Wild Roots Festival 2020

El Director

They are making it impossible for event planners to plan! I see a load of festivals and gigs being pulled now. There was so many positive indicators in the last few weeks but I fear this announcement will be the final nail for some. Government completely lacking in ambition imo, why the f@ck couldn’t fully vaccinated people attend? Set up up a walk in testing centre in Sligo on the Thursday, use lateral flow testing, sniffer dogs etc

Lowest I’ve felt in a while. Hopefully my pessimism will be ill founded.

endainoz

El Director wrote: »

They are making it impossible for event planners to plan! I see a load of festivals and gigs being pulled now. There was so many positive indicators in the last few weeks but I fear this announcement will be the final nail for some. Government completely lacking in ambition imo, why the f@ck couldn’t fully vaccinated people attend? Set up up a walk in testing centre in Sligo on the Thursday, use lateral flow testing, sniffer dogs etc

Lowest I’ve felt in a while. Hopefully my pessimism will be ill founded.

I'm feeling low myself, but if you look at wild roots' Instagram story they see it as positive that they'll be allowed 5,000. I had thought it was capped at 10,000 unless they only sold 5,000 tickets to be safe? If that's the case we're laughing. It does all seem so far away though, the country will be in a much better position in the middle of August.

El Director

endainoz wrote: »

I'm feeling low myself, but if you look at wild roots' Instagram story they see it as positive that they'll be allowed 5,000. I had thought it was capped at 10,000 unless they only sold 5,000 tickets to be safe? If that's the case we're laughing. It does all seem so far away though, the country will be in a much better position in the middle of August.

Yeah, it almost certainly will be. They have sold 9000 tickets last I heard and the cap is 10k. If it doesn’t go ahead I’d feel awful for the organisers as they have put so much into it.

Let’s try to remain up beat! From a selfish PoV I got my second jab yesterday, today was the last day of school and it’s records and beer for the evening for me :cool:

endainoz

El Director wrote: »

Yeah, it almost certainly will be. They have sold 9000 tickets last I heard and the cap is 10k. If it doesn’t go ahead I’d feel awful for the organisers as they have put so much into it.

Let’s try to remain up beat! From a selfish PoV I got my second jab yesterday, today was the last day of school and it’s records and for the evening for me :cool:

Maybe they could split it into two weekends with the same lineup. It's mostly Irish acts anyway, could be a way around it I guess.

RINO87

endainoz wrote: »

I'm feeling low myself, but if you look at wild roots' Instagram story they see it as positive that they'll be allowed 5,000. I had thought it was capped at 10,000 unless they only sold 5,000 tickets to be safe? If that's the case we're laughing. It does all seem so far away though, the country will be in a much better position in the middle of August.

Yeah it's an absolute dose. I had all my eggs in ATN'S Basket again this year, but got tickets for this too in early May. If it is capped at 5000 i doubt we would make the cut off... I hope those that had faith early on are rewarded with some type of festival

bodhrandude

I just heard that The Haunt venue is coming to Wilds Roots .

endainoz

bodhrandude wrote: »

I just heard that The Haunt venue is coming to Wilds Roots .

BD you should share some pics of the Haunt and tell us a bit more about how unreal it is!

El Director

bodhrandude wrote: »

I just heard that The Haunt venue is coming to Wilds Roots .

Excuse my ignorance but what is this?

bodhrandude

I lifted this from my EP review 2017, when the Haunt first appeared at Body&Soul Village, I hope you like.

Friday.
" The biggest surprise though was the Haunt, a new barn type venue that looked like a set from a David Lynch film. Now the Haunt is quite a small venue maybe marginally bigger than the Red Bull Soundome, well maybe a crammed room if 150 people were there, but it had a creepy cool clandestine feel to it, almost like a candle light glow. The softest seats to the side and a great selection of DJs spinning the wonderful music. The music ranging from vaudeville, bebop, blues, folk music from around the world, deepest Africa, Cuba, Klezmer, Balkan, Mexican and Ireland too ending on a Christy Moore/Planxty note, it was really loud but beautiful sounds. There was no timetable information for the Haunt so I have no idea who was playing Friday or Saturday night. I just wonder if its the same people who ran the Gramophone Disco at Townlands Carnival as I remember a similar Planxty/Christy Moore thing happening in there too last year. Myself and Kevin headed back to the crew camp for the night at about 3.30 am, time to get a much needed rest.



