SLANE 2009 Oasis - All Discussion - No ticket sales.

Mossy Monk

wellbutty wrote: »

If that fiasco happens every year, chances are someone will be killed at Slane and the concert will be shut down. If I was a promoter, even a greedy one, I'd put a certain value on safeguarding the people attending my event.......

Seeing as you yourself says it was a fiasco then why do you say

wellbutty wrote: »

Bring on next years one

wellbutty

Mossy Monk wrote: »

Seeing as you yourself says it was a fiasco then why do you say

The music makes it just about worthwhile

but1er

any1 got any good pics from inside d pit was there have no pics 2 member d day

thnks

Mental Mickey

ManwitaPlan wrote: »

That just seemed completely illogical to me.


Why would they do that? You had buses trying to pull out in front of each other and buses driving from the back had to plough through the crowds.

It doesnt seem a very hard thing to organise to me. Line the buses up. Fill them from the front. When the first is full, drive off, when the second is full drive off. No ploughing through crowds or trying to pull out in front of other buses.

My brother & sister were at this yesterday, and said apart from the gig itself, which was pretty good, the "organisation" of the whole event was a total shambles!!! Its a pity that we can't learn a few lessons from our friends across the water in organising events such as this!!! Their infrastructure is soooooo much better. The same thing happened at Marlay Park in 08, where they filled the buses from the rear!!!??? It took us over 2 hours to get out of the place in our car! I was at Wembley for Metallica in 07, where there was 60,000 plus attending, and the place was cleared in a matter of minutes!!

Bluetonic

Mental Mickey wrote: »

I was at Wembley for Metallica in 07, where there was 60,000 plus attending, and the place was cleared in a matter of minutes!!

You can't compare a modern purpose built sports stadium in a capital city to a field, thats just silly.

lordgoat

Mental Mickey wrote: »

My brother & sister were at this yesterday, and said apart from the gig itself, which was pretty good, the "organisation" of the whole event was a total shambles!!! Its a pity that we can't learn a few lessons from our friends across the water in organising events such as this!!! Their infrastructure is soooooo much better. The same thing happened at Marlay Park in 08, where they filled the buses from the rear!!!??? It took us over 2 hours to get out of the place in our car! I was at Wembley for Metallica in 07, where there was 60,000 plus attending, and the place was cleared in a matter of minutes!!

Eh you can't realistically compare a concert in Wembley London to one in Slane Meath. Do you really need someone to explain the differences between both?

From what i am aware, Slane is organised by their own (non-promoter) staff from the locality. No one is exactly sure how the co ordination of this is done but from reading most of the comments it seems it needs to be looked at.

If you are commenting, please keep comments to what happened to you or friends and please avoid speculation as to who is exactly to blame.

Silverfox

It was my first time at Slane yesterday and though it wasn't the first concert or festival i've attended by far, I've always avoided it because of the long walk and general messiness that you hear of every year. I figured it would be the same as any other festival. Oh how wrong I was.

I missed out on The Prodigy at Brixton last year so my parents bought me two tickets for Slane as a xmas gift. They were really the only band I wanted to see. Having wandered up to Parnell Sq and seen the melee we decided to find a Bus Eireann bus to take us to the concert but discovered on arrival that they had all left by 2ish. Not great service incase anyone from the company is reading this. So, dreading the ordeal, we returned to the Dublin Bus head office and queued on O'Connell St to get in and buy a ticket. This moved very quickly and we were out again in no time. We walked up to Parnell Sq again got straight onto a bus at the top of the hill at around 3ish. No queuing, no overpacking, nice driver, very well organised. Though surrounded by middle aged English punters repeatedly singing that 'I know a song that will get on your nerves' ditty much beloved of 6year olds and enjoying the smoke-filled atmosphere, we got there surprisingly quickly. Yes the walk was long but the weather was good so we didn't mind until we arrived at the gates of the castle. There, my bag was searched and though I was carrying an aerosol spray which can be used as a weapon, the checker instead took away my sealed can of jolt energy drink. I can't drink so that was my party in a can. Oh, and he didn't check our tickets. I was less than impressed.

There followed a 90 - 120 minute trek through a mucky, narrow fenced off path filled with tens of thousands of drunk, drugged and miserable (sometimes all three) people. Flashes of Hillsborough. There were no first aid or toilet facilities or water stops along this path.

