Beyond The Pale Festival - 10th-12th June - Glendalough

RINO87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120744952#Comment_120744952

Nice.

TagoMago

Really enjoyed the weekend, great music, food and drink were class, lovely crowd, nice and compact. Bad weather the Friday night but that was well forgotten by the time the sun was splitting the stones on Sunday. On Friday we were a bit late getting to The Space Between and they weren't letting anyone in, wandered back in to the arena and stumbled across Klaus Blatter lifting the roof off one of the smaller tents (Irvine Welsh is a legend 😎)

Other highlights were Grace Jones, Hot Chip, Jon Hopkins, Sofia Kortesis, Horse Meat Disco, Just Mustard, the bits I saw of Joy Orbison, Booka Shade were great too. Was disappointed to miss Max Cooper but was well worth it for Grace Jones, her performance was incredible. Such a handy spin home on Monday too, will definitely be back next year!

grudgehugger

Enjoying reading all yere comments on here!

Not much to add beyond what’s been said already other than to call out my own personal highlights: DJ Seinfeld, Leftfield & Hagop Tchaparian who was on a touch early at 5pm but I really enjoyed the bits I caught.

Honourable mentions to Florist (a sit-down gig was all I could handle at 2.30 on Saturday) and Marie Davidson (which I was really enjoying but my mates’ ears couldn’t cope!)

Sounds like most of us will be back next year, despite the slightly drab arena & early finishes :)

Homesick Alien

Yep agree with most of what's been said. Had a great weekend overall. I was there with kids and this is the only festival I've been to where you had to buy separate tickets for kids rather than family tickets so it worked out quite expensive given there really wasn't much for kids. In fact there weren't many kids full stop. But the crowd in general were good. Friday night eagerness meant it was very messy by 10pm so retreated early. Plus the rain didn't help. But the next couple of days were great. Campervan site was chilled albeit we were miles from the one set of toilets. Security was bizarre. Didn't even get asked for campervan pass and all they asked was if I had glass in my bag. I do wonder why they didn't just say it was gonna be free flow as they clearly told security to just check for glass. Definitely a shame they don't make more use of the woods so you don't feel like you're just walking around the same field for 3 days! Would I go back? Meh. B&S and ATN do it better in my view.

VonLuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120744952#Comment_120744952

I feel guilty for my (very few) photos and video clips now. My head is like a sieve and wanted to remember the acts I had seen!

Tea-a-Maria

Enjoyed this festival a lot, most of the pros and cons have been covered off by others in the thread already. It's the smallest festival I've been to and definitely a different experience to the likes of ATN and EP.

Jon Hopkins and Max Cooper were highlights for me, although the NCH Gamelan Orchestra was also unexpectedly lovely.

Really enjoyed Saint Sister, especially their cover of LCD Soundsystem's Where are Your Friends Tonight. That gig also epitomised the lovely vibe of the crowd; a dad put his young son up on his shoulders and everyone started cheering, then he blew a single bubble with a bubble wand and the crowd went nuts!

Ruanmcg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120744952#Comment_120744952

Yeah it’s **** in a lot of places. All together now was pretty good, Fuinneamh as well everybody was too busy raving to be taking vids. I can’t stand seeing phones at a rave or club , totally kills the vibe. Tengu is the only place I can go these days mostly cuz of that. Although depends on the night for other places

D.Q

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120746640#Comment_120746640

What's the vibe usually like at Fuineamh? I'd be tempted but Life has kind of put me off lineups that are only DJ/Electronic stuff. Needs some chill stuff and some variation, especially during the day.

Ruanmcg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120749827#Comment_120749827

I only went to Fuinneamh for the first time last year and I thought it was absolutely unreal, one of my favourite festivals I've ever been to and a totally unique vibe to anywhere else.

It's totally independent and non-commerical, so there's no adds or sponsors anywhere. 100% BYOB, you can't even buy drink there. There were like 4 or 5 food stalls there (one or two vegan/vegetarian) and that was it. It has a very raw and DIY feel, the lads running it are essentially doing it with all their mates and various electronic music collectives around the country. It felt more like a massive, well organised rave then a standard festival. There were no gardaí and little to no security. All of that made for a pretty unreal buzz, I didn't think stuff like that still existed... basically like what'd you imagine a OG 90s rave to be like.

It's definitely pretty wild and a heavier session then BTP or ATN for example, people are up all night and everyone is getting on it major. But it's mostly veterans of the session who have been around the block and know what they're doing. People are also very sound, there's a lot of hippy energy to the place and the lads running it talk a lot about intention and energy and all that. The festival is totally influenced by Fusion in Germany, a huge legendary anarchist/hippy festival. There genuinely was such a great buzz around the place, and you can tell a serious amount of love has gone in to it despite it's size. There's an area for art works where loads of people have done paintings of Liberty Caps and Albert Hoffman on a bicycle and all that. There are a couple of really nice areas to chill out, and there is also a stage that has bands playing, more like folk kind of music and stuff, I never really went there but it was a lovely little area.

As for the music, it was unreal. There are like 5 or so stages which all roughly have a certain sound (don't think they're necessarily labelled that way but that was basically what I found): Hard Dance/ravey techno, techno, Drum & Bass/Jungle/Dub, Psytrance, and house/misc.. All the stages are quite small but they are all deadly, unreal sound, quality lights. The people running the festival are proper ravers so they know what's up in that regard and are very intent on delivering on that front. The lineup is 90% local DJs, so while they have a fair few international DJs booked, there's a cool communal sort of buzz where all the DJ's are also at the festival having the craic with their mates, and it feels like a big outing for the Irish underground electronic scene.

