All Together Now 2019

Toast

They just posted something there on Facebook / the app acknowledging problems.

Furious-Red

Lester Freamon wrote: »

Nothing from ATN on social media today.

Probably scared of the backlash and media picking up on it again

All Together Now

You, the people, performers, volunteers, artists, creators, and rebels - it's you who make this festival very special. For a lot of you, this journey started with long delays. We understand the frustration this caused and it was far from how we wanted this weekend to start together. We have to make this right, and we will. You endured not just traffic but testing weather at times over the weekend, while the atmosphere and spirit remained truly amazing. You were respectful of each other, of the beautiful landscape and all our wonderful performers - even wasps couldn't ruin your buzz.

From the forests to the lawns, over the ha ha and amongst the roots - the energy across our festival site was unique. We heard you tweet, we also heard you sing. On behalf of everyone who has worked so hard to make this festival happen, we thank you for that. We heard over and over again from the wonderful performers who joined us that the All Together Now community has something special. You were singing along socially at the bandstand. You got up, stood up for The Wailers.

Many of you paid tribute to John Reynolds this weekend, which has humbled us and we thank you. ❤️ The biggest tribute we can pay to John is to continue to improve, evolve and respect the festival, as well as each other.

To Waterford County Council, Tramore Gardai, Emergency Services, HSE, Bus Eireann, Curraghmore Estate staff and the people and businesses of Portlaw & Carrick On Suir who have all been so helpful and supportive in all aspects of the development of this festival.

Thank you to Lord and Lady Waterford and their family who opened up their home to us to create, collaborate and continue to evolve the festival that is in keeping with the Curraghmore Estates history, beauty, and charm.

Lost Property - www.alltogethernow.ie/lost-property

MadYaker

Doesn't sound like it was a total disaster but they obviously have some work to do. The weather didn't help at all, if the sun was splitting the rocks other stuff is easier to forget about.

alwayswright

Just back home after the weekend, tired but had an excellent time overall. Agree with previous mentions of traffic, weather and bins. The toilets I found were particularly grim.

Even despite the rain, I found overall spirits were positive among everyone. Bombay Bicycle Club in the lashing rain was a particular highlight, they really got the crowd going, and you could see how much they enjoyed it also.

Other fantastic acts were Good Bad Queen, Jon Hopkins, National, Father John Misty, Kojaque (probably my act of the weekend), Hot Chip, Saint Sister and Patti Smith (loved her version of Gloria live). Fontaines were a definite disappointment though.

I found all punters at the festival to be really pleasant and easy going, and saw nothing negative happening.

But overall, I can't blame people for being disappointed in the weekend, due to the traffic problems alone. I am going to hold off on seeing the line up for Chapter 3 before committing to returning.

endainoz

Well I was going to leave it to settle down before I gave my thoughts but screw it I think I'll throw them all up on ye now.

So Friday, I had left North Clare at 10.30 am. Collected herself in Ennis and we got just outside Carrick at 2pm. Friends of ours left from limerick an hour and a half later and caught up with us pretty quick. So then the long crawl started. Luckily the missus had filled the car up fully with petrol, because I probably wouldn't have seen as it didn't seem like a crazy long journey (!) Saw so many poor guys running out of petrol, I wondered to myself how many couples broke up due to arguments during this traffic. But I did try to stay positive.....but the waiting continued. When we finally got parked in the blue (wanted to go to the red but was caught following traffic) it was 10.30pm. So the whole thing took me 12 hours from when I had left home.

Tent was up for about midnight and all we got to see was Arcadia. Fountaines sounded good from the car park but from what you guys said maybe not. Saturday was a bit better for sure, Patti and Hot Chip were exceptional as was that Jameson bar to the right of the stage. Has also noticed serious sound issues for people, Lisa Hannigan in particular but when she got going she was fantastic. After hot chip is a bit of a blur, likely due to the Jameson.

