Castlepalooza '08

hey guys,

shed load of photos from this up at http://entertainment.ie/caughtout - i think the photographer got photos of just about everyone, fair play. i'll be putting up my own photos on flickr over the next day or two, but they'll only really be of the bands.

highlights for me were robotnik, FLA and the chapters. Missed Boss Volenti on saturday as I was to a from the festival all day, wish i could have seen them. i was also brought up to the roof of the castle to take photos which was one of the best parts.

bad parts: the toilets not working - this was because some cut a water line and stole a valve from it I heard. Some people are very unsound.

Here's the first of many photos I'll be uploading in the next few days



Hi-Res Version available by clicking through..

http://flickr.com/photos/daramunnis/

my girlfriend got kicked out after being passed a 6-pack of cans from over the wall from outside.

they'd seen her from a distance and she hid the cans.
Then they told her that if she gave them the cans that would be the end of it.
so she did. They snipped her wristband and kicked her out without letting her get a jacket or tell her mates or anything.

I asked randomers who'd watched the conversation, and they said she wasn't cheeky with them and it was totally unnecessary.

I always sympathise with staff who have to enforce unpopular rules,
but this was absolute power-tripping with little regard for wrecking someones weekend.

Would never have been so much people trying to sneak booze in if they hadn't been so coy about the rules on alchohol on their website in the first place.
After several emails attempting to find out the deal with booze, I was eventually informed that off-licence would be available at "competitive prices".

€4 a can is a ****ing joke...
and not a very funny one.

scruttocks wrote: »

hey iamnothim, you spent some time in our tent discussing the merits and demerits of jam, marmalade, rams and sheep in the specific arena of sodomy. Good times. You've got some great photos there, any from our palace of madness?

Haha, heard someone try and repeat that joke and get it wrong saying, whats the difference between a sheep and marmalade... very funny. Also - when you say 'our tent' I'm nearly sure you mean Brians. I slept there both nights.

i actually saw a pack of scummers seemingly going through someones tent and rucksack with a torch. i followed them for a while, but essentially, did nothing. quite ashamed of myself tbh

ah come on.....are you telling me you didn't have an excellent weekend?

It was Sunday night when she was kicked out so yeah, maybe they were at the end of their tether. It was actually one person who pushed it.

After handing over her booze, the two male security staff dealing with her saw that as the end of the matter, but then the female one (youngish girl with black hair) said "I think she should go."
The two lads said "ah d'ya think? - we have the booze, that's probably enough." So she said "Let's ring head of security and see what he has to say."
Presumably, not wanting to undermine their colleague's authority, they said it was "up to her whether she wanted to do that." One of them even shot my girlfriend an apologetic look. Anyway she rang the head of security and got the green light she was looking for (I don't really blame the head guy so much, - if someone's basically asking for permission to eject someone who broke the rules, it's not surprising he'd follow the letter of the law).

on the subject of booze-rules,
I really think the cheap ticket prices would have a lot more to do with the savings from booking lesser-known bands (including a fair-share of rubbish ones) than takings from the off-licence (open to correction on this), as well as being lightweight on security, and other savings from a scaled down festival.

In 2006, tickets were €65 (was it?), then they had the cheek to charge €125 last year (for what? - where was that money going? What moron decided that 2006 was such a success, they'd DOUBLE the prices?),
before bringing it back down again this year.

I wouldn't be as disgruntled if they'd just been more upfront and open about their scabby booze policy. If the information was on the website, then I don't think I was the only one who had trouble finding it if it was.
I found alchohol serving times and info on "no glass or bottles allowed", but didn't see anything saying no booze to be brought in.

I emailed them a few times and was fobbed off with "thanks, please refer to our website for info". I persisted, telling them that I was having trouble finding precise info on the website. They sent back saying "no cans to be brought into the arena".
Now I think a lot of people would take this to mean the music arena as distinct from the campsite, especially seeing as this is how things work at other festivals. And call me cynical, but I think they phrased it this way knowing that this would be most people's interpretation.

I emailed back again and got another identical message saying "please refer to the website". Only when I pretended that I hadn't yet bought a ticket and wasn't booking if I didn't get details did they cease with the vague generic replies. They got back to me and said that the arena includes the campsite, and in response to my simple question of "how much will cans cost?" They said only that their prices were competitive. - A smart answer if you suspect that €4 a can might put off a potential ticket buyer.



Would anyone here with a good knowledge of event organisation hazard a guess at how successful Castlepalooza '08 was from a commercial point of view. Just curious. I wouldn't know much about what goes into it all, and the main costs and revenues.
I won my ticket in a competition this year (and was given 15 freebies from a friend who couldn't shift some complimentary ones that they'd been given in work in 2006). I spoke to two separate groups of people who'd been given 50 free tickets this year because their mates were playing.
None of my friends paid in. That tent was never packed.
Reckon they did well? Will it defo be on again next year?

I have to say that while I had a great time at Castlepalooza it was by no means what you'd (I'd) call a boutique festival. There was a distinct lack of choice in the food/drink area. We managed to sneak in 2 slabs and a few bottles of spirits with us but if we hadn't then Day 2 would've been a complete disaster.

That and the toilets. I agree with whoever said about portaloos - why not have a few as a back up?? For a 2 day festival they could've gone without the shower facilities! Do people really need to shower there?

But on the whole, as others have said, the atmosphere was great, the setting was lovely & the music was mostly good. Really enjoyed the Mystery Jets DJ set. Really hated the Republic of Loose one though - it was like the 2 lads put their iPod playlist on and played all the wedding cheese they could come up with. The weather couldn't have been better either apary from the odd heavy shower. Would've been worse if it had rained lightly all day.

Meant to post in here sooner...

Loved it! The music was good, people were friendly and the drink wasn't much of a problem for us. We were camped down in front of the bus (the tents with the tarps and the lanterns and the guys with all the glowsticks.)

That said one of our tents was stolen from, :mad: not much gone though as there one of our group was sleeping in the next tent they tried to rob so they got busted.

All in all though good times were had and we'll be back next year with bigger tarps, more lanterns and thousands of glowlights. Woooo!:D

EDIT: Just watched the vid Cian, nice set. I think I'm in that video too.

Yeah, about 5 can of Kopparberg and a phone. They missed an ipod and around 75 euro.

We were lucky, if there hadn't been someone there I'm sure there'd have been much more gone. Where we were camped was fairly secluded and they could have had their way with all our tents.