, Jimmy McCarthy, De Danann, and more.