Sunday started off nice, brunch with Blind boy was a bit of craic. Also did the hot tub for the first time, was sceptical at first but you do genuinely feel great after it. Then went to see my cousin Aindrias at global roots, he was fantastic as usual. (Though I might be biased)

Went a bit downhill after that again with the weather and yeah of course it's not their fault with the rain but those things that you'd normally put up with just left us all so drained after what we had to endure on Friday. Facilities wise I thought it was ok, we had a nice spot is BSN and we're lucky to get to move the car back to the red on Sunday morning. As I had said before our neighbours were fantastic though a bit further over there were some quite irritating D4 hunzo types but you can't have everything. The guys closer to us were great.

Other random thoughts echo what others say here, not enough music on, and I noticed that once it was after midnight or so, it was just electronic stuff everywhere. Nothing else from what I could see, I'm ok with a few stages having it but every single one? If it can work in the salty dog it can work for ATN. Throw a few bands in there man. We don't all like DJs all the time.

I don't think I'll return, Friday just ruined it overall and can't be ignored. Like other guys here I was so disappointed as I thought this would replace EP for me as EP replaced Oxegen for me in 2010, looks like that won't be the case and stradbally will keep my attention for another while yet.

But to put it all into perspective, our giving out and whinging dosent matter when you hear about some poor young fella dying in hospital after taking something dodgy at indie, a truly sobering thought. Take care of each other!

pwisp

I'm quite surprised at the negative reaction to Fontaines D.C. to be honest, they seemed great from where we were standing about 10 rows from the front just to the left of the stage. Although the crowd around us were very lively so that might have made it seem better than it was.

Eod100

Echo the sentiments about gaps in music. Fairly frustrating when there were fairly big clashes too. Not sure why main stage and tent next to it didn't stagger so there was always music on instead of clashing directly. Sunday was my busiest day music wise and could still easily go 2 hours in a row with nothing worth checking out. Apparently crowd went form 12,500 last year to 22,500 this year. A fairly sizeable increase. Would assume plans accounted for this but on the ground it seemed like there weren't enough toilets, stewards, food places etc. Plenty of garda for some reason. Presumably condition of licence to have so many per 1,000 say. Thought area around the house wasn't great at all so felt like site was even more compact. Its hard to see how they could get more people in camping site, music tents and around site comfortably if they are planning to expand again.

endainoz

No way would they be granted the license for this size again, best bet would be to go back to 15,000 do some generous early bird offer and splash out on a bigish act possibly. Would probably have to run at a loss for a couple of years or so but they have to get the confidence and loyalty back somehow which I'm sad to say they have lost.

Eod100

endainoz wrote: »

No way would they be granted the license for this size again, best bet would be to go back to 15,000 do some generous early bird offer and splash out on a bigish act possibly. Would probably have to run at a loss for a couple of years or so but they have to get the confidence and loyalty back somehow which I'm sad to say they have lost.

I think that would make most sense. Like I don't think anyone was expecting to get into site without any queues on Friday without delays but the ones that did happen were definitely not normal and something seriously wrong mist have happened. But even if they got that right next year I still don't think the space they're using can fit that crowd size comfortably. Its funny that many people say they went to ATN because EP had gotten so big but then ATN try to scale up so much in its 2nd year..!

jimosterberg

Thought Fontaines were brilliant myself. Everyone around me seemed to be having a great time at it. Performance of the weekend was by The Good the bad and the Queen. Hot Chip and the murder capital were other highlights

Eod100

Weepsie wrote: »

My actual thoughts...

Friday was obviously a bit of a sh!t show. It could have a very serious impact on them getting a licence again as that was not well planned.


The music. It was a bit sparse. Times were not staggered enough I'd say, particularly in the " outer" small stages. You couldn't really go from one to the other and guarantee there'd be something on as they all seemed to have the same breaks. Sound bleed was also worse than before I think.

Too many average radio djs basically playing a Spotify playlist and "tribute" acts that essentially played best of compilations while shouting over a mic. I thought sing along social was good craic last year, but boring and rather forced this time round.



Patti Smith was brilliant and my highlight. At 72 she has so much more energy than the acts a third her age.