Saturday.


" We settled for the second night ending at the Haunt, that cool fully enclosed wooden looking byre, with intoxicating world music on a superb PA, the bass causing explosions and ruptures in your ears but it was ever so delightful. Yes, seats have become available. YONK! No sorry, not moving, can’t move.

The music that was brought to us over the weekend, courtesy of, Maxtractor-spudnikki Monchici, Killian Redmonk, Christine McQuilan, Mick T-woc, Chrissi Ferris, Andy Aforce, Ollie Moore, Gully Docktah Irie and Colin Olwill was so, so refreshing compared to what was in the dance stages of the main arena, not the marquees now but the Logic and Heineken stages. Some even reckon the Haunt was placed there to strategically counterpoint the dance stages, I think it worked too. I am proud to say, myself and Kevin were the last two thrown out of the place by 4.20 AM. "

Will add more from 2018 and 19 to follow.

bodhrandude

The Haunt at B&S EP 2018.

bodhrandude

From 2019 EP review.

" Body&Soul beckoned, so we made straight for the staff short cuts straight into the Body&Soul area. It was straight up to the Haunt for me and it couldn’t have been more perfect timing, a lone couch beckoned me to sit, I sat down and remained there for the night. Various friends came and joined me from time to time, the lovely Clidna, John Dooley and random characters, Kenno, a grey haired and bearded hippy fellow from Dublin who played his bones and clapped to the music. I remember Kenno playing the bones to Paddy Keenan’s gig at the Body&Soul main stage at Body&Soul festival a few years back. When the music turned Irish trad for while at the Haunt I couldn’t resist taking out my bodhran out and playing along and tonight I recognised some of the DJ selections. "

Some of the selections played that night.

" Kevin and Clídna headed off to see The Streets at one point and then to see King Kong Company at the Body&Soul main stage, but I was fairly content where I was and when they DJ switched to the Irish traditional for a while he played this little gem featuring one of my hero’s Johnny ‘Ringo’ McDonagh from Galway city on the bodhran and I played happily along. "

" Alas I fell asleep there and was woke up by security at 4.30 AM and kicked out of the Haunt. "

El Director

Terrific stuff @bodhrandude! Thanks for that. Makes me pine for a festival. Wouldn’t it be nice if we where given the official thumbs up and then we could actually allow ourselves to plan and look forward to it.

El Director

I wonder what this means…

bodhrandude

Just found out that a good festival buddy is running the advance festival build crew for this, so I'm in to work the advance crew for this the week before the festival, ya fecking dancer.

El Director

bodhrandude wrote: »

Just found out that a good festival buddy is running the advance festival build crew for this, so I'm in to work the advance crew for this the week before the festival, ya fecking dancer.

That’s cool! You might get the inside track for us so! Unfortunately they’ve ceased communicating with me on IG now.

RINO87

With news on EP now looking pretty good, I'm wondering if this will end up being a bit of a teenie bopper fest? I'm still going, I need cans in a field ASAP but wonder if there will be a quiet, or "ECO" campsite?!

endainoz

Not to put a dampener on things, but nothing is confirmed yet. Wild Roots are pushing ahead alright, but the lack of proper social media interaction after being so great to get back to people previously. I am hopeful of course, but the government still needs to give to ok for these events.

El Director

RINO87 wrote: »

With news on EP now looking pretty good, I'm wondering if this will end up being a bit of a teenie bopper fest? I'm still going, I need cans in a field ASAP but wonder if there will be a quiet, or "ECO" campsite?!

I doubt it with the line up, hopefully the teens will just wait for EP.

