Body & Soul Festival 2017

roll

this year wasn't one of the best... the main stage is a disaster at this stage-no crowds and lots of talk while musicians try play music-there were no more than 100 people in front of the stage for Lambchop. the midnight circus tent was where it was at this weekend. maybe i'm just getting old(er) but i thought this year was very flat.... of course none of this matters as i just heard some poor fella died at the festival

Whipping Boy

Just back from our fourth year in a row. Surprised at the negative comments -
we had a great time. Felt the crowd was a bit older than last year and there was a good vibe around the place. Saturday was fantastic - La Femme, Vitalic and DBFC was a pretty stellar run and the sound at the main stage was a massive improvement on previous years.

The lineup today was pretty weak though, and it felt noticeably quieter on site - a result of low day sales maybe?

Roll on 2018

Knex*

Have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend. First time at Body & Soul and I was very impressed.

DepecheHead101

Toilets in Us & You were abhorrent. I thought the Earth nerds would get decent jacks that were at least on par with the rest of the site, nah?

Metronomy were great but it was all over a bit fast. Idiotape blew the face off me. La Femme stole it. Started out smoking loads of fags in front of about 20 people and ended with one of them jumping into the pit and staying there for Sleaford Mods set.

That rapper who replaced Birdy Nam Nam on the main stage was terrible. Hysterically self important. Went into the middle of the crowd then started talking about how there was only one performer when people started - gasp! - touching him.

T'was a good weekend. Usual Sunday burnout of seeing thousands of people who wear hippy clothes once a year be anything but peace and love during their comedowns for the next few days.

Northernsoul

Just home after a cracking weekend, much better than last year! King Kong Company were the highlight for me without question, with bonobo & metronomy taking 2nd/3rd. Nice crowd, sunny, with zero hassle. What wasn't to like?? Only downside for me was the piece of **** Muddy app that I'm still waiting on reminders of stage times from. ****box.com (...Oh and also the jacks in Us & You! Obscene.)

DepecheHead101

boopdedoop wrote: »

Was informed thousands hopped the fence

Nah.

jmauel

boopdedoop wrote: »

I had such a good time!!
Having said that though I got a different vibe this year. It seemed like the crowd was a bit scummier, ridiculous amount of tents around us were robbed, and we heard the commotion of it as well. Heard there was a few fights around our camp. Was informed thousands hopped the fence and security wasn't able to handle it.. We were woken up by security in our tent Saturday morning for wristband checks. They said it was the only way they could find out where the fence hoppers are sleeping, by going tent to tent.. seems strange.

People visibly out of their heads in the middle of the day, I didn't see much of that last year. (People were obviously out of their heads last year too but not obnoxiously so), I dunno - a tad scummier.
With that said though, still had a wonderful weekend :-)

I have to completely disagree with you!

laserlad2010

Honestly Us & You toilets - there are no words.

We arrived at 5pm on Friday, I'm not sure who had managed to turn them into a cesspit by that stage but the smell was unbelievable.

A few guys walking around handing out binbags - that seemed to be the only difference between the other camps and U&Y. Considering they tried to set it apart it was disappointing. The only positive was the distance from the main camping (peace and quiet) and the space available.

I felt that Vitalic and Reckless in Love on the Sunday night were the highlights of the weekend. The hippie clothes are a bit much - all very superficial considering you balance your ethical and moral beliefs with snorting some unknown powder produced from a bag in a strangers underwear

All in all it was a great weekend though!

covey09

First time at B&S me and an another oxegen vets. Good atmosphere the place was electric in fri evening. 95% of the people were sound. We were in the campervan section and it was a good trek. Crowd seem to be bigger than 15k. Didn't see an ounce of hassle. Was asked or pills then called an undercover cop in the space of 2 mins but very politely to be fair. It had something in every corner of the place. Idiotape were mesmerising. Would go again,weather made it.

