Leonard Cohen

fanof

Hi. I'll be travelling from Galway for Leonard Cohen's concert on the 31st. Can anyone with local knowledge advise me on where to park and get a shuttle bus to Lissadell? Thanks.

Betsy18

Here you go!
http://oceanfm.ie/news/2010/07/26/countdown-on-to-lissadell-gigs/

Also i know Discover Sligo are providing buses straight to Lissadell House. check out ther webiste at http://www.discoversligo.com/

fanof

Betsy18 wrote: »

Here you go!
http://oceanfm.ie/news/2010/07/26/countdown-on-to-lissadell-gigs/

Also i know Discover Sligo are providing buses straight to Lissadell House. check out ther webiste at http://www.discoversligo.com/

Thanks a million Betsy.

Neworder79

Pic of Leonard arriving at Ireland West Airport yesteday.

http://www.mayotoday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/l-cohen.jphttp://www.mayotoday.ie/2010/07/29/hallelujah-leonard-cohen-touches-down-at-ireland-west-airport-knock/-8776

Gipo3

You can drive and park 10 mins walk from venue for free.

fanof

Neworder79: He's looking well! Hope it stays dry for all of us.

Thanks Gipo3, might do that.

tuppence

Neworder79 wrote: »

Pic of Leonard arriving at Ireland West Airport yesteday.

http://www.mayotoday.ie/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/l-cohen.jphttp://www.mayotoday.ie/2010/07/29/hallelujah-leonard-cohen-touches-down-at-ireland-west-airport-knock/-8776

That airport must be due a name change by now.

rampantglory

Gipo3 wrote: »

You can drive and park 10 mins walk from venue for free.

Hey do u know where this park n ride is located??

bennyc

I drove last night and i think Westlife finished at 10.55, I was back in ballymote with kids in bed by 11.50. I was speaking to people who were still getting out of the car park at that stage mind you. But we were leaving the stands as they were finishing the encore so beat the rush. I was in the red car park apparently a lot closer to the stage with a different entrance .

As for the venue, it was some setup loads of food and Heiniken have two bars onsite, the bars to the left of the stage were very quiet with most people entering the grounds from the other side.
Tip of the night for the ladys would be to use the mens toilets to the left of the stage, there are two other toilets with massive qs but there were more ladys in the mens than men with no qs.

bennyc

rampantglory wrote: »

Hey do u know where this park n ride is located??

The car entrance off the main road is nearly in Grange it is about 1KM past Henrys Restaurant it takes a backroad and the carpark is a five minute walk to the entrance. Loads of Garda doing a very good job in fairness so you cannot go wrong.

rampantglory

Cheers benny great advice thanks a lot

Essexboy

bennyc wrote: »

The car entrance off the main road is nearly in Grange it is about 1KM past Henrys Restaurant it takes a backroad and the carpark is a five minute walk to the entrance. Loads of Garda doing a very good job in fairness so you cannot go wrong.

Loads of Garda doing a very good job
Lounging at the entrance to every sideroad after Drumcliff is not what I call a good job. I hope the organisers, not the public, are picking up the bill for their time.

dolmen

Friends using the shuttle buses arrived back in Sligo 3hrs after show.

rampantglory

Essexboy wrote: »

Loads of Garda doing a very good job
Lounging at the entrance to every sideroad after Drumcliff is not what I call a good job. I hope the organisers, not the public, are picking up the bill for their time.

That's the gardai , that's why we love em there Irish first and gardai second. I said hello to everyone of em on they way in, good normal people. No guns no angry faces no paranoia.. I don't mind giving em a cut of my wages

bennyc

Essexboy wrote: »

Loads of Garda doing a very good job
Lounging at the entrance to every sideroad after Drumcliff is not what I call a good job. I hope the organisers, not the public, are picking up the bill for their time.

so instead you would perfer all traffic going where ever they want ignoring all the no entrance signs (and they would), and some young fellas with hi vis jackets trying to direct traffic back onto the main Donegal road in the middle of the night.

Betsy18

BennyC i'm glad you had a better experience than me!!!

i paid for a shuttle bus through Discover Sligo, the buses took off without half the passengers due to stewards stopping us and closing the gates for nearly an hour before letting us out into the carpark to run for a bus! no buses left for us!!:mad:

we were then told that the buses were on their way into the carpark from the main rd, 2 hours later after being pushed, shoved and physically assaulted by stewards nearly 1000 people were then shoved out to walk in the pitch dark relying on the light of mobile phones to walk the 2/3 miles to the crossroads! during this journey i witnessed children as young as 3/4 yrs crying their eyes out with tiredness and fear. women collapsing and a pregnant woman collapsing and being rushed to hospital with suspected miscarraige due to the upset caused. we eventually reached the crossroads to be greeted with about 20 buses lined up. this joy was short lived when we were informed that the first bus was ours and full and the other 19 buses were for sligo customers only!!over 20 people were left standing at the side of the rd stranded!:mad:

the stewards then tried to get us a bus, sligo buses were sitting with empty buses so they agreed to take us home but were charging us €15 each!!!we refused to pay and were put off the bus!