I honestly had an amazing and actually quite eye-opening experience there... It really influenced my taste in dance music and actually got me way more in to it in general (I've always fluctuated between guitar music and electronic). Got back into DJing and even ended up running my own night in April this year in town. Don't think any of that would have happened that if it wasn't for Fuinneamh. There was something very very special about going to an event that wasn't being run for profit, but rather because people have a desire or impulse to create something. You could totally feel that around the place. I think that's quite rare in our modern world.

I was actually a little dubious about it myself as I'd never been, and Life never appealed to me (far too scauldy), but Fuinneamh is fecking unbelievable and as you can probably tell I'm now a Fuinneamh-evangelist. Highly highly recommend you check it out man, it's also only two days. Also the stages don't actually run that late so it's not unbelievably mauldy or anything. Hit me up in the DMs if you want to any more insight from my Fuinneamh experience!

Mrs Shuttleworth

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120753007#Comment_120753007

Just looked up Fuinneamh there, they've Ellen Allien playing this year. That's a great booking. Definitely gonna check this out now.

Ruanmcg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120753154#Comment_120753154

If you're a fan of the kind of stuff Ellen Allien plays then you have got to make it down! Loads and loads of banging Techno, Trance etc. with everyone proper into it.

I've been to festivals and clubs all over Europe (Melt, Dekmantel, DGTL, AVA, Tresor, Griesmuhle, Shelter, Phonox, Printworks, Apgrade etc.) but Fuinneamh topped any other event I've been to for dance music, it just felt like it had something that seems to have largely been lost with the commercialization and explosion of 'rave culture' over the last 30 years. Maybe the acid had something to do with it... But I know it's a lot of people's favourite fest in the country!

Dreamweapon

Sounds like its continuing the spirit of Leechrum and Mantua from the early-mid 00s. Anarchic affairs, great fun.

Just to be clear i'm talking about Fuinneamh here not BTP!

jr1984

Thanks, was looking for the bicep, nelly f tune, would never have found it!

D.Q

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120753007#Comment_120753007

Haha wow, what a reply! Cheers! Yeah will give it some thought for sure. Sounds like what I'd be looking for alright.

I'm living in Berlin myself at the moment, someone was only chatting to me about fusion today, had never heard of it.

Mrs Shuttleworth

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120753706#Comment_120753706

Will definitely be there and thanks for the recommendation. The techno and tech house nights with Irish lads on the bill blow any night anywhere out of the water. You come home not only enjoying yourself but feeling as if you actually learned and experienced something new. See you there!

whelzer

Candi Staton was far better last week for us compared to Glastonbury. So there!

Van Doozy

I heard her entire set from the campsite, was well impressed.

Fanirish

June 2024 has 5 weekends, so maybe beyond does 14-16

body and soul does weekend after which coincides with a Thursday summer solstice and Glastonbury on the 27-30th

Toast

It certainly sounded like they'd muted her backing singers at some point in the iplayer mix so we just got her unaided vocals which weren't the strongest.

VonLuck

Hope you all responded to the survey Beyond the Pale sent out. Hopefully they take on board some of the comments!

Van Doozy

What kind of questions were in it?

VonLuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120771156#Comment_120771156

It was wide ranging really. List 3 things you liked most and least. What acts would you like to see next year. Scoring various aspects of the festival e.g. selection of food, facilities etc.

lc180

Dates announced for 2024: June 21st to 23rd 2024

Most importantly, the weekend after Body & Soul.

https://nialler9.com/beyond-the-pale-festival-2024-dates-tickets/?fbclid=PAAabYYk3tM0PLbAK1OsbXxcEmarWvDQgq-YfWYbBuhLOfHJ2RLvOr5Jsf80c

citycentre

That's bumped B&S from their traditional link to the weekend closest to the Solstice (though it makes far more sense for B&S to pick a weekend and stick to it rather than shifting around every few years). Thank god it's not a direct clash. We could have two fantastic weekends of music and craic ahead... Though still, the thought of going to effectively two festivals in a week is quite daunting 😂

RINO87

BTP going for the jugular, Body and Soul blinked first!! Glad they are not clashing anyway, but ya two festivals in a row...you would nearly just want to stay on it for the week in between!

grudgehugger

As others have said, delighted that the two festivals are not clashing next year. My liver is less pleased, my therapist more so.

Given the success of this thread, are we going to stick with it for 2024 or should I start a new one called "Beyond The Pale Festival - 16th-18th June - Glendalough"

grudgehugger

Just picked up an early bird ticket - but for May 31 to 2 June????!

I'm seeing this as the organiser's tribute to this thread.

Toast

Joking about the wrong dates.. the booking page said

Beyond the Pale Festival 2024 Fri. May 31, 2024 at 12:00pm - Sun. Jun 2, 2024 at 11:00pm IST

😀

Unsure if it will be this, Glastonbury or some unknown third option. I grabbed early birds on a whim there as I actually got the first tier price when I clicked through. The tickets at the moment are standard PDF QR Code things so I am happy enough to take the risk I could transfer them if needed.

Dreamweapon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120812214#Comment_120812214

Same with me. I may end up not going but it seemed a good enough deal to take the plunge.

Jambonjunior

Given the mess with ATN I'm gonna skip the early bird tickets.