BaronVon

laserlad2010 wrote: »

The hippie clothes are a bit much - all very superficial considering you balance your ethical and moral beliefs with snorting some unknown powder produced from a bag in a strangers underwear

Brilliant!!! :pac::pac::pac:

Ferris_Bueller

Really good weekend, blessed with the weather I was expecting bad rain at some point over the weekend (although it was FREEZING last night!). It's changed a lot since I was there last in 2015, campsite nearly felt smaller I thought? Didn't like where the Reckless in Love stage was but I suppose they couldn't keep it in the woods with the amount of people that flock down to it. Loved the wooded area and chilling out in the walled gardens, it's a great festival in fairness, plenty to do during the day and at night. Excellent food options I thought and I didn't even make it down to the food on board area. Did think the crowd was a bit rougher than the last time I was there, wasn't a particularly young crowd but saw a few scummy heads floating around and heard a lot of stories about people sneaking in.

Enjoyed most acts I saw, Metronomy and Bonobo were both good on the main stage but didn't feel like they played for that long, Ships closed out the woodlands last night and were class, highly recommend checking them out if you haven't already!

MJohnston

Had a lovely weekend with my wife and toddler, B&S do a really nice job of making the family areas feel safe, quiet, and well organised. I'm sure my kid will appreciate some of the Soul Kids stuff in later years too, bit young this year though.

Weather helped, apart from a few sprinkles on Friday and Saturday morning it was about as good as you could wish for. Chilly oul night on Sunday though with the clear skies!

Music-wise, I really enjoyed Metronomy, I still say they're a middle-of-a-sunny afternoon act, not because they don't deserve to headline, but just suits them better. Also really liked Sinkane, Farah Elle, and had a fantastic time dancing to whatever the trio DJing at Wonderlust on the Sunday night were called. I wasn't really planning on seeing much of anything else, caught some of Bonobo which sounded good but I was too wrecked. Vitalic sounded good from the very loud and clear version of his set I heard from the family campervan site miles away (inside the campervan too!).

Coupla complaints would be that it was insane to have only 1 ATM in the whole place, and the fact that it was out of service by not even mid-afternoon Sunday was awful (I was lucky enough to have queued for 40 minutes earlier in the day to make sure I had some more cash). With the influx of day-trippers on Sunday, and people running out of the funds they'd brought with them for the weekend, you really need to have more ATMs.

Crowd-wise it all seemed really great, there was certainly a massive increase in population on Sunday, but everyone looked chilled and happy. I think B&S just doesn't appeal to the wrong crowds, whether its because of the over-20s thing, school still being on, the more obscure lineup or whatever.

Next year they could do with bulking up the lineup with more mid-level and upcoming Irish acts, sorting out more ATMs, and doing their very best not to clash with Glasto.

wattlendaub

Great year at B&S - it did seem like there was a lot of litter outside Us & You campsite, and the toilets for U&Y were the worst experience by far -- they really need to do something about that for next year.

Hot tubs were amazing, La Femme and DBFC were great, lovely weather, good food and a chill time all 'round.

Sad to hear someone died during the festival -- any news on what happened to the guy?

Amirani

wattlendaub wrote: »

Sad to hear someone died during the festival -- any news on what happened to the guy?

Gardai treating it as non-suspicious, so read into that what you will. Very tragic.

hugeglobe

Would anyone happen to know the name of the three lads who closed the Wanderlust stage on Sunday?

They had the place absolutely rocking and it doesn't seem to say on the timetable.

Homesick Alien

MJohnston wrote: »

Had a lovely weekend with my wife and toddler, B&S do a really nice job of making the family areas feel safe, quiet, and well organised. I'm sure my kid will appreciate some of the Soul Kids stuff in later years too, bit young this year though.

Weather helped, apart from a few sprinkles on Friday and Saturday morning it was about as good as you could wish for. Chilly oul night on Sunday though with the clear skies!

Music-wise, I really enjoyed Metronomy, I still say they're a middle-of-a-sunny afternoon act, not because they don't deserve to headline, but just suits them better. Also really liked Sinkane, Farah Elle, and had a fantastic time dancing to whatever the trio DJing at Wonderlust on the Sunday night were called. I wasn't really planning on seeing much of anything else, caught some of Bonobo which sounded good but I was too wrecked. Vitalic sounded good from the very loud and clear version of his set I heard from the family campervan site miles away (inside the campervan too!).

Coupla complaints would be that it was insane to have only 1 ATM in the whole place, and the fact that it was out of service by not even mid-afternoon Sunday was awful (I was lucky enough to have queued for 40 minutes earlier in the day to make sure I had some more cash). With the influx of day-trippers on Sunday, and people running out of the funds they'd brought with them for the weekend, you really need to have more ATMs.