We almost missed the Prodigy (who were on at 7), the only reason we were there. We were literally met with a wall of people coming in because there was no space at all for the amount of people there - clearly tickets were oversold. Bathrooms were impossible to get to. We didn't even consider going to the bar or for food. There was a giant lighting/sound rig obstructing the stage so we didn't even see the band, though we moved location several times. There were people peeing everywhere and the ground was really muddy. We left straight after The Prodigy (who were excellent by the way!)finished at 8 though we had trouble getting out as security would only let us use one of the exits. We walked back down via the road, gave our unscanned tickets to the first people who asked for them, spoke to a few nice bus men and after enough people had arrived to fill a bus (all disgruntled like us), we left and were back in the city centre for 10.40. There also appeared to be no bins on the long walk down to the concert so the whole village was in a terrible state.

I will never, ever return to Slane. It was dangerous, filthy and and example of the worst organisation I've ever seen. We deserve better.

lordgoat

Very good post Silverfox. Informative and balanced. Thanks.

And sorry to hear you (and others) had such a bad experience.

Random

Here's a couple of photos for anyone interested ..
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/album.php?albumid=658

I've been to Slane before. It's a complete pain to get into and out of but I'll accept that. "That's Slane".

My complaint was/is Dublin Bus. No communication. Drivers refused to answer knocks on the doors to clearly desperate people.

All we needed was anyone from Dublin Bus (they have radios, they have phones, they just had to get one person to tell us - via the Gardai even!) to tell us anything. If they told us we had to walk 5KM and waiting 3 hours for a bus then fine - I'll do it. But please don't just let eevryone walk aimlessly and not have your drivers know what's going on and clearly lacking buses.

Silverfox

Thanks, probably a bit middle-aged for a 26 year old!! :rolleyes:

Gavin "shels"

dylano_k wrote: »

Anybody go to Slane to see Oasis? Performance was top notch as expected and the prodigy were brilliant.

After the show on heading for the buses though...we had to walk for 2 and a half hours to get to a bus, my feet are blistered to bits now and i cant put them down, we walked 9km's to the dublin bus area that we had to pay 20return to use and thats what we got for it. Now the walk might have done me some good but other than that the travelling arrangements where despicable.

Shocking so it was, I was on Bus Eireann and we ended up getting stuck in traffic for over an hour inside the venue as some girl got stabbed or something and they had the road blocked off. Took over 6 hours to get from Slane Castle to my house in Dublin city centre.

PM10

Very badly organised both from Dublin Bus and facilities in the venue. Queued to get in for the whole of the Kasabian set in cramped conditions already touched on in previous posts. Can accept that comes with the territory, but the bar situation was crazy. One long main bar and an average hour lead time is just not acceptable for the numbers attending. And this was the type of concert you just want a few beers and enjoy the music, avoiding the scum element as you go.

Enjoyed The Prodigy, but ended up leaving before Oasis started with 3 others in our party as we had become seriously concerned about how it would work getting back to Dublin - we all had very limited confidence in Dublin bus from experience getting out there. Also, getting frustrated that we could not get a beer - No way you should have to queue that long for a pint.

Walked back to the buses over the bridge. Sent from pillar to post by Dublin bus as we queued to get our single tickets at the mobile sales desk, and then explained that they had no tickets to sell us until another member of staff arrived 10 mins later with the carboard box of tickets! Staff attitude very carefree, could be certainly seen as irritating for those who have had a tough few hours before to get to this point & not in the best leaving early as it is. Nobody appeared in control of the situation.

Got on the first bus out of there once it filled up and back in Dublin before 11pm.

Went for a few beers locally and out until after 3am - we could still see the Slane buses coming back as we rambled home, so felt we made the right call.

Very disappointed not to see Oasis, but sounds as though in general our fears about Dublin bus organisation (or lack of it) on the return were realised for many poor people.

Nobody expects an event like this to go off perfectly and queues, delays, limited toliets are part of the game. No issue with paying inflated prices also.

However, this event was really badly organised, bordering on dangerous, and to an extent feel cheated by the organisers, as reasonable expectation is that they can deliver some decent bar facilities & a better entrance/exit system.