at 2.40am a kind hearted bus eireann driver offered to take us home free of charge! i arrived home at 3.15am, a journey which should have taken less than 30 minutes drive took nearly 4 hrs later, i could have travelled to Dublin at that rate! it was the worst scenes i have ever experienced and has left children and adults all scarred! i have contacted Discover Sligo today and all they are doing is taking our details and passing our complaint to managerment! oceanfm will be flooded with calls tuesday morning because there is no way i am letting them off with that kind of behaviour! it was a sad and disappointing end to what had been a great concert!:(

kildaremum

Loads of Garda doing a very good job
Lounging at the entrance to every sideroad after Drumcliff is not what I call a good job. I hope the organisers, not the public, are picking up the bill for their time.

In reply to essexboy, why do you hope the organisers are picking up the bill for the gardai time. Look at all the additional concert-goers that are in Sligo this weekend spending their money who wouldn't otherwise be there. Maybe the town is having a profitable weekend revenue wise and so what if the gardai are standing about at crossroads instead of sitting around in cars or out checking for road tax. Isn't it great to have so many people about.

scarpetta65

I attended the Leonard Cohen concert (seeing as the thread title is Leonard Cohen and not Westlife/shuttle-bus fiasco/bad concert organisation) and would have to say it was a great experience. I drove and parked in the blue car-par, lots of stewards, short walk to the venue. Great food stalls, superb sound, three hours of sheer magic. After the concert we walked back along the well-lit path (I had taken a little torch in case it was needed), found the car, and was back home within an hour (35 miles away). I don't know what the bus situation was on Saturday night but the only complaint I would have is the rain, and even that didn't spoil it!

teddybear73

have to say the Garda did a great job last night. Im not normally their biigest fans but credit where credits dues. They were brilliant last nite. Was in the blue car park and was back in town within 45 minutes of leaving the main concert area. Some people would moan about anything.

Essexboy

kildaremum wrote: »

Loads of Garda doing a very good job
Lounging at the entrance to every sideroad after Drumcliff is not what I call a good job. I hope the organisers, not the public, are picking up the bill for their time.

In reply to essexboy, why do you hope the organisers are picking up the bill for the gardai time. Look at all the additional concert-goers that are in Sligo this weekend spending their money who wouldn't otherwise be there. Maybe the town is having a profitable weekend revenue wise and so what if the gardai are standing about at crossroads instead of sitting around in cars or out checking for road tax. Isn't it great to have so many people about.

Any Garda presence is on top of normal policing at that time. The service they provide is over and above what the community would normally be paying for ie officers are on overtime. The concert is the source of this extra expense.

The costs are not confined to the Gardai on the street. Considerable time may be spent pre-event attending planning meetings, discussing proposals, exercising emergency plans, planning the Garda response and writing operational orders. Whilst Gardai are undertaking these tasks, staff are not involved in crime reduction or other service delivery matters.

PLUS A major community (ie non-profit making) event in North Sligo which took place this weekend just a few miles from Lissadell was unable to obtain any Garda assistance because all available officers were diverted to the concert.

LostCovey

teddybear73 wrote: »

have to say the Garda did a great job last night. Im not normally their biigest fans but credit where credits dues. They were brilliant last nite. Was in the blue car park and was back in town within 45 minutes of leaving the main concert area. Some people would moan about anything.

Just a few points on the show -

Yes, we had a longer drive to Connemara, but we were through Sligo town within an hour of finding the car.


The organisation of the event itself was a bit naive and amateurish, but good-hearted and I am sure there were a lot of lessons learned for the next time. I hope there is a next time. It is a lovely venue.

From what I saw,

the mistakes were:

That plastic paving (don't know what it's called) is perfect. BUT there wasn't near enough of it, and an apparent expectation that 10,000 people would obediently walk four or five abreast and keep on narrow strips of it - never going to happen. Looked like the budget for that was ridiculously tight.

There stewards everywhere when we parked, but none when we were leaving the car park, apart from one poor girl at the gate who did a great job dealing with the chaos that arises when a few thousand cars try to leave a field through one gate. She should have a lot more support, good as she was, maybe from the tossers in reflective jackets who lined the road outside the gate looking self satisfied and scratching them selves.

The food and drink vendors were packed together and were unprepared for the crowds - one bar sold only beer, so you had to go to a second bar if someone wanted a glass of wine (to a place that sold no beer!), then join a third queue for grub. Lots and lots of unnecessary queuing - always a feature of out door events, maybe a little worse than usual.

the crowd was too big for the venue and the performer.