El Director

endainoz wrote: »

Not to put a dampener on things, but nothing is confirmed yet. Wild Roots are pushing ahead alright, but the lack of proper social media interaction after being so great to get back to people previously. I am hopeful of course, but the government still needs to give to ok for these events.

I’m still hoping for ATN too but not a chance of that happening I’d say. Half the fun is looking forward to these things which is impossible with the lack of clarity or announcements.

ArtSmart

El Director wrote: »

I’m still hoping for ATN too but not a chance of that happening I’d say. Half the fun is looking forward to these things which is impossible with the lack of clarity or announcements.

Body & Soul cancelled. FB quote below. ATN nothing yet, but maybe they will postpone?





Reflecting on a solstice weekend that could have been, the celebrations not far in our future and a decade of days spent in Ballinlough with you!

While it tugs at our heartstrings to miss out on another year of Body&Soul, we expect our patience will be rewarded with a reunion for the ages in 2022.

From the tops and bottoms of all of our hearts, thank you to everyone who attended, contributed, shaped, danced and laughed at Body & Soul throughout the years.

You’re the reason why we’ll raise our glasses this weekend, and the reason why we’ll return to Body&Soul to do it all over again.

Until we meet again, raise your flag!

bodhrandude

Looking at their poster I assume there's another top biller or headliner to be added. James Morrison, Kaiser Chiefs, ? Do we still have to get a Sunday headliner.

GiftofGab

Can anybody see this going ahead?

bodhrandude

GiftofGab wrote: »

Can anybody see this going ahead?

I think they are holding out till they see the decision between talks with Festival Republic and government officials at the end of June about the Picnic. If the Picnic calls it off, Wild Roots might follow suit, but hopefully one fecking festival this year will go ahead.

Nugget89

Still haven't lost hope on it happening. I'm going through the lineup now to find some bands to go see, because there's so much I'm not familiar with. I'm liking Alexis Kings.

El Director

I’m sure there will be a bit of an uptake today in ticket sales after ATN announcement. That was a blow to my mood I must say, obviously it was expected but when it’s official it’s hard not to be a bit down. Anyway that’s why I got WR tickets a long time ago just as a back up…still hopeful but this bloody Delta variant can F right off!

That said - for events it’s simple enough imo…fully V’d - in you go, negative PCR - in you go, neither of those then - sorry bud OR…here, let’s do an antigen on you so. Ambitious? Fecking hardly. Too ambitious for this government? Certainly.

El Director

GiftofGab wrote: »

Can anybody see this going ahead?

Hopefully. Follow them on IG and that certainly makes you think it’ll go ahead. They’ve been building on site now for weeks. They have a really good covid plan, an actual line up and they’ve ran a test event incl antigen testing. So they are doing all they possibly can! Were you an ATN hopeful too?

bodhrandude

Things must be looking up as I just received an email from WR about them looking for volunteers to work this festival, so I'll leave the link here in case you are indecisive and tickets sell out, this is another option in. https://applications.eventree.co.uk/apply/index/id/3540

bodhrandude

All this talk in the media about the government being super cautious, talk of extending the 5th July deadline hopefully this doesn't mean the final nail in the coffin for WR and that it still gets the go ahead.

Furious-Red

bodhrandude wrote: »

All this talk in the media about the government being super cautious, talk of extending the 5th July deadline hopefully this doesn't mean the final nail in the coffin for WR and that it still gets the go ahead.

They might let them be another of the test events with testing etc (which I'm pretty sure they did at their launch event), Plus the fact it will be outdoors could help because it seems NPHET are worried about the Delta variant getting indoors which is where it will cause the most danger.

endainoz

Furious-Red wrote: »

They might let them be another of the test events with testing etc (which I'm pretty sure they did at their launch event), Plus the fact it will be outdoors could help because it seems NPHET are worried about the Delta variant getting indoors which is where it will cause the most danger.

A socially distanced campsite would be nice all the same! Though obviously not really workable.

bodhrandude

The media are now saying that the grand opening is moving from 19th to 26th July, would WR be still safe to go ahead in mid August if that's the case.

endainoz

bodhrandude wrote: »

The media are now saying that the grand opening is moving from 19th to 26th July, would WR be still safe to go ahead in mid August if that's the case.

