Castlepalooza 2011

Vetinarugbian

Hows it going?

Just got an early bird ticket to Castlepalooza there and Ive been searching everywhere for any rumours? Cant find any anywhere , theres usually a few names knocking about but no signs yet? I know it will be out in a few weeks but just wondering if anybody had heard anything?
Never been before but heard nothing but great things about it.

Conor Brennan

Hi Vet,

I heard the line up and website will be launched this week i.e. last week of April. Only band I know that are playing this year are TransAutoRadio, a 6 piece instrumental band with some vocals. They are incredible live. Saw them play Crawdaddy last month. You should check them out online.

Looking forward to this year's festival too, especially if we get the weather.

C

ShriekingSheet

Line up posted here http://www.castlepalooza.com/lineup.html

In alphabetical order which is a nice touch.

Toast

Added Last.fm event. I've also confirmed with the promoters that early bird tickets are eligible for entry on the Friday.

mal1

I'm not liking this line-up too much but i suppose the tickets are cheap.

Vetinarugbian

Thanks for that, yeah not a huge fan of the line up. I dont where Id got it in my head that Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip would be playing so annoyed there not.
To be honest I dont know much about any of teh bands playing.
Has anybody got any favourites?

lordgoat

Some of the best new Irish bands are on that line up. For 60 it's an amazing price

rainbowdrop

Vetinarugbian wrote: »

Thanks for that, yeah not a huge fan of the line up. I dont where Id got it in my head that Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip would be playing so annoyed there not.
To be honest I dont know much about any of teh bands playing.
Has anybody got any favourites?

Dan le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip are playing at Indiependence festival the same weekend as this, probably where you got the idea!

Conor Brennan

I think its a really strong line up this year too - the festival is always majority irish acts. The Jimmy Cake and TransAutoRadio (instrumental music) and jape (electro pop) among my favorites - you can download free music on TransAutoRadio's website. Looks like the biggest year for the festival yet! Should be a great one!

Denalihighway

super lineup given the price IMO

anyone who's been knows the buzz around the festival is super as well. gonna try round up a posse for this one, might skip EP for the first time ever this year...or might not...been saying that for 3 years

Dowdy

Thinking about heading to this festival this year but the no alcohol thing is turning me off. Can someone who's been to it recently tell me what they charge for pints, and what they charge for cans in the off-licence? Do they sell spirits in the off-licence too? And would it be possible to get in with a plastic bottle filled with whiskey at all? How much searching do they do when you enter the site (do they open out all of your bags, etc.)?

Toast

Alot of your questions are answered in last years thread. Conversations here about smuggling booze in won't end well.

Dowdy

Right, ignore the smuggling question... As for questions about the prices, thanks for the link, I had actually found that thread after posting the last comment but it's full of conflicting info – one person says cans were €2, another lists prices saying cans were €3 and slabs were €60, people saying that before 8pm cans were way more expensive and slabs were €80... What's the story with all that? Was quite keen on going but from what I've read here they've been dicking people around with regard to drink for the last few years so I'll probably give it a miss if the cans are too dear.

Toast

* Lager Can (500ml) €3
* Kopparberg Cider (500ml) €4
* Draught Pint – Lager/ Stout €5
* Short & mixer €5
* Cocktails from €5
* Shot €5
* Wine €4
* Off license Can (500ml) 6 for €15 (€2.50 each), 24 for €60

Those were the prices posted on the website last year. As it happened the cups they had were less than 500ml so they knocked the price of "a large cup" to 4 euro. There didn't appear to be any limits last year when they sold "off license" cans. In previous years they only did this from 8pm.

nxbyveromdwjpg

I went to Indiependance that weekend last year but CP the year before that.

Cant remember the exact prices from those years to be honest but they are not offo prices. Between 3 and 5 a can depending on the time of day, something like that.
It's a joke in fairness.

Apart from that it's a great little festival though.

Mr_Ekan

Jebus, looking through the line-up (the Shank, Jogging, Enemies), it seems that the Richter Collective are taking over the country one festival at a time.

Not a bad thing at all, considering Beyonce was added to Oxegen today.

ShriekingSheet

I like my indep irish music and still haven't ever heard of a few of those acts. Will still give them a listen ahead of the gig. That's what it's about I suppose.

I reckon 20% of the people go down because they're really into the bands, and 80% don't know most of the bands but just go down because it's a deadly time.

this_time

Have the 3 day tickets sold out for this? It said so on their facebook last Friday but Ticketmaster still seems to show availability.

