All Together Now 2024

Hard stone paths and then a road they have cut through. Be grand

I couldn't face dipping in here for the last week or so, so looking forward to the reviews. Safe journey home everyone!

…whats conditions like out there at the moment for drivers?

it’s like ‘weh weh just entertain me with mindless slop, be a dancing monkey’, instead of recognising that the nature of the music you’re listening to is inevitably political

Please, enough with the political chat, we're supposing to be discussing a festival ffs! Get back home and lads want to talk politics. Christ almighty.

Slowdive, Just Mustard and Wailers the highlights for me. Overall my gut feeling is a 6/10. Full report later.

Lads don't want to discuss it to be fair. One lad had a little cry and brought it up cause he was offended by musicians speaking their mind for a good cause

Cool, Dont lose sleep over the Mary Wallpapers anti fascist opinions which they're entitled to air at their gig. Don't like it then jog on

I wasn’t at the festival but just on the Mary Wallopers issue - I don’t mind a short, to the point, zinger for want of a better word, of a political message but THAT SHOULD BE IT - NO need to burn the ears off ppl with it.

As a wise man once said - the focus needs to be on the rhythms, the tones, the timbre, harmonics, melodies - in other words, the MUSIC should be the message.

I had a great time at ATN. I thought they done well at looking after the toilets, McBreen environmental up and down all the time, plenty of toilet roll etc. I saw no trouble at all so kudos to the crowds in general. The only negatives I have is the price of food €15 for sub standard food it is very greedy of the vendors especially when they have you dependent on them. I have a little stove and gas I could’ve brought down a lot of food for what I spent on basic sustenance. A few areas to cook would be great in future. One last thing, people should keep the area around their tents clean, some were disgraceful.

Saw them at Bearded Theory. They were good. Yeah, a tiny wee bit chatty, but that's ok.

Great weekend again this year. They've put together a lovely festival down there, read a good review over on the EP thread by @Fatfrog which summed it up very well, and as someone who swapped from Picnic to ATN in 2018 you'd forget how well we have it at ATN. Lots of nice food to the point I've already earmarked places for next year, excellent drink options/quality as a Guinness drinker, a beautiful site to explore, a well up-for-it crowd of mixed ages and IMO always a good lineup. Was down with a few first timers this year which maybe made me appreciate some of this stuff that we have had every year a bit more.

Got down Thursday around 8.00pm, was easy getting in and security didn't seem to care about the 24 cans rule, was surprised how busy the campsite was it seemed about half full around us anyway. Few cans in campsite and pints at KKC then bed fairly early. Friday was showered and fed by 10am but didn't go into the arena until later due to the rain. At this point I was getting worried we were in for a mucky weekend as the ground seemed soft in areas but it held up well over the weekend (not as pretty this morning). Confidence Man easily the highlight of that night - also saw bits of Fizzy Orange, Ben UFO, Kiasmos, Kolsch & Ping Pong Disco.

Saturday was a brilliant day, maybe my favourite ever at ATN. Really enjoyed every single gig we went to. Sing Along Social worked probably better on the main stage because of the screens and stage visibility compared to the Bandstand, Natasha Bedingfield surprised me how much everyone who was there enjoyed it, Le Boom as good as ever to a big crowd in SKOW, The Mary Wallopers very good, Optimo with an amazingly varied DJ set which was maybe the highlight for me, Eliza Rose who I'd no intentions of going to, KA Byrne delivers exactly what I was in the mood for at the time and then SHEE really taking me by surprise and playing a great set in SKOW. Fantastic day where everything just seemed to flow nicely.

Sunday had the better lineup for me on paper but underwhelmed a little bit, felt like I didn't take in many full sets due to overlap or not enjoying it that much, although had a really good time at Future Islands and Barry Can't Swim. Also special mention to the DJ playing the tiny little tent past the main stage in the corner, he had about 25 people dancing away and sheltering from the rain in between those gigs! The Prodigy just didn't do it for me, stayed for about 35 mins and they played a lot of good songs but don't think I was in the mood. Spent a a while wandering around before settling at Paul Kalkbrenner later.

They just can't seem to get a break with the weather aside from the first year. It was far from awful this year but yesterdays persistent drizzle was annoying. Only other negative for me was I felt a slight change in the crowd demographic - friend got something nicked, we had a lad pop his head into our tent at like 4am last night, had a few people literally push past us at some gigs, few more 'heads' around and much more big parties going on all night in the campsites than at any other. Overall the crowd is still amazing and I had way, way more great interactions with strangers over the weekend. But the first time I've had a few unpleasant experiences too!

Got there on Friday evening, Looking forward to KIngfishr , and holy god they didnt disappoint ! What a great band, great vocals, great musicians , tight when they have to be, loose when they wanted to be. Loved it !!!

Saturday - The National were exceptional, Arcadia was excellent - what a great spot!.

Soda Blonde, great.. Mary Wallopers .Hmmm good but not great, too much chattering about sh1te filling time.

Sunday - overall disappointing. Wailers were superb, with a great crowd watching them! "IREEEEEEEEEE-land" :)

The Scratch were excellent, massive crowd in Lovely days… Caught Tommy Tiernan, very very good.

A bit of (the very late) Dolly show, Slowdive, and the Prodigy were superb. I felt Sunday was a bit 'slow', quite a few gaps between acts (or just acts i had no interest in at all)

Schweppes bar was jumping, Abandoman was excellent.

A really great , sound crowd on Fri & Sat, but with all the drunk teenagers in around on Sunday was a bit annoying.. ( how are they allowed in?? they arent under12 or over21 ? )

Food was good (anygrub i got) was yum, but pricing is a bit ott, and cashless is a pain in the h0le.

Getting out of the place was a pain….. I went home after the Prodigy, and tried to go back in on Monday morning to collect a child and her stuff…. Its a 10 min drive to gate 3 0r 4 for me, but i spent 2.5hrs driving around whilst clueless (or plain ignorant , disinterested) stewards on gates said ' no cant come in here have to go to gate 4'…

'no we are closed, have to go to gate 1' GATE fcuking 1 !!!! on the complete opposite site of the ATN site !!!!

Guard i spoke to said it was a sh1t show, run by ATNs event 'management' …

So eventually, i told her to get on the bus , and id collect her…..

Ridiculous set up… How anyone got back in to collect their tent/kids, i wouldnt like to know.

No updates on local radio, Stewards that hadnt a flipping clue…….. A big let down after such a great weekend.

also , they need to sort out the teenagers getting in on other peoples wristbands, it was the worst ever this year……