Hot Chip were great fun too, they always deliver.

John Grant and the Good,The Bad were excellent on Sunday.

Olafur Arnalds was cursed by the rain. Forced a load of chatters into the tent which was annoying. Bedouin was very good too.

King Kong company we're good craic, but left to watch the end of Orbital who I'd have watched in full but seen plenty of times.

The National. I like them, they're consistly good but I don't get the reverence. They sounded grand but thought as a whole they were very dull in comparison to most other headline acts.


Immediately felt it had a different vibe to before. Loads of extra event junkies who just come and sit in a circle around their Bluetooth speakers and do nothing else. With that, the crowds were all grand. I think the traffic woes and rain bonded people.

Didn't like the stage layout as much. The area down around the house was great before and it spread it out, without it being too big. They essentially out the stages closer while cramming an extra 8 people in and making it feel cramped a bit. Last year I'd have said it was a great family festival,this year not so much.

Personally never had an issue with the toilets or showers. Bins could've been emptied quicker, but people were filling them at a rate of knots in fairness. Don't think I waited more than 15 mins for food either. I think experience has taught me when not to go looking for it.

On a whole, the logistical stuff was the worst I've ever experienced at a festival. I've gotten to Glastonbury from Dublin in about the same time as this took.

Also, why not have a proper John Reynolds tribute, or if there was I missed it.This was his baby. I imagine it was done by committee and not quite the labour of love as last year.

Agree with a lot of this but crowd at Arnalds were still noisey once rain issue was sorted. Not ideal at all for his music. Same crowd noise issue ag Lisa Hannigan which wasn't helped by sound not being great. And David Keenan's set being scheduled at 1.30am meant people were fairly well oiled. He got people on side at rend but so much noise for first half. Was even an issue at main stage, people practically shouting to have conversations to hear themselves over sound. Had to move for a few gigs there

boomshakalaka

Warning: really long brain dump ahead lol

I can only really echo what's been said so far but here are my thoughts of the weekend.

I left Galway Co at 10.30 am and got to carrick for 1.45. It was absolutely unreal to be stuck in traffic for 6 hrs. To avoid a break up, the other half decided to trolley the tent and his booze for 6km in the hope me and the car would catch up. That didnt happen, arrived at 8pm. Unfortunately that was repeated this morning. It seems like blue carpark 3 was used mostly for people who had been stuck in the traffic all day, and it was the one carpark where there were no stewards. Meaning everyone here was just forgotten about and couldn't get out. Another 2.5h wait to get out of the car park. This lack of organisation put a bit of a dampener on things for me as I was absolutely shattered after being in the car for 9.5 hours just to get there. Its totally inexcusable to be honest and I felt like I was scammed and the festival organisers only care about my money and not the experience I'm having at the event. I wish I could find a bright side in the traffic shambles as I usually would but I cant. I feel robbed of 12 hours of my life.

General camping was an utter fire hazard. Way way way too full, bins weren't cleared until this morning and there were only a handful of toilets. In fairness, even though there were few, they were in decent shape up until Sunday afternoon.
People were setting off fireworks amongst the tents on Sunday night. Nuts. Saw a bit more messing about than last year and security seemed to have their hands full.
Londis was well stocked this year, could get the things I wanted at any stage and finding water wasnt as hard as it was last year (and I actually loved having my own reusable bottle for the weekend)

The weather didnt play ball which meant you couldn't just float around the site as easily and things would require a bit more planning. Our crew had a huge tent so we were able to all be inside and hide so overall the rain didnt bother us too much even though a festival always feels different if its 100% sunny.

Lay out wise, loved the Global roots stage. Great little addition, quite sheltered and lovely woody smells. I missed the house area at night time. It meant more people hanging out in the woods and that kind of defeated the purpose of it being the quiet quirky magical getaway. Secret garden stage brought me back to life on Saturday afternoon, not sure if that was there last year? The layout in general felt cramped, esp around the all my friends area. That stage shouldn't have been there and Samsung maze shouldn't have been as loud.