Dowdy

Right,

I was unsure about booking tickets to this festival because of all the complaints about the drinks policy, etc., on boards, so before myself and a load of friends booked I emailed them to ask them for some straight answers regarding the off-licences. Here's what I asked:

1. Will the slabs be €60 at all times, or will they be more expensive (someone told me €80!?) before 8pm?

2. Will the off-licence be open throughout the festival, i.e. will we be able to buy cans when we arrive on the Friday afternoon?

3. If the slabs are €60 each, is there a range of different drinks available at this price (Heineken, cider, etc.), or is it just the cheaper drinks like Bavaria that are €60?

Here are the answers they sent me:

1. €60 per slab (as per other festivals) & available all day until bar closes at 10PM.
2. Yes, open all weekend including Friday
3. Yes, few different lagers and cider

This all sounded very good to me, so I booked tickets for myself and a large group of friends, based on this information.

Now I just noticed that the beer pricing is up on their website, and here is what is sold in the off-licence at €60: Budvar, Stoya, Hackenberg, and Kopparberg. All complete piss, and all 'budget' drinks, that you could get slabs of for less than half the price of these so-called 'off-licence' prices. So they lied to my 'is it just the cheaper drinks like Bavaria' question.

On top of this, the site now says that the off-licence is open from 1-2pm and from 6-10pm, so they again completely lied when they said it was 'open all weekend' and 'available all day until bar closes at 10pm'. I had explicitly asked could we buy from the off-licence when we arrived on Friday afternoon - the gates open at 3pm, so we have to buy drinks at bar prices until 6pm when the offie opens.

I'm very ****ing pissed off about this, having forked out for this 'boutique' festival (when I think of the word 'boutique' I usually don't associate it with the kind of pissy cheap drinks favoured by first-year students and the homeless...), and told all my mates that it wouldn't be just the cheap brands of booze available.

Toast

I've called out the organisers in the past re burying the "no bring your own booze" policies on their site and not fulfilling their promises of reasonable prices and in general they've been a lot better in recent years than in the earlier ones so I wouldn't be surprised if they just failed to read your mail thoroughly rather than actively going out of their way to mislead you.

Anyway If you've 3 day tickets you'll probably have no problem finding takers for them as they are sold out .

As an aside I wouldn't consider Budvar / Kopparberg as "budget" drinks. You'll pay more for either in the average bar over the price of a Heineken / Carlsberg.

Dowdy

Toast wrote: »

I've called out the organisers in the past re burying the "no bring your own booze" policies on their site and not fulfilling their promises of reasonable prices and in general they've been a lot better in recent years than in the earlier ones so I wouldn't be surprised if they just failed to read your mail thoroughly rather than actively going out of their way to mislead you.

Anyway If you've 3 day tickets you'll probably have no problem finding takers for them as they are sold out .

As an aside I wouldn't consider Budvar / Kopparberg as "budget" drinks. You'll pay more for either in the average bar over the price of a Heineken / Carlsberg.

Well, Budvar and Kopparberg go pretty cheaply in most off-licences, however much they cost in bars. I've calmed down a bit since that earlier post anyway, having been told that Budvar is actually not a bad beer, and after reflecting on the fact that I usually drink cans of Heineken at festivals, and Heineken is fairly ****ty beer for the cost of it.

I'm mostly just pissed off at the lack of honesty in the email. I think they deliberately avoided telling me what the beers were that were on offer, and that they also should have told me about the off-licence opening times rather than clearly stating that they are open all day until 10pm.

Feck it, I'm going anyway at this stage! Not much I can do about it. i just wanted to let the organisers know that they can't keep blatantly misinforming people about their already-ludicrous drink policy without it ending up being publicised on boards and elsewhere.

Hopefully the weather will hold for it now. Yer wan on the forecast the other night claimed it will get progressively warmer each day for the rest of July, which is welcome after the wintery week we had last week...

