ALTHOUGH the lack of camping may mean it's not strictly a festival, the inaugural Lovebox Dublin festival may be the kind of comedown muddy Oxegen refugees might like.

Situated in the grounds of Malahide Castle, Lovebox will next Saturday feature four stages with an eclectic lineup and an equally interesting selection of foodstalls. Either way it will be fairly chilled out affair with Toots and the Maytals, Super Furry Animals and Groove Armada providing much of the ambience.

The festival began in London five years ago when Groove Armada were looking to play an outdoor gig in London. They got a site and named the event after their 2002 album of the same name.

"That was a maniacally underperforming record, " joked Tom Findlay last week. "It only sold about 12 records but it's good because not too many people make the connection between the festival and that album.

Anyway, it's too late to change the name now."

Findlay would like to see the festival stand on its own feet and not be dependent on Groove Armada playing.

"We'd like to get away from it being branded with us if we are going to grow as a festival." However, the electronic duo of Findlay and Andy Cato still retain a fair amount of influence on the lineup.

"My self and Andy work with John [Reynolds]. There's nothing on the lineup that I don't want to be on there.

Sometimes at festivals you get bands you hate but not so much now.

"The Rapture are nice guys and I'm slightly terrified of the Furrys. They're crazy wacky Welshmen but I've always respected them."

Groove Armada are currently touring their latest album Soundboy Rock and, although the singles are doing well, Findlay describes the record industry as being in a radical phase of development.

"It's a really weird time. Digital downloads, both legal and illegal, are bringing the culture of the album to an end faster than anyone predicted.

From an artistic point of view you don't know whether to make a new album but it's not worth whingeing about.

There's no point getting too depressed or macabre about it."

Groove Armada have always embraced the different ways of getting their music heard, licensing tracks for TV advertising, particularly for cars.

"It's hard to turn those down, " he says. "When Moby did it he got a lot of criticism because he is a bit annoying.

He was so self-righteous making grand pronouncements about the world and then letting anyone use his songs to sell their products. We just did it a few times and kept our heads down."

Lovebox Dublin is on Saturday 21 July in Malahide Castle www. lovebox. ie