I was about a third of the way in the tent for Ben UFO and the build up parts of the songs were often drowned out by the all my friends stage. sound bleed, it was there, and could be improved but it wasnt the worst either. Still enjoyed all the tunes I saw.

Had no issues with food etc myself, saw long queues so just needed to be a bit deliberate with timing. Vendors seemed completely shook with the flow of people. Running out of things left right and centre. It made me wonder if they had any idea how many people were actually coming (I heard that 22k people attended, but I'm unsure if that was a reliable source)

All the music I caught was top top quality. The artists pulled it out of the bag and the crowd was usually very responsive. Good vibes. Even the wailers in the pissing rain put a big smile on my face. Worth getting soaked for. Other highlights are Loyle Carner, one of the most engaging shows I have ever seen he is unbelievable live, probably better than the record. Ben UFO played a belter of a set, was absolutely shattered but ended up bopping around until the very end of the set because it was too good to miss.

Came with a bigger group of friends this year. Which made all the difference as I felt a lot less connectedness with camping neighbours compared to last year. They were grand but no one was being very social so new festi friends for me this year. Probably also because there were basically no "chill out" spaces between tents to out a chair and have a can (But did run in to our neighbour from last year and it was like seeing a long lost brother, a special moment!).

Punters in general were fantastic again. Really friendly people from all stages in life, some really interesting chats and definitely bonded over the traffic and the rain.

Organisationally, POD dropped the ball. I couldn't help but feel they'd cut corners to make more money and that's greedy. Same amount of toilets as last year but 7k more people? Same amount of food vendors? This is just not logical. I fear for the direction the festival will go in if POD don't get it right. Seasoned festival goers won't put up with that again, and these are exactly the types of punters that make this festival so special. The fact that the crowd is so unbelievably diverse should be safeguarded at whatever cost. Otherwise it will just end up being like any other "I'm just over 21 and chewing my face off" type festival and I'll definitely pass on that.

All in all, I had a good time. It's unfortunate that the start and end were such a long and frustrating wait. I might have overall felt more positive if that hadn't happened again this morning. Like others have mentioned, I'll be waiting for the line up before making any decisions. I want it to get somewhat back to last year but I might be dreaming. If the line up is good I'll give it another go.

Reggie noble

Eod100 wrote: »

Agree with a lot of this but crowd at Arnalds were still noisey once rain issue was sorted. Not ideal at all for his music. Same crowd noise issue ag Lisa Hannigan which wasn't helped by sound not being great. And David Keenan's set being scheduled at 1.30am meant people were fairly well oiled. He got people on side at rend but so much noise for first half. Was even an issue at main stage, people practically shouting to have conversations to hear themselves over sound. Had to move for a few gigs there

I Can’t stand that ****, I had a right meltdown at 2 lads constantly chatting loudly through the first few songs at death cab for cutie earlier in the year.

boomshakalaka

endainoz wrote: »

No way would they be granted the license for this size again, best bet would be to go back to 15,000 do some generous early bird offer and splash out on a bigish act possibly. Would probably have to run at a loss for a couple of years or so but they have to get the confidence and loyalty back somehow which I'm sad to say they have lost.

Ye I really feel like loyalty tickets are what are going to help get the type of crowd back that they are directing the festival at.

Ben Done

They should open the campsite Thursday night next year, to stagger arrivals.
Throw up a stage in the campsite with the likes of These Charming Men, The Roadhouse Doors, Pearl Jem etc for that night.

Weepsie

Thursday night opening would probably lot help and would adds huge costs too I bet. You'd mostly have the event junkies who'd relish the extra day just to sit in the campsite .

However, I'd be open to having tribute acts instead of some nomark radio DJ playing a beat of compilation.

Eod100

Reggie noble wrote: »

I Can’t stand that ****, I had a right meltdown at 2 lads constantly chatting loudly through the first few songs at death cab for cutie earlier in the year.