Everything from parking, to toilets, to catering, would have run smoother with maybe a quarter/third less people. The stage & seating was WEDGED into the site.

The buses were a shambles (again). This can't be that complicated to get right - or if it is, then the venue is unsuitable.

Something that will come out in the next week is the shameful way some people with restricted mobility were treated by the arrangements. I heard some horror stories abiou people with disabilities, who went to the special car park, and had a longer walk than we had from the ordinary car park.

BUT ALL OF THE ABOVE WAS OUTWEIGHED BY THE GOOD POINTS:

This was a really friendly event - friendly helpful stewards, low-key security, and a charming gentleman leading a fantastic band on stage.

The food was just classy, really fantastic and not a rip-off. Even the burgers were a cut above average.

The show was a magnificant spectacle, and a joy for the fan or newcomer. Three hours, 45 mins, with a 20 minute break. And Leonard himself was in fine voice and form.

Fantastic show, and possibly the best sound I have ever encountered at a live show. We heard on the radio on the way up that Leonard Cohen and the band spent 2 1/2 hours from 2 pm on the sound check. That is the dedication of a true professional. It paid off, every word was clear to the back row, and this was achieved at a volume that was a lot less than we have become used to at these events.


Watching the athleticism and theatricality of an elderly pro still at the top of his game. I want his knees when he dies! He routinely dropped to his knes during songs, and returned gracefully to a standing position. At 76? No hands, no grunting either!

A great night, with a few bad niggles that need fixing before they do this again. Hope they do.

LostCovey

teddybear73

Essexboy wrote: »

Any Garda presence is on top of normal policing at that time. The service they provide is over and above what the community would normally be paying for ie officers are on overtime. The concert is the source of this extra expense.

The costs are not confined to the Gardai on the street. Considerable time may be spent pre-event attending planning meetings, discussing proposals, exercising emergency plans, planning the Garda response and writing operational orders. Whilst Gardai are undertaking these tasks, staff are not involved in crime reduction or other service delivery matters.

PLUS A major community (ie non-profit making) event in North Sligo which took place this weekend just a few miles from Lissadell was unable to obtain any Garda assistance because all available officers were diverted to the concert.

So that means that GAA matches and Sligo Rovers games and all other events that are held should be left without Garda cover.
When the Fleadh Ceoil was held in Sligo the Garda had a huge amount of manpower to keep things in check.
It is estimated the concert brought up to 20m Euro to the local economy. A few extra hours of garda overtime is a small price to pay for that. Just talk to the hoteliers and b+b owners in Sligo and ask them the question. Pure bregrudgery is a reason why Sligo is miles behind other parts of the country.

forumfiend

First and foremost it was the best concert I've ever been to. An emotional, spiritual experience, I'd go so far as to say. LC is a legend and it was a privilege to be in his presence. The band, backing singers and sound were as good as you will ever see. All in all, an experience never to be forgotten.

The food and drink stands were great notwithstanding the points made earlier about beer in one place, wine in another etc. They could have done with more toilets though.

Traffic and parking was fine on the way in, chaos on the way out, took us 90 mins to get out of the blue car park. Gardai did all they could be expected to do, it's the organisers putting a thousand cars into a field with one gate, at the end of 5kms of boreen, that are to blame.

Essexboy

teddybear73 wrote: »

So that means that GAA matches and Sligo Rovers games and all other events that are held should be left without Garda cover.
When the Fleadh Ceoil was held in Sligo the Garda had a huge amount of manpower to keep things in check.
It is estimated the concert brought up to 20m Euro to the local economy. A few extra hours of garda overtime is a small price to pay for that. Just talk to the hoteliers and b+b owners in Sligo and ask them the question. Pure bregrudgery is a reason why Sligo is miles behind other parts of the country.

Clubs, events, sports organisations etc have had to pay towards the cost of policing such events for years and years.

If there are 8 gardai working in Sligo on a given weekend, and because of an event, a concert in this case, 40 are needed (or what ever the figure is ) where do 32 Gardai get conjured up from??

Do you take them from Castlebar, Donegal etc and leave those communities short???? . . . . .No

You've two choices, the state funds the whole thing at a cost to all tax payers (not just Sligo residents) or, as a measure introduced to SAVE the Taxpayer money, the organisers contribute to the cost of policing THEIR event.

The organisers can simply recoup the money involved through tickets.

Nobody gets paid twice, but the Taxpayer is saved money.

*shadow*

There's no excuse for not having enough Gardai..I've seen more Gardai down protecting Shells ass in Mayo than there were protecting 10,000 people at Lissadell....but I suppose people aren't as important as a multi billion dollar corporation!!