Dónal Dineen’s Backstory Dances have gone from strength to strength recently with a storied residency at the Commercial Rowing Club in Dublin continuing to hold down an exalted position within the capital’s underground dance scene.

As well as that, a series of acclaimed stages curated by him at Irish festivals including The Cambium at All Together Now made 2023 another year to remember for both him and Backstory.

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 in dusty basements of record stores worldwide to write about for his Sunken Treasure column in the Irish Times.
It began as a project to gather together all the sounds he was collecting on vinyl 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.