Yeah I get it's a festival and not expecting pin drop silence (one can dream..) but Arnalds having to specifically ask for silence and then the noise still continuing after was embarrassing. I guess it wasn't helped by some people only there to shelter from the rain but still think it's very disrespectful to artists and other gig goers. The trend of some people treating gigs as background noise to their stimulating' conversation is infuriating.

Eod100

Ben Done wrote: »

They should open the campsite Thursday night next year, to stagger arrivals.
Throw up a stage in the campsite with the likes of These Charming Men, The Roadhouse Doors, Pearl Jem etc for that night.

I'm not sure enough people would go down to make a sizeable difference and worth ATNs while in terms of extra volunteers and staff etc

HarryTheSpider

I'm still collecting my thoughts on the weekend as a whole. Overall, I enjoyed it. But as a lot of people have said, I might hold off on buying a ticket for next year until I see the line-up. (Unless they tempt me with a tasty loyalty offer)

Pros
A Festival is a Festival. Always something to see/do/listen to/ eat or drink.
Hot Chip / John Grant. We got a spot right by the sound desk barrier for both and it was brilliant.
Improv Allstars followed by Jason Byrne were hilarious.
More Space - Moving The Road to Nowhere and giving Arcadia a bit more space was a good move.
Both Side Now Campsite was worth the extra walk from the Blue carpark. Certainly a bit more chilled and cleaner than the other campsite. Even though a late arriver on Friday night pitching too close to the door of the tent prompted me to move our tent 10 ft to one side when we got back at 3 in the morning
The Global Roots stage is brilliant. Certainly built to last.


Cons
The T word.... They should have known better.
Social Media/Pre-Festival Information/Late release of stage times and map/confusion on the Red or the Blue Gate. - People like to plan ahead
THAT MAP - I'm still confused after being there
The long walk from the Blue Car Park to BSN. I mapped it on Google maps and the exit route this morning was 1 Km and 1 steep hill (up and down) shorter. It would have been nicer to have that option on Friday.
Mud - Again they should have know better, the first time I saw any sign of anyone with a load of wood chip was this morning.
Toilets. - Again on the 'Should have known better' list. - with added need for wood chip.
Food - Definitely needed more.
Bins - Rubbish - Recycling. There was a lot made of the sustainability aspect, but they fell at the last hurdle over lots of little points. I would hate to think that it was all for show and everything is going to landfill/incinerator as soon as nobody is looking.
The move away from the house and closing it off at night wasn't great. I can see why, but something better could have been done.
Bands vs DJs - A few more smaller stages with bands playing would have been a nice change from DJs at so many of the stages late night.

Eod100

HarryTheSpider wrote: »

I'm still collecting my thoughts on the weekend as a whole. Overall, I enjoyed it. But as a lot of people have said, I might hold off on buying a ticket for next year until I see the line-up. (Unless they tempt me with a tasty loyalty offer)

Pros
A Festival is a Festival. Always something to see/do/listen to/ eat or drink.
Hot Chip / John Grant. We got a spot right by the sound desk barrier for both and it was brilliant.
Improv Allstars followed by Jason Byrne were hilarious.
More Space - Moving The Road to Nowhere and giving Arcadia a bit more space was a good move.
Both Side Now Campsite was worth the extra walk from the Blue carpark. Certainly a bit more chilled and cleaner than the other campsite. Even though a late arriver on Friday night pitching too close to the door of the tent prompted me to move our tent 10 ft to one side when we got back at 3 in the morning
The Global Roots stage is brilliant. Certainly built to last.


Cons
The T word.... They should have known better.
Social Media/Pre-Festival Information/Late release of stage times and map/confusion on the Red or the Blue Gate. - People like to plan ahead
THAT MAP - I'm still confused after being there
The long walk from the Blue Car Park to BSN. I mapped it on Google maps and the exit route this morning was 1 Km and 1 steep hill (up and down) shorter. It would have been nicer to have that option on Friday.
Mud - Again they should have know better, the first time I saw any sign of anyone with a load of wood chip was this morning.
Toilets. - Again on the 'Should have known better' list. - with added need for wood chip.
Food - Definitely needed more.
Bins - Rubbish - Recycling. There was a lot made of the sustainability aspect, but they fell at the last hurdle over lots of little points. I would hate to think that it was all for show and everything is going to landfill/incinerator as soon as nobody is looking.
The move away from the house and closing it off at night wasn't great. I can see why, but something better could have been done.
Bands vs DJs - A few more smaller stages with bands playing would have been a nice change from DJs at so many of the stages late night.

