Castlepalooza Festival

Alkers

Anyone heard anything about this? http://www.castlepalooza.com/
Looks decent for the price etc and the venue looks amazing.

Toast

Castlepalooza was actually rather good considering I went down there with no expectations having pretty much decided to go at the last second on some cut price tickets (thanks to lizardking and adverts.ie)

Good points:
The actual setup is really nice. The stage was in front of the castle and the camping grounds behind it in the gardens. The fact it was a garden made it some of the most comfortable camping grounds I ever used. The smaller side stage had couches and free sweets and jammy dodgers!

It never got overly full but it wasnt deserted by any means. It had just the right amount of people that you could easily find anyone within five minutes and you started to recognise faces of those around you after a short while. We made a good few friends just randomly chatting to other campers / staff. Also the bands were milling around mixing with the plebs alot too.

Excellent food and good value on it too. Got a plate with a burger, some pasta salad, lettuce and 2 spuds all for a fiver! Also a fantastic japanese place that did delicious teriyaki chicken wraps and cheap bacon baps (3euro!) in the morning. Decent beer selection with budvar, tiger, krombacher and koppaberg ciders and rando alco pops + spirits. Standard festival prices for that lot.

Toilets were generally kept ok though one or two of them broke. They were actual real porcelain jobs and they always had toilet paper when I went there. Probably could have been more hand soap though. Never was much of a queue for them.

Bad points:
Ill admit I didnt know most of the bands and with so little time between knowing I was going and going I hadnt a chance to even myspace any so I was really kinda thrown in at the deep end here. From what I experienced the lineup was heavy on the not good side. Very few people bothered with anything before 7pm so there was poor atmosphere at alot of the shows. One of the first bands we saw (Suddyn) played to maybe five people. Asking if we'd paid 85euro to just hang around for the weekend rather than watch music some card in the audience corrected him with a shout of 75 euro. Not to say there wasnt some gems (prison love, blizzards, 10 past 7, several others) but certainly couldnt be considered the primary reason to go.

Because of the grounds there were alot of problems with wasps everywhere... and assorted other bity insects. I got lots of bites but avoided stings thankfully. Id recommend insect repellant for next year to anyone going.

Conclusion: Excellent place to go with friends for 2 days of stress free hanging in a nice camping ground with some really nice people working there and the chance to see a couple of okish performances on the side... is that worth 75 euro? Might actually be.

Denalihighway

Howdy,
Big up the organisers of Castlepalooza and here's hoping its bigger and better next year (but not too much bigger) - I know it will be on again next year pending planning and all that and I'll be there no matter what. Yes unfortunately it seemed like the wasps like to see Irish rock bands as well, as there were a good few about but thats one of a few minor complaints. Everybody there was on a great buzz and there was a f*ckin unbelievably friendly atmosphere which is the way it should. Maybe its cuz I'm (a little) older but the non-existence of knackers, begrudging-living-in-Whelan's-musos and the fact everything is next to each other not to mention the great setting, it just makes for a great weekend.

We played on the Saturday and from an band point of view the crew were as affable and helpful as the rest of the people there and although I hadnt heard many of the bands playing before I was pleasantly surprised many's a time and enjoyed mixing with the many festival goers and bands alike that I was talking crap with. Unfortunately we had to bail at 5pm after a cool gig by the Chakras which meant I missed the Sunday evening bands but no doubt it was another cracking night, if anyone wants to fill me in feel free.

Well done Castlepalooza, Ancora!!! See you all next year.
G

catch--22

Must ad a big hats off to all the staff! Everyone was very friendly (one organiser even carried one of my bags to our tent). Food was very nice and cheap, and some of the bands played some really good sets!

Highlights: Neosupervital, Prison love, have naked women with tassels, The Loose and a very unecpected 80's tribute band called Springbreak on the Sunday night

Downside: Them bloody wasps! I even found a dead one in my car today, and the bloody car park was MILES away!

Really recommend this for next year....we'll be back!