That opening is referring to indoor dining in pubs BD, dosent really apply to festivals as they're mostly outdoors. Now what we do need to know about is some definite news about outdoor gatherings so those rules can be directly applied to festivals.

Biscuitus

No nightclubs or indoor pubs & restaurants open yet and this festival is on in 5 weeks?

endainoz

Biscuitus wrote: »

No nightclubs or indoor pubs & restaurants open yet and this festival is on in 5 weeks?

As it stands yes, but an outdoor festival doesn't fall into either of those categories.

bodhrandude

I see some discussion in the Covid threads about it being at least another three weeks before vaccination gets through Cohort 4 and 7 and the 60's - 69 age group. Some folk estimated that the opening of restrictions could be put back now till August 16th, so hopefully that doesn't affect Wild Roots.

endainoz

It definitely could, I have to admit I'm less confident about it these days but i go though pahses.

endainoz

On the other hand, this is positive news

8,000 fans allowed into Croke Park next Saturday for Leinster hurling semi-finals https://the42.ie/5479843

circular flexing

endainoz wrote: »

On the other hand, this is positive news

8,000 fans allowed into Croke Park next Saturday for Leinster hurling semi-finals https://the42.ie/5479843

8,000 is less than 10% of the capacity of Croke Park, guarantee the Hill won't be open and seats will be sold in groups of 4-6 and with groups kept well apart. This simply won't be possible at an open air camping festival.

El Director

Well finally, are we seeing a bit of common sense coming through…

endainoz

El Director wrote: »

Well finally, are we seeing a bit of common sense coming through…

I have no problem with it, but I can see plenty of civil liberties lunatics having a major issue with it.

Stillill42

endainoz wrote: »

I have no problem with it, but I can see plenty of civil liberties lunatics having a major issue with it.

You're probably right, Endainoz but I've zero time for that bull****. Get things going in whatever way we can, get your jab when your time comes.

The Davestator

So it's ok for vaccinated people to eat indoors and be served by unvaccinated young people?!

Silly idea.

Open up and make vaccination centres 24/7

CrabRevolution

The Davestator wrote: »

So it's ok for vaccinated people to eat indoors and be served by unvaccinated young people?!

Silly idea.

Open up and make vaccination centres 24/7

Do you really think the rate of vaccination is determined solely by the operating hours? Opening 24/7 vaccination centres won't make more vaccines appear out of nowhere.

The Davestator

CrabRevolution wrote: »

Do you really think the rate of vaccination is determined solely by the operating hours? Opening 24/7 vaccination centres won't make more vaccines appear out of nowhere.

Up to yesterday, that was true.

Now that under 50's can have AZ, there are loads to catch up on and supply is no longer the issue it was.

endainoz

Stillill42 wrote: »

You're probably right, Endainoz but I've zero time for that bull****. Get things going in whatever way we can, get your jab when your time comes.

And as I feared disbandNPHET is now trending on Twitter...

bodhrandude

Not looking good, unless this is just speculation by the Independent.

https://twitter.com/Independent_ie/status/1410251593702912003?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1410251593702912003%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.boards.ie%2Fvbulletin%2Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D2058182855page%3D183

RINO87

Numbers rising.... Highly conservative government....My hope for this is diminishing by the day.

Sadface...

endainoz

RINO87 wrote: »

Numbers rising.... Highly conservative government....My hope for this is diminishing by the day.

Sadface...

Yet the attendance for GAA matches is allowed to increase. 3000 fans allowed for Clare vs Tipp this weekend...

timmyntc

endainoz wrote: »

Yet the attendance for GAA matches is allowed to increase. 3000 fans allowed for Clare vs Tipp this weekend...

In a stadium with 44k capacity, not even 10% full.

endainoz

timmyntc wrote: »

In a stadium with 44k capacity, not even 10% full.

So what to say that wild roots can't hold 50k+ at a hypothetical full capacity of it were to extend in a couple of years? It has way more space to use than a stadium.