On the bins when I was queueing for showers saw lads collect a black and green bin and both went into back of same bin truck. Make of that what you will!

HarryTheSpider

Eod100 wrote: »

On the bins when I was queueing for showers saw lads collect a black and green bin and both went into back of same bin truck. Make of that what you will!

They probably had no choice with the amount of stuff that went into the wrong bins. It happened all over the site all weekend.

roll

i seem to be in the minority but that was one of the best festivals i was ever at.... forgot about the traffic and queue for tangerine fields by 9 o clock friday eve and saw so much great music over the next few days that i'm still giddy (but very tired!). that and the irish music seen is absolutely rocking- i saw so many much quality stuff of all varieties that i might be looking local for the best tunes for a good while to come!

roll

but yes, i wanted to kill people at olafur arnalds. such a great set drowned out completely at times

evani1976

Just thinking about it today and definetly a big shift in focus from ATN this year. I understand that it needs to make money to be viable, thats the world we live in.

Following on from last year ,bought family camping tickets and brought two daughters. Family camping site was a big improvement on last year. Bigger site, lighting, pathways and good security. Entry no problem on red side. I'd say probably a third or less of punters on red side, which may have been one of the causes of chaos on blue side.

Arena itself , I found not as family friendly as last year due to issues outlined above i.e overcrowding, toilets. Still taught crowd was very respectful and sound with younger ones. Music this year was quite dancey, which probably brought a younger crowd than last year as well.

Debating really to bring kids next year tbh. Which is a shame as it was their original ethos and really worked well last year. Still had a great time, lovely venue and bang on sound crowd.

Music wise, the Good, Bad & Queen were magical. Damon was in some form and responded to the post rain spirit and energy of crowd brilliantly . Something you only really get at a festival. Loved Fontaines too, crowd were loving it around me.

Definetly a festival that has something to offer to everybody, hopefully that continues.

dartboardio

Dunno where they got most of the food vendors out of, 5 out of 7 meals I had was actually cold (whats that about)???

And I had to ask 2 different staff in the food trucks to change their gloves as they were handling money with the same gloves they were using to assemble your meal and sprinkle your cheese on, eugh!

That might sound a bit precious, but money is the filthiest thing in the world!

sally cinnamon89

dartboardio wrote: »

Dunno where they got most of the food vendors out of, 5 out of 7 meals I had was actually cold (whats that about)???

And I had to ask 2 different staff in the food trucks to change their gloves as they were handling money with the same gloves they were using to assemble your meal and sprinkle your cheese on, eugh!

That might sound a bit precious, but money is the filthiest thing in the world!

What vendors were these?