Crowd-wise it all seemed really great, there was certainly a massive increase in population on Sunday, but everyone looked chilled and happy. I think B&S just doesn't appeal to the wrong crowds, whether its because of the over-20s thing, school still being on, the more obscure lineup or whatever.

Next year they could do with bulking up the lineup with more mid-level and upcoming Irish acts, sorting out more ATMs, and doing their very best not to clash with Glasto.

Fair play to ya. We dipped our toe in and brought the toddler just for Sunday this year but we all really enjoyed it. Would definitely go back for a night , not sure I could hack a whole weekend though unless we knew other families going and had a camper or caravan.

IspeakcozIcan

Had a brilliant weekend. Music wise, thought the Saturday was the best, with Bonobo, La Femme, Idiotape and King Kong Co all standouts. Had to miss Vitalic due to the clashes with Idiotape, unfortunately.

Took it easy on Sunday (didn't drink!), did meditation in the Sanctuary, hot tub, ate good food and drove home Sunday night. Was a different festival experience but really enjoyed that too and will probably do the same next year.

My impression of the crowd was very positive. Thought everyone seemed very chilled out.

Look forward to next year!

draiochtanois

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hugeglobe

draiochtanois wrote: »

Was it Sunday Times?

Yes thank you!

draiochtanois

This post has been deleted.

Homesick Alien

draiochtanois wrote: »

Body and Soul 2017.

Traffic Managment & Parking - Drove straight in there, no delays whatsoever - Excellent.
Us & You campsite - Lot's of space, good walkways, 20 mins queue for the shower - Excellent. (Yeah the toilets smelt bad and you could see everything but I found them pretty clean by festival standards so nothing to complain about for me)

Music Highlights

Friday

Avalon Emerson was the reason I came here and she did not disappoint. She delivered a driving relentless high energy set. - Beyond excellent. I wish she had played longer as Optimo was a patch on her.

Saturday

New Jackson, probably a bit early for this but it was an interesting set. I think it would have been better to put him on the Main Stage.
Elll was very good but it wasn't her best live set which may be that the sound wasn't great, I don't know whether it's the amphitheatre like set up or bad engineering but the low end was over powering the upper end. The equipment is all F1. I'd suggest someone from B&S go to Dimensions and get Void to sponsor next years festival.
What little I saw of Bonobo was nice.

The set of the main area was weird to me with the bleeding of the sound from the Vodafone stage, Absolut stage and Midnight Circus.

Thanks Vodafone for charging my phone - I can see why your tariffs are higher with the amount you spend on PR like this! Lovely staff there though. Thanks to Meteor for the excellent coverage I had all weekend.

Food and coffee - excellent choices, high quality reasonable prices.

The secret wine party on Saturday was amazing, high quality free wine and amazing entertainment, glad I snagged an invite for that.

Ridiculous **** from Body and Soul.

The Bulmers ad app - sorry I mean Muddy - the only thing it could reliably load was the ad for Bulmers for timetables and maps it was beyond useless.

Lack of any beer or cider other than the 5 lamps ****e and various incarnations of Bulmers.
If you sold pints of all the usual beers for €5 most people wouldn't bother dragging cans in there.

Overall I had an excellent time

Have to agree with you on the main area sound - particularly the bleeding between absolut and Vodafone stages. It was kind of head wrecking.

And I was really surprised at the price of the beers. Given the free flow drink policy it seems mad. If you price reasonably people will pay for a cold one. 6.20 is also a really annoying price as all the cashiers were out of change on Sunday asking do you have the 20 cent? No - how bout you stop charging the 20c for the "deposit" you scabs!