And a note for the bastard who pikied my camping chair on the Sunday night.......you're number is up buddy!

ellenmelon

glad the above posters had a wicked time. i had been there since thursday (volunteer crew) and you wouldnt believe the change the venue went through! didnt look like that when i first arrived
so yeah, pleased that people had a blast and were open to the fact that it wasnt a festival like you'd be used to..
all the punters (and bands) were so bloody nice, laid back and generally chilled out.people would give you a can if they had one spare and would welcome you join there group for a bitn which i dont think would happen at any other fest!
the bands were all really decent people and were really a pleasure to work with, as were the other crew and volunteers!
i fricking enjoyed prison love, neosupervital,the blizzards,delorentos,springbreak and even a bit of republic of loose's gig! had a good old dance to some of the DJs too.there were a few dodgy enough artists but the whole aim of the festival from what i can gather was to bring some lesser known irish artists (and a few int's) to the attention of the punters. i know that i now am really into a couple of bands i saw at CP and mates with a few too!
any of you at the session on sunday night with some of the bands? that was too fricking cool i reckon. would never happen at any other fest!
those wasps were a pain though for sure..wont miss them!

catch--22

....meant to add how many staff there was at this weekend! I have never seen so many people organise something! but I suppose it showed in the end!

ellenmelon

catch--22 wrote:

....meant to add how many staff there was at this weekend! I have never seen so many people organise something! but I suppose it showed in the end!

LOL even though it was a small enough fest jeepers creepers did we need that many people! there were 2/3 core people that were the actual "organisers" you could say, who had been going there from dublin most weekends for a few months, a group of about 5/6 who did the same (but were helping out doing the practical stuff etc) then people like me who went there on the thursday before to help with the finishing touches, then other volunteers who arrived fri/sat to do stuff like merch tent etc..
hard work, but the best 4 days of my life!

Inisin

ellenmelon wrote:

any of you at the session on sunday night with some of the bands? that was too fricking cool i reckon. would never happen at any other fest!
those wasps were a pain though for sure..wont miss them!

Yeah, I was around at that. I thought it was the best part. Some poor guys tent was right beside it and got fallen on a few times... I had no idea how someone could have slept through what was happening beside the tent.

The singer from spring break was great, when the gituar was passed to him he sang a good drinking version of Seven Days by Craig David. I can't remember it now

Even the professional security at it loved it, they had no trouble except from 2 or 3 people and a handful that had jumped the wall.

fits

Glad this festival went well. Would have liked to go down. Charleville Castle is a great spot altogether. I remember the wasp problem from the Mor Festival.

Dudley, if you're reading this, you need to find those nests and put a rag soaked in petrol in them. The fumes will kill the wasps. A local beekeeper will do it for you if you find the location of the nests.

springbreak80s

The singer from spring break was great, when the gituar was passed to him he sang a good drinking version of Seven Days by Craig David. I can't remember it now

Thanks for that Inisin - Seven Drinks is by rural pop singer Christy Beag; he can be found on www.myspace.com/christybeag
The camp fire sessions were great, with Prison Love, Republic of Loose & Neosupervital as well as ourselves singing well past dawn. Hope it goes even better next year.
See you at our next show, Fri 20th October in the Sugar Club!
Jan Van Couver
www.springbreak80s.com

littlesurfer

i cant believe i never heard of this place....definately gonna look it up for next year. Bout time festivals got upgraded to porceline!!

ellenmelon

springbreak80s wrote:

The singer from spring break was great, when the gituar was passed to him he sang a good drinking version of Seven Days by Craig David. I can't remember it now

Thanks for that Inisin - Seven Drinks is by rural pop singer Christy Beag; he can be found on www.myspace.com/christybeag
The camp fire sessions were great, with Prison Love, Republic of Loose & Neosupervital as well as ourselves singing well past dawn. Hope it goes even better next year.
See you at our next show, Fri 20th October in the Sugar Club!
Jan Van Couver
www.springbreak80s.com

springbreak, you guys were fricking excellent! i had such a laugh...only got the connection between springbreak and american 80s afterwards cause im thick!
gutted i wont be able to see you guys again