Dowdy

Also, is Kopparberg just a pear cider? I know there's some berry version of it, but it's normally pear, right? Is there a normal apple cider Kopparberg? That aul' pear stuff gets awful sickening after a few cans.

mp3ireland2

Apologies if this is a stupid question, so you can't even bring your own drink into the campsite!! (as opposed to most places where u can drink ur own stuff in the campsite). Major turn off if this is the case! trying to decide between this and indipendence! Way prefer the line up at the latter, but know some people going to the former! so just want to clarify this, might be able to change their minds!

ghostdancer

mp3ireland2 wrote: »

Apologies if this is a stupid question, so you can't even bring your own drink into the campsite!! (as opposed to most places where u can drink ur own stuff in the campsite). Major turn off if this is the case! trying to decide between this and indipendence! Way prefer the line up at the latter, but know some people going to the former! so just want to clarify this, might be able to change their minds!

no, you can't bring any drink to Castlepalooza:
http://www.castlepalooza.net/2011/foodanddrink.html

apparently the campsite and arena part are the same, ie. no checks/fence between them, so there'd be no way of stopping people just drinking their own alcohol all the time.

you'd think that they would charge cheaper prices for drink from the on-site off-licence, but they charge 2.50 a can, which is ridiculous really, and a fiver per pint is the same as usual festival/concert prices, more than most pubs.

i'm going to Indiependence that weekend too for a number of reasons, the alcohol situation being one.

Toast

They are completely aware that people choose not to go to the festival because of this rule. I've been bitching about it every year since they launched and it makes up a good 75% of the discussions here on the festival. I've come to the conclusion that they must be telling the truth that they've no choice in the matter even if I'm not so sure that it is solely because of the license (why they don't get the same license as Mór festival had in the past has never been explained).

Anyway every year the stuff they get right has always brought me back even in the face of that stupid rule.

MadsL

Dowdy wrote: »

been told that Budvar is actually not a bad beer, and after reflecting on the fact that I usually drink cans of Heineken at festivals, and Heineken is fairly ****ty beer for the cost of it...

Having been brewing it since 1795 they have learnt a thing or two Give up the mass produced muck; Budvar = no hangover (promise )

Dowdy

I meant to post this the other day but didn't have time. The organisers responded to me, telling me that they could open the off-licences earlier on the Friday for those of us who want to buy cans when we arrive shortly after the gates open, which would be sound. Hopefully they'll keep their word on that!

The long-range weather forecast is looking pretty sweet now for next weekend. Bring it on!

Amaru KGB

Any tips for Castlepalooza in comparison to other festivals?

smadcu

So is everyone basically saying don't bother smuggling in drink? 'Cause I've heard from people who went before that it's quite easy to do...Don't know whether to bother now...

121212

hi, have 3 day camping tickets for sale 89 euro each, will sell both for 120, couple of people have pulled out. In cork area or up in tullamore from saturday

ShriekingSheet

I don't get this. It's a total false economy.

At most other festivals, you bring a stack of cheaply-bought booze down on Friday, and by the time Saturday night or Sunday comes, it's either turned into luke-warm soup, or gone altogether. At that stage, the only beer available on site is draught pints for a fiver, so you are left well and truly stung (or well and truly sober). The fact is, the drinks provided in the venue at Castlepalooza are half the price of EP - save for the fact that one is in a can and the other is in a plastic glass.

I reckon I'll spend €25 on 10 cans per day - the same as 5 pints at a gig in Whelans - and be completely sorted.

I've been to a lot of festivals, and there are some dreadful experiences to be had. This booze situation isn't one of them.

ghostdancer

not comparing like with like there.

a pint is a fiver at EP, and in Whelans, same at Castlepalooza.

cans of Hackenberg are 4 for €5 in most off-licences, from the Castlepalooza off-licence they're €2.50 each, or, as the pricelist seems to suggest, €4 each from the bars.

i'm pretty sure shop-bought cans don't turn to soup, and unless the Castlepalooza control the weather, the cans you buy there will go lukewarm too, assuming they're all refrigerated in the first place (you can get ice at EP, presumably you can at Castlepalooza too?). As for them being gone altogether, not really sure what point you're trying to make there, people generally bring enough to last them the weekend.

aside from that, there's an off-licence at EP too, so everything that you think are advantages at Castlepalooza are at EP too.
except at EP you can choose to bring your own drink too.

i wouldn't find the drink situation that much of a problem if it was reasonably priced, but €2.50 a can is cheeky and €4 a can is an absolute joke.

ShriekingSheet

ghostdancer wrote: »

not comparing like with like there.

a pint is a fiver at EP, and in Whelans, same at Castlepalooza.

cans of Hackenberg are 4 for €5 in most off-licences, from the Castlepalooza off-licence they're €2.50 each, or, as the pricelist seems to suggest, €4 each from the bars.

i'm pretty sure shop-bought cans don't turn to soup, and unless the Castlepalooza control the weather, the cans you buy there will go lukewarm too, assuming they're all refrigerated in the first place. As for them being gone altogether, not really sure what point you're trying to make there, people generally bring enough to last them the weekend.

aside from that, there's an off-licence at EP too, so everything that you think are advantages at Castlepalooza are at EP too.
except at EP you can choose to bring your own drink too.


