AC/DC Punchestown 28/06/09

OneForTheRoad · 29-06-2009 9:32pm

I had a ball.

Left the gaf at 1.30, got a minibus down with about ten of my mates, got to Punchestown at about half 2, no traffic at all, sat down waiting for the gates to open with a few beers.

Queues were a bit ridiculous after The Answer, but I don't go to gigs expecting no queues anymore.

However, all they have to do is introduce a 5 pint cardboard carrier like at Roskilde / other festivals, and you don't have to queue up again all night. It's not rocket science.

Anyway, left right after the last song, got seperated from my mates and couldn't find the park and ride place, so I just walkwed out the road for five minutes, and got a steward to flag down a Dublin Bus for me, which she did.:cool:

Back in clondalkin by half 12.

edit to day that I had never been in Punchestown for a gig before, and never will be again. Its' just a bad venue.

29-06-2009 9:35pm

Pye wrote: »

No, all those dirty drunks. No place at a ROCK gig at all! :rolleyes:

There is no place at a gig for grown men getting sick all over themselves, passing out, starting fights and pushing young children around. I'm all for a few drinks and understand that alcohol and rock go hand in hand but there is a line.

If you need alcohol to enjoy a gig then you really shouldn't be there in the first place.

I'm a fan of AC/DC as is my Dad and 5 brothers who attended the gig. We met dozens of other fans and families many with 3 and 4 generatiosn of the family there and you know what, none of them were so drunk they couldn't stand up. There were tens of thousands of sober fans there who rocked out during every song and then there were the thousands of drunken idiots stumbling around and going crazy and causing trouble whenever they recognised a song from the radio.

Take the gig yesterday which while amazing wasn't a patch on the O2 show. The reason being that the O2 gig was a fans gig. It was full of people like myself and my Dad who had it come down to it would gladly have parted with 300 euro for a ticket. I seriously doubt that many of yesterdays attendees would have done the same.

Alicano · 29-06-2009 9:35pm

All i can say is i will never in my life go anywhere near punchestown again.
Total and utter b++lsh1t from the get go.
absolut shame on mcd..dublin bus..stewards and gardai.
how dare u take money from people and think its ok to crush them for 1hr30mins(dublin bus area to get home).one fu=ker steward textin away while were all fightin to stay upright and sporadic dublin buses passing from the right full of people who shud be in the queue!!?

as for the gig..alot of u need to think again now that your sober.
ive seen tons of live bands and and i was there not as a number one fan but as a music lover and id read and heard many times that ac/dc top many polls for best live act to see before u die.
good gig.yeah...epic,mind blowing...far from it.
give them 6 out of 10 at best.
angus..great character..overrated guitarist.
very let down with the singing too.his voice is shot.he knows it.
Glad to tick them off the list and although i felt they didnt live up to reputation im glad hardcore fans loved it and got value for money.

u2 in barcelona this wednesday..doubt i'll be fightin for a bus home from this one!:)
Rock on.

G-Money · 29-06-2009 9:42pm

I only have two questions. When are AC/DC coming back to play the O2 and who do I need to shag in order to get a ticket :cool:

gandalf · 29-06-2009 9:47pm

Pye wrote: »

What's Duffy going to do, campaign to ban outdoor gigs? I swear this whole thing is blown out of proportion. You'd think ye were are going to see Cliff!

No, all those dirty drunks. No place at a ROCK gig at all! :rolleyes:

Were you at this gig? When that Bus queue collapsed thousands of people rushed towards the buses. We could have easily been dealing with people being crushed to death. Someone beside was saying all he could think about was Hillsborough when this happened.

I expect rough and tumble at a gig I have been going to them (on the whole metal and rock) for over 20 years. Last night was the third time I've seen AC/DC. I've been to alot of varied places for gigs and trying to get out of Punchestown was the worst experience I have ever had at a gig ever.

The more bad publicity that the organisers of this concert get the better because they should be shamed into ensuring that there are proper, simple procedures in place that have been agreed between all the parties involved in executing a major event like this. Or would you prefer us to wait until someone does die or is seriously injured.

grimm2005 · 29-06-2009 9:47pm

Deleted User wrote: »

Take the gig yesterday which while amazing wasn't a patch on the O2 show. The reason being that the O2 gig was a fans gig. It was full of people like myself and my Dad who had it come down to it would gladly have parted with 300 euro for a ticket. I seriously doubt that many of yesterdays attendees would have done the same.