I despair for Dublin Bus regarding organisation on what I saw yesterday and the posts that I read on this site today.

but1er

yeah ok we get the bad orgainsing of d busses i shouted at me da dont worry but come on it was a great day

i left finglas at 10:30 in slane for 11 roughly qued and buzzed about for an hour good laugh

then the messyness started everyone is runnin to the same spot RUNNIN why its 12 in the day no1 is on till 3 and ur gettin a pit that really annoyed me

i didnt have to que for beer as im underage and dont drink i brought me own sambos and drinks spare caps happy days

in the pit all bands gr8 except glasvages der bad (see them at u2 )

going home yeah it was a nightmare i left slane at say 10:40 didnt find my bus till after 1 as there was no organsigin but didnt care was with my m8s having a laugh was gr8 fun

i enjoyed seen my 2 fav bands

stop givin out about d busses can we tlk about d gig itself?

baztard

I came in on a bus on the Navan entrance side. There was relatively little traffic so we got within 20 minutes walk of the entrance. Quick in and quick out. The queue at the bar was a joke. If I didnt sneak a naggin in, it would have been a very sober days worth of queueing.

Hartyk87

maninasia wrote: »

1. The ticketing system was a fiasco. Printing out tickets obviously led to loads of counterfeits being sold to gullible punters. Seemingly there was a crush of people getting in around 5pm and they just opened the gates, nobody checked our tickets! Took over an hour to get from the gate to the actual concert venue. The place was full and it was entirely possible that there were more than 80,000 there. Crowd control and safety issues going on big time.

2. Queues of 40mins-1hr for 1 brand of beer....I didn't bother... Crap unhygenic food...don't even provide water to wash your hands..

3. Tonnes of cops standing around everywhere doing nothing, still better to have them than not I guess.

4. Transport was a disaster, all buses and coaches have to park on the side of a country road extending miles from the stadium. We left early and we still got stuck in mad traffic...I feel very sorry for the people stranded behind us (22 euro for bus tickets, 80 euro for tickets, 6 euro manky burgers.....complete joke).

5. Prodigy and Oasis sets were great, the problem was we were so far back they were pin-pricks (I know can't expect much with an 80,000 crowd).
Oasis didn't make much effort to get the crowd going but they never do.

6. Usual alcoholic fest that is Ireland...just not into being surrounded by drunks and druggies anymore piles of rubbish and crap everywhere...

I'm not ever going back to Slane, it's not an enjoyable day out all things considered....I was thinking to myself I'd have been better off going to see the street performance in town and meeting up with mates for pints...I'd say a lot of people thought the same. It'd be Croke Park or O2 for me from now on......

I dont entirly agree with what your are saying here.
It sound to me you want athe concert in a 5 star hotel "at your service".

I will on the other hand agree on the transport situation it wass a bloody disgrace.

Wel done to Dublin bus but the bottle neck out of the street was stupid it was a free for all on the road. i left the concert at 10.30 at the very end and arrive in O' Connell st at 4.15am.

My friend parked at the very outside and was in waterford by the time I was going into my hotel. (and yes they are careful drivers)

My first time been to salne really enjoyed the concert but the organisation for it was the pitts.

jester77

Oasis are still around :eek: suck it up OP, at least now you'll have a reason to remember Slane 09

NickNolte

The fact that so many people accept the dispicable organisation of this fiasco only confirms my suspicions that folk will fork out for anything. €80 for a ticket that I didn't even need to buy to get in and €20 for a return bus ticket.

The bus left us about 3 miles from the venue. We got there in time for Kasabian but there was an hour and a half queue in the forest path before we could get in. So we missed all of Kasabian and arrived just as the Prodigy came on stage. The place was mobbed. It was impossible to get a drink or food without queueing for over an hour. The gig seemed to be reasonably good but we left after about half an hour and went back to Dublin. The thought of leaving at the same time as everyone else, it just didn't seem worth it.

The whole thing was a disgrace. Granted it was my first gig at Slane but I will never go back. I love going to gigs but yesterday was one of the worst experiences of my life. I would recommend nobody ever go to a gig there if yesterday is a typical day out in Slane. It was nothing short of catastrophic.

Hartyk87

Silverfox wrote: »

It was my first time at Slane yesterday and though it wasn't the first concert or festival i've attended by far, I've always avoided it because of the long walk and general messiness that you hear of every year. I figured it would be the same as any other festival. Oh how wrong I was.

