To celebrate its 10th Birthday, last weekend the finest bands and performers in Northern Ireland came together in the Sperrin Mountains, on a glorious summer day, and shattered the face of the mountain with new unsigned music. It's traditionally regarded as the Northern Irish music scene's big holiday, but there was something in the air this year. With Northern Irish music in arguably its rudest health for years, the assembled masses were treated to a spectacular display of incendiary music.

With BBC Introducing supporting the Small But Massive stage (the main stage, in case you were wondering!) as well as the G Sessions Stage (otherwise known as the second stage!) we were perfectly poised to bring you all the highlights, and a few surprises along the way...

With music thundering out from every direction on the top of the mountain, last year's headliners And So I Watch You From Afar sneaked onto the G Sessions stage, and unleashed their unique brand of sonic devastation. It was a secret performance, but still managed to attract the attention of almost everyone at the festival. They came in their thousands, spilling out as they tried to cram into the hot, sweaty tent, whilst the North coast four-piece proved exactly why they've been called one of the most exciting bands in the country.

Elsewhere, there was something to cater for all tastes. Belfast troubadour Duke Special brought a touch of vaudevillian charm to the mountain, art-poppers Yes Cadets sent shards of angular guitar and synth melodies cascading off the rocks, and mojoFURY scraped the sky with their darkly atmospheric rock assault. With so much to sample, the only complaint uttered was that the stage times for too many top notch acts clashed. And when our only grumble is that we've been spoilt for choice, surely that's the definition of a good day?

Not Squares, Chipzel, Building Pictures, Silhouette, Colenso Parade...there really were too many highlights to mention. And at the end of the day, after the dual onslaught of LaFaro on the main stage and General Fiasco on the G Sessions stage (where they attracted so many people that the sides of the tent were removed to accommodate their fans!), Fighting With Wire headlined the main stage, cementing a relationship that goes back to the very beginning.

As FWW frontman Cahir O'Doherty brought festival organiser Paddy Glasgow and his wife to the stage, it felt like every single person there was glowing with pride at what has been accomplished in the last ten years. With the music fading out into the night, Glasgowbury truly lived up to its "Small but Massive" moniker. As we look forward to its 11th birthday next year, we can but wonder how long that will be the case.

For one day every year, the peaceful calm of the Sperrin Mountains in Northern Ireland is shattered. The ancient rock trembles and shakes, the clouds part, and about 4,000 people are blessed by the majesty of rock (and the miracle of roll).

It can only be the Glasgowbury festival, the premier date in every Northern Irish music fan's calendar, and this time around we've got some extra special news...

2010 is a milestone for the Glasgowbury Music Group, as it marks the tenth anniversary of the festival, which has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 2000 when Draperstown singer-songwriter Paddy Glasgow organised a showcase of local acts to promote awareness of the Ulster Cancer Foundation. Over the course of the decade, thanks to the tireless efforts of Paddy and his team of volunteers, the festival has become the one-stop-shop for music in Northern Ireland, having charted some of the biggest bands in the country from their most embryonic days to their emergence on the world's stage.

It's a testament to the appeal of Glasgowbury that bands such as The Answer, And So I Watch You From Afar, Fighting With Wire, In Case of Fire, and General Fiasco continue to come back for more, having got a taste for the Glasgowbury magic at an early stage in their career, long before they became some of the most hotly tipped bands in the country.

With the epic backdrop of the Sperrins providing the canvas for their performance, it's a well established fact that playing at Glasgowbury is an experience that few will ever forget. BBC Introducing in Northern Ireland was there last year, curating the main stage and watching some of the finest bands in the country kick out the jams in front of a rapturous audience. This year, we're hungry for more, and are happy to report that we're going to be bringing you the highlights of the festival in a fantastic 10th anniversary spectacular, headlined by the awesome Fighting With Wire, a band whose involvement with the festival goes way back to the very beginning.

If you can't make it to Glasgowbury on the 24th of July, don't worry - we're going to capture the sights, sounds, and smells of the best in under the radar Northern Irish music. It promises to be an incredible day of music, and we want you to be there with us all the way!

Now, as if that wasn't enough, we have another special newsflash...

Aside from all the Glasgowbury goodness we'll be bringing you over the summer, we'll also be there at this year's Glastonbury festival, where Northern Ireland's own Seven Summits will be playing the BBC Introducing stage!

Possessing some of the finest crafted songs this side of Pluto, Seven Summits were the winner of the BBC Introducing in Northern Ireland "Album of the Month" title, to date the only band to achieve this momentous accolade!

Fresh from a string of well-received performances across Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, the Belfast based four-piece will be bringing their finely honed blend of indie-rock harmonies and hooks to Glastonbury, and we'll be right there with them, giving you a taste of the action!

