General Chat Thread II

Posting this here, as it may be of interest to some people (It's also in the beer form).

The Big Grill 2024, Herbert Park…

We went for the late slot yesterday, and spent four hours there, from 4pm to 8pm.

Entry was straightforward, no real queue to speak of. QR code scanned off the phone, and we got wristbands with drinks tokens, and lanyards for the Rancho Relaxo access we paid extra for.

Rancho Relaxo

Rancho Relaxo was a separate area, with long tables, some covered, some uncovered, and a private bar selling 1661 cocktails, wine and O'Hara's Beers (Session IPA and stout). Although it was a dry evening, with a lot of people in the main festival just sitting on the ground, we did tend to end up drifting back here to sit down properly. The main advantage of Rancho Relaxo was undoubtedly the upgraded toilets, which were genuinely in great nick. Not sure what you'd call them, they weren't permanent but they were a significant step-up from portaloos, and very clean.

Whether or not Rancho Relaxo was worth it is kind of a subjective thing… If on a budget then the obvious answer is "no", but the women in the group we were with reckoned it was worth it for the toilets alone. The 2 drinks per head included soften the blow of the extra cost somewhat.

Drinks

Looking at receipts from my phone, it looks like I paid 7 and 7.50 per pint. Everything was in plastic, as you'd expect.

There were about a half dozen craft beer stalls.. White Hag, O Brother, Carlow, Sullivan's, Trouble Brewing, Rascals and Wicklow Wolf. A few cider producers, Schweppes, Jameson, Neighbourhood wines, Madri and a few random things like Kinsale Mead.

Trouble Brewing seemed to have sold out of a lot of stuff by the time we go there, as had White Hag (Atlantean, for example), but I had several pints of Elevation from Wicklow Wolf, and was happy enough.

Never had to queue for a drink.

Food

Nothing is included in your ticket, people seem to struggle every year with this fact, but … yep… You pay entry and your ticket doesn't get you any food. It is what it is.

You're eating off paper plates, with wooden cutlery, and people are either standing or sitting on the grass, or on some benches or in Rancho Relaxo.

In cost terms, it's not restaurant pricing, take-away or eat in, it's lower, but it's not inconsiderable. I ate 5-6 dishes, and they ranged between 7.50 and 12.50.

Off the top of my head:-

Achara (Thai BBQ), 7.50 for a Northern Thai spiced sausage with a really really good green salsa. Bao and excellent iberico pork skewers from Hang Dai. A slow-cooked lamb flatbread from Reyna that was a bit disappointing. Flank-steak, salsa and slaw from celebrity Texan smoker / BBQ outfit Leroy and Lewis (Over seasoned, IMO, but tasty). Beef ribs from Bah 33, these were 12.50 but for those who equate size with value for money, probably the most substantial of anything I got, and really good. The Bah 33 guys aren't the darlings of the Irish food scene the way others are, but don't sleep on them if you're into smoked foods, they are amazing.

In terms of food quality… Some good dishes, some so-so. I'm not sure what people expect, but this is clearly outdoorsy/food truck fare, and I think most vendors did a good job of judging what they could deliver in a reasonable manner. Usually a dish was 2 elements, 3 at most. The reality is, being outdoors, it's piping hot when it's plated up, but within 30 seconds it's tepid. That's the nature of the beast.

An issue in previous years was that some places ran out of food, or queues were inordinately long. I did queue for a couple of minutes, here and there, but generally food was moving quickly.

A few places had sold out of things I wanted, but in general there was enough choice left over, and I did go at the tail end of the festival.

My buddy was disappointed Leroy and Lewis has sold all their smoked stuff, but again, we were just too late going along. They had obviously got some big cuts of bavette and chucked that on the grill to have something to serve still.

People have said, in a previous years, that if you are really into grilling/smoking, this isn't a festival for you, but I think that's a bit unfair. I shot the **** with several of the chefs and chatted away. Not sure what people expect, but it found it interesting to just walk around and watch them working, and asked the odd question here and there. It's clearly not a hardcore US-style grill festival, but that expectation will never be met in a mainstream event of this size.

General stuff

The regular toilets were pretty grim, according to one of our group who went. Standard for a festival, though.

The crowd was very middle-class, and probably 25-45 in general. There were loads of kids around, and the vibe was pleasant. Didn't see anyone falling over drunk, or anything anti-social. There were several Gardaí floating around in uniform.

The one slight 'shock' we got was that when 8pm came, everywhere stopped serving on the dot. No "ah just one last round", that was it. Which is fair enough I suppose.

Overall… Probably spent 150 a head, but I'd consider it a very good evening. At times discussion on this forum always devolves into what something costs, which is somewhat tiresome, because evaluating something doesn't always have to come down to the question of value for money... This wasn't cheap, but everyone had a great time. Compared to other years, they seem to have a got a handle on some of the issues that bedevilled them in terms of crowds and queues.