I missed out on The Prodigy at Brixton last year so my parents bought me two tickets for Slane as a xmas gift. They were really the only band I wanted to see. Having wandered up to Parnell Sq and seen the melee we decided to find a Bus Eireann bus to take us to the concert but discovered on arrival that they had all left by 2ish. Not great service incase anyone from the company is reading this. So, dreading the ordeal, we returned to the Dublin Bus head office and queued on O'Connell St to get in and buy a ticket. This moved very quickly and we were out again in no time. We walked up to Parnell Sq again got straight onto a bus at the top of the hill at around 3ish. No queuing, no overpacking, nice driver, very well organised. Though surrounded by middle aged English punters repeatedly singing that 'I know a song that will get on your nerves' ditty much beloved of 6year olds and enjoying the smoke-filled atmosphere, we got there surprisingly quickly. Yes the walk was long but the weather was good so we didn't mind until we arrived at the gates of the castle. There, my bag was searched and though I was carrying an aerosol spray which can be used as a weapon, the checker instead took away my sealed can of jolt energy drink. I can't drink so that was my party in a can. Oh, and he didn't check our tickets. I was less than impressed.

There followed a 90 - 120 minute trek through a mucky, narrow fenced off path filled with tens of thousands of drunk, drugged and miserable (sometimes all three) people. Flashes of Hillsborough. There were no first aid or toilet facilities or water stops along this path.

We almost missed the Prodigy (who were on at 7), the only reason we were there. We were literally met with a wall of people coming in because there was no space at all for the amount of people there - clearly tickets were oversold. Bathrooms were impossible to get to. We didn't even consider going to the bar or for food. There was a giant lighting/sound rig obstructing the stage so we didn't even see the band, though we moved location several times. There were people peeing everywhere and the ground was really muddy. We left straight after The Prodigy (who were excellent by the way!)finished at 8 though we had trouble getting out as security would only let us use one of the exits. We walked back down via the road, gave our unscanned tickets to the first people who asked for them, spoke to a few nice bus men and after enough people had arrived to fill a bus (all disgruntled like us), we left and were back in the city centre for 10.40. There also appeared to be no bins on the long walk down to the concert so the whole village was in a terrible state.

I will never, ever return to Slane. It was dangerous, filthy and and example of the worst organisation I've ever seen. We deserve better.

fantastic post i have to say you did miss a very good show from oasis organisation was the pits when finished it took me a 5 and ahalf hour journey into dublin city after the concert.

will never do it again. EVER

Hartyk87

what was the pint for that forrest path when we walked straight onto the road as an exit!!

Slane is a DISASTER waiting to happen.

Im surprised its still alowed to go ahead at all.

Raze_them_all

The look on peoples faces when they found out they were only half way was kinda funny though

Gavin "shels"

heymayo wrote: »

Hi Guys, Does anyone know if a DVD was made of Slane Last Night??

MTV were recording it afaik, so I'm sure it will be on MTV or they'll bring it out on DVD.

Kazooie wrote: »

Anyone get sun burn? Didn't think it was hot enough but my face and neck are red this mornin.

Yup burnt to feck I am, was in Slane at 12.30 pint in hand on the grass and well I can feel it today, arms, face and neck burnt to a crisp.




As for the gig, it was quality, got there mad early enjoyed the day, no queues for pints until like 5pm. The Blizzards and Glasvegas were ok, but expected more. Kasabian were great but could have done another song or two. The Prodigy were brilliant, really got the crowd going and for those of us in the pit they got the moshing going. Then Oasis were great, but I've been to see them before and they weren't as good yesterday.

As for the transport, the walk from Slane Castle to the buses was a joke, then we got on Bus Eireann and ended up stuck for over an hour inside the place as some girl supposely got stabbed and the Guards blocked the 3 lanes. Then finally we get into town at 4.15.

evil_seed

why are people on about traffic and buses? they were not part of the gig. anyone giving out is doing it for the sake of giving out. 5 of us went up from Galway yesterday. left at 8AM. Arrived at 12. Few tinnies on the side of the road and then in to see the start of the show.

The Blizzards were very ood. Better than I expected. I was glad to see them cos I missed them at the Volvo Ocean Race a few weeks back.

Next up was Glasvegas. This is just my opinion but they are ****e. I paid no attention to them what so ever. I spent that time goin around nd gettin pics of me in other peoples crazy hats. Great fun.

Kasabian were very good from what I saw of them, but I did miss most of their show queueing for pints.

Next up was The Prodigy and oh my god they were amazing. I'm in bits from leppin' around like a mad yoke. Fantastic performance and had all the crowd buzzin big time.

Oasis were just fantastic. Everyone seemed to be there to see them. So hoarse.