bodhrandude

I had a great week down there, us advance volunteers got some really hot sunny weather too, in fact got burnt in the neck, nose and face. Highlights for me were The Bug who I stumbled into on Friday night and was riveted to the ground, they had that power and intensity that Alo Walo had a few years back, Metronomy reminded me of a latter day Devo who seemed to pull a nice crowd to the main stage. Bonobo was brilliant as was the Sleaford Mods who reminded me a wee bit of the early Jam sound. Vitalic was fecking amazing, electronic madness, the only reason I withdrew from the stage and into the woods was because of the damp and the cold. Was quite depressed that there wasn't a Port Royal to flop into afterwards but later discovered that some of the Port Royal crew was set up in Natasha's Kitchen at the bottom of the Walled Garden so not so bad. It seems there was a few cancellations on the Sunday namely A Tribe Called Red, Songhoy Blues (Who were replaced by The Beat) a nice surprise for me, Birdy Nam Nam I think cancelled too. Most of Sunday was spent milling about the fire area in the Walled Garden a nice place to just chill and at Natasha's Kitchen where William Softly played some reggae classics. It was tough getting back to Galway the next day, hitching for 4 or 5 hours on a 47 kilometre stretch from Ballinlough to Kinnegad to catch the 4.50 bus which I missed so had to get the 6.50 bus which just got me in time for my session in Galway. Roll on 2018.

Edit: Stay tuned dudes will have my blog review up in a few days.

red_scarlett34

DepecheHead101 wrote: »

Toilets in Us & You were abhorrent. I thought the Earth nerds would get decent jacks that were at least on par with the rest of the site, nah?

Metronomy were great but it was all over a bit fast. Idiotape blew the face off me. La Femme stole it. Started out smoking loads of fags in front of about 20 people and ended with one of them jumping into the pit and staying there for Sleaford Mods set.

That rapper who replaced Birdy Nam Nam on the main stage was terrible. Hysterically self important. Went into the middle of the crowd then started talking about how there was only one performer when people started - gasp! - touching him.

T'was a good weekend. Usual Sunday burnout of seeing thousands of people who wear hippy clothes once a year be anything but peace and love during their comedowns for the next few days.

I wasn't there on the Sunday night after what was supposed to be Songhoy Blues. Can't believe Birdy Nam Nam weren't there either. That means Parcels, Songhoy Blues and Birdy Nam Nam, all due on the main stage, never made it and there was no communication whatsoever about this. Any other acts not make it??

red_scarlett34

laserlad2010 wrote: »

Honestly Us & You toilets - there are no words.

We arrived at 5pm on Friday, I'm not sure who had managed to turn them into a cesspit by that stage but the smell was unbelievable.

A few guys walking around handing out binbags - that seemed to be the only difference between the other camps and U&Y. Considering they tried to set it apart it was disappointing. The only positive was the distance from the main camping (peace and quiet) and the space available.

Too right. They were so horrible that we staked out the toilets at Reckless in Love which were by far the festival's best throughout the weekend. So glad I didn't have to do anything other than a quick no.1 at Us & You!!

red_scarlett34

IspeakcozIcan wrote: »

Had a brilliant weekend. Music wise, thought the Saturday was the best, with Bonobo, La Femme, Idiotape and King Kong Co all standouts. Had to miss Vitalic due to the clashes with Idiotape, unfortunately.

Took it easy on Sunday (didn't drink!), did meditation in the Sanctuary, hot tub, ate good food and drove home Sunday night. Was a different festival experience but really enjoyed that too and will probably do the same next year.

My impression of the crowd was very positive. Thought everyone seemed very chilled out.

Look forward to next year!

Sounds like I had a really similar experience. Rocked out to La Femme on Saturday night and then on Sunday had a much more chillaxed time - drank very little and had a seaweed bath - can really recommend it - and a rice bowl. I checked out The Tiny Quartet and Pine the Pilcrow at the Pagoda stage who were both excellent.

Both days I also watched the animation films in the Our Land - Earth stage - Song of the Sea on Saturday and The Secret of Kells on Sunday. Was surprised there weren't more children there - don't think this was marketed as well as the events in the other arenas. Would also really recommend both films to both adults and children.

red_scarlett34

draiochtanois wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Secret wine party?! Where and when was that?? :mad:

roll

what was with the severe lack of urinals?

homerun_homer

MJohnston wrote: »

Next year they could do with bulking up the lineup with more mid-level and upcoming Irish acts, sorting out more ATMs, and doing their very best not to clash with Glasto.

Glasto is not on next year. B&S has pretty much always been on this weekend, I remember this because it's always slap bang in the middle of an awkward time for me to take off work to be able to attend. This year was my first and it was excellent.

draiochtanois

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bodhrandude

Bass is a bit fuzzy in recording but worth it to get this moment from Friday night at the Midnight Circus.