€2.50 a can is cheeky, €4 a can is an absolute joke.

I'm not apologising for Castlepalooza. I just like the idea of an on-site off-licence, and being allowed to drink the cans at the gigs, not just in the campsite.

On paper, it is way cheaper to BYOB, a-la EP or Oxegen. But anyone who's been to a lot of festivals knows that in practice, few people have the discipline to not buy any drinks at the bars, and to only drink from their stash of brought cans. This gets even less realisitc come Sunday, when the cans are warm, and it's a trek out of the actual arena back to your tent to get them, and the bar is right beside the stage you want to go to.

If you have that discipline to never spend a fiver, fair play to you, and you are 100% right to be pee'd off, as your way is much cheaper. But in reality, most people end up squandering cash on 5 or 6 bar drinks over the weekend. This is €30 wasted, which undoes the economy of bringing the cheap booze in the first place.

Fair enough, it's a shame we won't be having any €1 cans at Castlepalooza, but we won't have to be buying any €5 pints either.

ghostdancer

well if you want an actual pint, you WILL have to be paying a fiver, same as any other festival.
if you want a can instead from the bars, you'll be paying €4 for the privilege.
or you can stock up during the 5 hours a day that the off-licence is open, and have them go warm within the time it takes to drink 1 can, and pay €2.50 a can for those.

I'll be at Indiependence this weekend, so it doesn't really affect me, but it'll certainly be a consideration next year that it will cost far more alcohol-wise to go to Castlepalooza than any other small festival, where the walk to the campsite is about 1minute, about the same as walking from the Castlepalooza stages back to the campsite off-licence.

as i said, if the prices were reasonable, then it'd be fine, but €4 for a can of Hackenberg that costs €1.25 in an off-licence, and probably less in the Cash&Carry, is a joke.

darren atticastatic

Does anyone know if they have anywhere to plug stuff in, like chargers, hairdryers etc?

Also, how easy is it to smuggle in drink, those off-licence prices are insane.

Thanks

Toast

There isn't anywhere official to plug stuff in but you might be able to convince someone to let you plug something in in the castle for a short time... probably not a hairdryer though.

There isn't much point about asking about smuggling drink in. Mods don't allow it and the promoters are also watching for tips on what to look for. Also if the reason for this is truly license based and there was evidence of them NOT fulfilling their duty as per license on a public forum they'd almost certainly step up any methods they have as an appeal against the event could use such talk against them.

catch--22

Anyway.... there will be music on this weekend too. So here's my hit list for the weekend. If anyone has any other recommendations please post em!

Friday - Nothing in particular. LOVED Mercury Rev last year on the main stage so will pop into their DJ set.

Saturday -

Bitches With Wolves - Caught them at Seasessions. Brilliant pop.
Planet Parade - Haven't seen/heard from them in a while but loved them before.
Codes - as above.....but always great live
The Minutes - new album is great but still haven't seen it played live.
Jape - Always a great festival performer
Hudson Mohawke - caught him in Oxegen last year playing to about 100 people in the dance shed. This could be my highlight.

Sunday -

Jogging - Again another band I've yet to see live
Enemies - Their first album is now on a free download from their bandcamp page (http://bit.ly/ilWVj2)
Jimmy Cake - Love this band!
Naughty by Nature - I've a really good feeling about this set!
DJ Tu-Ki - It wouldn't be a Castleplaooza without him!


Also -to the person asking about powerpoints - there are a couple in the main room of the castle I'm sure you could plug into for a quick phone charge one of the mornings.

Roll on Friday evening!

mal1

I'm more disappointed about it being a three day event. There's not much to be seen on Friday (in my opinion) so the extra night is a bigger revenue pull then the crappy drink prices. I just hope there is space in the camp site on Saturday morning cause i ain't going down on Friday.

Go Panda Go and Clock Opera are my recommendations.

ShriekingSheet

Clock Opera for me too. The Minutes' new album is good, so like Catch 22, would be interested in seeing them do the new stuff live. They always put on a good gig, especially once the singer doesn't say anything cringe-worthy between songs. Moths stuff sounds good via earphones. Hard to know how it will go down at a festival but I'm definitely going along to see. Also on for Le Galaxie and Jape which should be good for a bop.

Would welcome any tips on any other bands worth checking out.