All in all it was a fantastic day out. People moanin on here are just a pile of wanker really that can't go out and enjoy themselves nd only look for excuses to have a moan

Rizzla King

I thought it was a good show, in saying that I only arrived for The Prodigy when I planned to at least make Kasabian. The worst feeling was when you were waiting and you didn't know when the walk was going to end and then you reminded yourself that you're doing all of this to then stand for a few more hours and be thrown around and being crowdsurfed(Happened me a few times alright) by people who were off their head on everything under the sun.

Getting home was nonsense, terrible organisation. As much as it hurts me to say, all that didn't even spoil such a brilliant performance which I saw. It was worth it!!!

But I ain't going back!!

but1er

evil_seed wrote: »

Next up was Glasvegas. This is just my opinion but they are ****e. I paid no attention to them what so ever. I spent that time goin around nd gettin pics of me in other peoples crazy hats. Great fun.

think ya try take my hat with a feather it hmm

darren37

double post

lordgoat

darren37 wrote: »

dublin bus are a comercial company, ok they were an absolute joke when it came to the transport but the cops are responsible for public saftey, they are the people who sanctioned the transport plan. i really dont know how there wasnt a death there last night.not a thing about this debacle in the media, whats the story there?.the only thing mentioned in the sunday world is that a few people got anoyed at the bar, what a load of crap.why did they close the portaloos at ten and make people have to urinate in public. why have a giant WATER sign up on an ice cream van where they charged 10 euro a bottle.as far as im concerned the blame for this nightmare has to be with the top cop in charge of the event.period

You've already made this exact same post on this page. Do not reprint it again. You have vented and made your point.

woodzyx

What's that Ben Stiller film where there's a basketball scene and while these two guys jump for the ball, one's large and sweaty and fairly mingin basically and (in slow motion) he rubs his whole stomach off the other guy's little face?
It may be Dodgeball.

Anyway, this kept happening to me with this one guy who, aside from traumatising me, kept starting little heckles and 'punch-ups' with everyone. This was during Oasis!

Basically I didn't let this gob****e ruin the whole experience. If that was worth it for Oasis than so was the ****ter of a walk and the fact that we were stranded at a garage for a further couple of hours...- far less traumatising.

_kier_

k so slane was unreal prodigy were absoltuely unbelieveable aswell were kasabian!! we got there early enough and were made park on the northern irish side for some reason... no probs though no traffic on the way up or anythin walked to the castle got drink taken off us ut bought more at the garage dunno wat the was about....
as with any festival ull get scumbags just ignore em get along wit em and enjoy it wen we first got there there was no queue for drink but towards the end one of the lads did queue for an hour and a half for two pints and was not allowed anymer yet people were comin out wit loads more!!! no traffic on the way home was back in cork for bout 3 which was good goin we didnt leave early we didnt rush just happened perfectly
oasis i dont think were as good as marley park but the day was still unreal!!!
dont see how peeople had so much problems over 80000 in one area is bound to have problems just be glad u were one of the gowls passed out on the grass at 6!!!

PirateShampoo

Find it funny people moaning they couldnt get in when they arrived late, wtf where u expecting with 80 thousand + people there?

I arrived for The Blizzards, got our selves a super spot on the bank to the right of the stage, done all our drinking by the time The Prodigy came on so no more beer runs. It was fairly obvious that the ques would be massive but still people qued and then moan about it here.

Had a super time, only gripe i have is the way they handled the croweds at the end, it was a disaster waiting to happen.

suzieb

I'd love to know why there is nothing in the media today in relation to the major problems 90% of people seem to have experienced at slane.
Even the people who are saying in this forum that it didnt bother them as everyone knows this stuff goes on at slane, seem to recognise that there was major safety concerns at and after the concert.

Forgot to say earlier my boyfriend went to the bar at 4.45 and came out at 5.40. While he was there a barrier fell through and him along with plenty of other people fell on the ground. Lots of girls crying as they couldnt get out of there. Reminded him of footage he's seen at hillsborough and just too dangerous for it to be brushed aside imo by the media, who are reporting that only 10 arrests were made as if thats the only bad thing that happened at slane yesterday.

The toilets at the top bar were also closed completely just before oasis came on and my friend and I had to beg a young guy beside the forest to let us go in there. Most of the fellas just seemed to be pi*sing against anything that stood still.

Overall, a great concert but a disgrace as there was no concern for peoples safety. It took 2 lads drowning 14 years ago for garda and civil defence to start monitoring the boyne,is that the only way people can expect for something to be done about the dangers at slane that was experienced yesterday?