Get ready for a long hot summer with BBC Introducing in Northern Ireland. You bring the sun cream, we'll bring the music!

Rory McConnell presents BBC Introducing in Northern Ireland

Links

• Full line-up for the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury 2010
  
  
• Glasgowbury 2010 line-up
  
  
• Seven Summits at MySpace
  

Put simply: we've been so busy with the sheer amount of incredible new music emerging from Northern Ireland in the last year that we've barely had time to catch our breath.

And as far as excuses go, that's a pretty good one.

2009 saw a mixture of new bands and some familiar faces up their game and break through to a bigger audience. One of the success stories of the year has to be the mighty And So I Watch You From Afar, who released their debut album in Belfast's Mandela Hall with a show that few will forget. As the critical plaudits started to roll in, the North Coast four-piece continued to push forward, taking their explosive live show across the UK and Europe, culminating in a celebratory homecoming show in the Ulster Hall. And with 2010 seeing the boys release their storming Letters EP, it seems they're not ready to slow down just yet.

All the while, young upstarts General Fiasco were tearing up stages across the country, bringing their infectious brand of power pop to hungry audiences. A series of singles did much to increase their profile as momentum geared up to the release of their hotly-anticipated first album, Buildings, in March of this year. With appearances at Glastonbury and Oxegen lined up for the summer, as well as supporting Snow Patrol at their massive homecoming gig in Bangor, County Down, it's shaping up to be a long, hot summer for the mid-Ulster trio.

Adding a touch of continental glamour to the proceedings, Two Door Cinema Club spent much of 2009 wowing French hipsters and signing to Paris based label Kitsuné. Far from their humble DIY beginnings, the start of 2010 found the band becoming the name on a lot of people's lips, as their insanely catchy singles won over hearts and minds across the UK. When an album - Tourist History - arrived in March, the timing was just right, and mainstream success lies paved out before the three smartly-attired Bangor boys.

One of the slow burning success stories of recent years is that of local favourites LaFaro. After spending years as Northern Ireland's best kept secret, 2009 saw the guys hit the road and carve out a reputation for themselves in the UK. And when they finally got round to releasing their long-awaited debut album, they were simply unstoppable. Rock monsters like Tuppenny Nudger and The Ballad of Burnt Dave won over the likes of Zane Lowe, and it seems that the rest of the world is finally ready for a bit of LaFaro action.

As for us - we haven't even time to sit down, as there's a whole host of hungry young bands ready get down to business. From the agit-punk stylings of Axis Of and More Than Conquerors, to the folky pop of Cashier No.9 and The Lowly Knights, it seems we might just have seen the tip of the iceberg as far as new Northern Irish music goes.

And as more and more world class bands sprout up in our little corner of the world, we here at BBC Introducing in Northern Ireland will be right there alongside them. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it.

It seems like such a simple idea, bring together the four national presenters of BBC Introducing on Radio 1 and get them to invite along one of their favourite bands from their home nation. Put all of them in the same venue - The Mandela Hall in Queen's University Belfast - and record the whole thing for you to round off a brilliant year for new music.

The lovely Huw Stephens put forward Leeds' Pulled Apart by Horses as his choice for England. The Leeds four-piece have been blowing minds all over the country whilst on tour with Biffy Clyro, and they seem like the natural choice to come back to Belfast and raise the roof off the Mandela Hall.

Over in Scotland, Vic Galloway pointed us in the direction of Twin Atlantic. These Glaswegians caused a stir the last time they were on Northern Irish soil, playing with Taking Back Sunday, and have since garnered a lot of attention with their recently released mini-album, Vivarium. Expect more from these guys very soon.

Watch

Then it was the turn of Bethan Elfyn in Wales, whose selection Save Your Breath have recently signed to Green Day's label, Adeline Records. The Newport-based five-piece have had an incredibly busy year and are bursting with enthusiasm about returning to Belfast. If this is the first you've heard of Save Your Breath, you can be sure it won't be the last.

Watch

And to round it all off, I've picked the sublime Two Door Cinema Club to represent Northern Ireland. It's been an amazing year for the Bangor boys, signing to the ultra-hip Kistuné label, releasing one of the singles of the year in Something Good Can Work, doing a phenomenal amount of touring (including a spot on the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury) and generally behaving like pop stars. This is their biggest headlining show in Northern Ireland, and is sure to kick-start an even more epic year for them in 2010.

Watch

Simple, eh? Four nations, four awesome bands, four presenters, one venue. Tune in to Radio 1 on Wednesday night to hear all the highlights and check back here for some video action.

*Update*

Watch videos of each band right here or by following the links above.