Whipping Boy

Drink situation is far from ideal. Can't afford the prices mentioned and though I can go without a drink it's nice to be able to bring your to a festival if you so wish.

Anyhow, here's a preview thing with recommended acts.

http://stop-thelights.blogspot.com/2011/07/festival-preview-castlepalooza-2011.html

darren atticastatic

Thanks for the info on the sockets!
Line up looking good, can't wait to see Adebisi Shank, These Charming men, Codes & Sleep Theives.

What kind of food do they usually have there? I suppose the usual burgers etc?
And is it pricey too?

catch--22

darren atticastatic wrote: »

Thanks for the info on the sockets!
Line up looking good, can't wait to see Adebisi Shank, These Charming men, Codes & Sleep Theives.

What kind of food do they usually have there? I suppose the usual burgers etc?
And is it pricey too?

They've always had some really good grub....more vendors each year. Can't remember prices but the usual festival charge. If the red london bus is here again....last year they were serving the nicest steak sambos! Worth every penny!

catch--22

According to the Castlepalooza FB page there will be a pop-up shop at the courtyard selling phone credit and free charging.

Toast

So are most people heading down early today or how is it split up? Would hope it'll be relatively quiet when I arrive around 6pm.

catch--22

Won't be leaving Dublin until about 6.30. Keep a camping space for me Toast? Good man!

mp3ireland2

Won't be headin down till tomorrow as most of the people I'm heading there with are hadin to too many dj's tonight..... Hoping to get there between 1and 2 tomorrow so offlicence will be open! But have a feeling the other's won't be up too quick in the morning, and one of them has my ticket so can't get in untill she arrives!

mal1

Tomorrow for me too. You can have my space.

catch--22

A brilliant weekend. Well done to everyone at Cherry Cool and the volunteers. You put on a great show.

Adebisi Shank, Jape, Naughty By Nature, Le Galaxie and Minutes some of the highlights. Also that new courtyard stage is a brilliant addition! Roll on next year!

Toast

I think the magic has gone. The site felt very full this year and there seemed to be a lot more random idiots running around. People pissing on tents and the like. Not entirely sure if it was just the extra night or maybe we were in an unlucky area but the level of mashedness people had reached by Sunday was a lot more obnoxious than previous years. It changed from having random conversations with people who stopped by to trying to get them to move on before they fell over your tent. Always was a few of these sorts and it is par for the course at festivals to see a good few like it but there appeared to be several groups of them camped around us and wasn't the sort of atmosphere we'd come to expect from the festival.

Still had some good times and completely agree the new courtyard area was excellent but I think my time with Castlepalooza is done.

Dowdy

Which campsite were you in, Toast? I had a great time myself, and my only complaint about the weekend is related to the one I was making before the festival – the drink situation. Got a slab of Budvar on the Friday, and it was actually a fairly decent drink, so I was happy with that. We ended up going through it fairly quickly though, and on Sunday (and I think for much of Saturday too), there was no Budvar to be had, only Hackenburg and Stoya. I seem to remember hearing that there was only Stoya too by the end. I tried both of them and they were pretty **** beers, particularly Stoya.

Worse than this was the damn queue on Sunday evening. I left before the end of The Jimmy Cake, expecting to get another jug of wine before Adebisi Shank started, and hoping that I would be quick enough to not miss too much of The Jimmy Cake because they were playing a blinder. Ended up in the queue for at least 45 minutes and missed the first 20 minutes of Adebisi Shank, who played the best set of the whole weekend. There were only four taps in the bar, and as many staff at that time I think, so they were taking ages to get through the massive queue. If they had a couple more people serving drinks, and another few taps, they wouldn't have had that problem.

I'm not sure if I was just unlucky to go to the bar at the exact time that loads of other people had the same idea, or if it was like this for a while on Sunday, but it could have been improved fairly easily. I'm mainly just pissed that I had to miss so much of the Shank!

Loved the festival though, and will probably be back next year again.

El Weirdo

Dowdy wrote: »

Which campsite were you in, Toast?

From this line:

Toast wrote: »

Not entirely sure if it was just the extra night or maybe we were in an unlucky area but the level of mashedness people had reached by Sunday was a lot more obnoxious than previous years.

I'm guessing that he may have been in the same campsite as ourselves, Dowdy. You were particularly bad on Sunday and it was obvious that all the other attendees had got together to form a long queue at the bar in order to curb your excessive wine-drinking.

Great weekend and I'd definitely go again next year as long as it's not on the same weekend so I don't miss my son's 2nd birthday.