Pomplamousse

Very mixed weekend for me.
We were probably some of the worst affected by the traffic on the way in. Left Dublin at 1.30pm and we were in the car for 10 hours altogether. It was fairly unbelievable. Locals were lovely though, one man offered us a cup of tea and a little girl came up to our car to give me a biscuit:D Worst part was hearing sirens and seeing an ambulance get stuck for a couple of minutes. Also saw a girl pull down her shorts and pee in full view of the many cars queuing behind her, followed by a little dance:o By the time we got to the blue car park we weren't allowed in, so more driving to the red car park.
Ended up camping in Both Sides Now campsite. Wasn't too cramped and only a short walk to the arena. The tent beside us were very noisy though, coming back to the campsite & playing music til about 8am each morning, but I was kinda expecting that and earplugs helped. I didn't find the toilets in the campsite too bad, or maybe I was just expecting the worst as I haven't been to a festival since EP 2010.
The stewards really pissed me off. None of them seemed to have answers to any of our questions and some gave us completely wrong answers.
Thankfully there were no acts we really wanted to see on Friday, otherwise I would've been so much more annoyed. Father John Misty on Saturday was fantastic, but was really disappointed with the sound for Lisa Hannigan. We were almost going to leave the tent despite being fans of hers, but then saw how bad the rain was outside. Also disappointed that 'special guest' Glen Hansard was a no show for the RTE orchestra performing songs of Leonard Cohen. It was for personal reasons according to an ATN reply on facebook which was fair enough, but I still think they could've let us know.
I really loved the All Curious Minds Here tent on Sunday. Not into poetry at all but I enjoyed the interview with the family of Seamus Heaney (almost cried at one of the readings:o) & loved the Pantibliss interview with John Grant. It was a really nice setup in there.
The rain was such a bummer & ended up missing a few things I would've liked to have seen as hibernating in the tent for a while after my raincoat started leaking was the only thing I felt like doing. So glad rain fecked off by 9pm both evenings.
Absolutely loved John Grant's performance, as always, & a big fan of the National who never fail to dissapoint me (Matt seemed a lot more sober than usual:p).
Disappointed with the food overall. Queued for an hour on Sunday afternoon for a toastie, which didn't live up to expectation, noodle bar had no noodles early Sunday evening & when all I wanted was chips on Sunday at about 7pm, was told that all food stalls were out of chips. The pizza place near the inflatable church was absolutely delicious at 1am Friday night after our long journey in the car.
Thankfully we only got stuck in about 30 mins traffic in the car park this morning when leaving but I hear others were much worse off. It'd have to be a very amazing lineup for me to return although a lot of that is probably down to me being older & crankier these days.

ghostdancer

boomshakalaka wrote: »

W
General camping was an utter fire hazard. Way way way too full, bins weren't cleared until this morning and there were only a handful of toilets. In fairness, even though there were few, they were in decent shape up until Sunday afternoon.

I'm guessing that was the This Is The Place campsite?
We were in Both Sides Now campsite and there was loads of space, plenty of toilets I thought (and clean any time I used them), and I didn't notice any issues with the bins...


these were from during the festival, seems like a good bit of a contrast!:

Blackie_IRL

Well I had a cracking weekend. Missed all the traffic chaos as I drove cross country once I hit Clonmel, left work in Limerick at 12.30 was supping an IPA outside my belle tent at 3. Unfortunately all my friends were coming from Dublin and arrived 5 hours later so I was six sheets to the wind before I entered the arena to see Fontaines.


Like any new festival there will be teething problems, they were either naive or greedy thinking they could jump from 12k to 20k in a year, small steps. The one positive to take from it is they wont increase capacity again for a few years. Their reputation took a hot this year, in saying that they will sell out next year no doubt.

Agree the music stages were too close together around the top.of site that needs to be fixed. Also there wasnt enough food vendors and those that were there weren't great, EP light years ahead in that respect.

Also the Boutique camping was lacking in services, toilets and showers were below the EP standard, and there wasnt any bar which is a shame. It cost us 600 quid for a Belletent and I feel at that price there should be some perks. Better toilets and showers than general camping for starters. Also the tents were pitched much closer together than normal.

In saying that I fully expect it to be resolved, I think they will be receptive to feedback, by all means share your thoughts here but also email them and let them know how they can improve it.

One final thing, the sound on some stages was poor and bleed was obvious, don't go down the EP route of cramming corporate tents and bars everywhere.

Finally, thank god for Arcadia. Cant wait for next year

Eod100

ghostdancer wrote: »

I'm guessing that was the This Is The Place campsite?
We were in Both Sides Now campsite and there was loads of space, plenty of toilets I thought (and clean any time I used them), and I didn't notice any issues with the bins...


these were from during the festival, seems like a good bit of a contrast!:

Not sure many would have known about BSN. Were there even 2 different campsites last year? I just kept tracking and came across it cause main campsite was absolutely jammed the. Zi landed at about 5.