I think thats fairly spot on. I was a fan before this but nothing on the level of when I left. I was one of the lucky ones to get tickets when they originally went on sale but would gladly have paid more after seeing the show (got to shake brian johnsons hand and all at that gig!). While punchestown was great, the o2 gig was just the perfect night. We had 2/3 pints before hand, enjoyed the show greatly, strolled back into town where we went to fibbers and then coppers and got a nice cheap nitelink back. The packed venue all seemed to love the show and there was no transport trouble or anything like that, no rain and the place was in darkness from the start which imo gives a better concert atmosphere

Ash.J.Williams · 29-06-2009 9:51pm

Acdc always deliver the goods, and they played a stormer last night

I have only one issue with everything else:

It is unacceptable to have to walk from from the designated park and ride area to the gig, the excuse about busses letting people off is bollox...the busses were not moving. I have always driven to punchestown and never had a problem, but this time opted to follow the guidelines and use goffs. I know it's a big outdoor show and i will tolerate a high level of inconvenience but .....IF YOU WERE TOLD CARPARKING WAS IN GOFFS AND YOU WERE TO WALK ALONG THE N7 INTO NAAS AND ON OUT TO PUNCHESTOWN before the gig, you would think you were hearing things!!!
to me that sounds mental, but that's what happened.....

In respect to the majority of people i saw undertaking this walk...you were the most battle hardened, eager and inspirational people i have seen in a while...it's like they arrived in goffs realised it was a disaster and just put the heads down and marched!!

Quint · 29-06-2009 9:57pm

Complain here on boards, complain to MCD. BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T CALL JOE DUFFY! We're AC/DC fans for gods sake! AC/DC fans don't call Joe Duffy to complain about traffic going to their gig.
Bon Scott is turning in his grave with this Joe Duffy talk

gandalf · 29-06-2009 9:57pm

Here are a couple of shots of the crowd minutes after the bus queue collapsed. Apologies on the quality taken with my phone camera.

All the buses in the shot are arriving down to where the queue was supposed to be already full. TBH I don't blame the drivers most of them wanted to get the **** out of dodge especially when it was clear no one had control over the situation.

29-06-2009 10:00pm

At all those people saying what do you expect from a Rock gig that's complete bull. While I encountered no real problems getting to or from the gig it's obvious that thousands did and it seems that MCD we're lucky that no one was killed.

Ash.J.Williams · 29-06-2009 10:02pm

Quint wrote: »

Complain here on boards, complain to MCD. BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T CALL JOE DUFFY! We're AC/DC fans for gods sake! AC/DC fans don't call Joe Duffy to complain about traffic going to their gig.
Bon Scott is turning in his grave with this Joe Duffy talk

that is true!!!

Bugg · 29-06-2009 10:02pm

What a gig, one of the best ive ever been to.

Left Tralee with a few friends for Celbridge Saturday night and stayed the night there, got a mini bus to Goffs in Naas the next day around 3 and got on a bus right away, took the bus maybe an hour to get into Punchestown. Didnt take long to get into the grounds. Waited around for a while, got something to eat and got a good spot in the crowd, was amazed to see the amount of people falling over or layed out on the ground because of drink and the first band hadn't even started, to be honest I dont see the point in getting drunk at a concert.

The crowd around me didnt seem interested in The Blizzards at all and same for The Answer after maybe three or four songs. Had a good laugh watching all the crowd surfers and people making the human pyramids before AC/DC. The whole show AC/DC put on was amazing, Angus's epic solo in the pissing rain is something I'll never ever forget and beats anything ive ever seen at a concert.

Getting back to Celbridge wasnt too bad, left before the encore and got on a bus right away, waited around Goffs for a while to get taxis, had to get two because we couldnt fit in one. Got back at 1am.

Overall it was an amazing day, even the weather couldnt spoil it.

gandalf · 29-06-2009 10:04pm

Oh and here is a positive piccie (again apologies on the quality but the camera on the phone is ****e!).

TheDemiurge · 29-06-2009 10:05pm

Quint wrote: »

Complain here on boards, complain to MCD. BUT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T CALL JOE DUFFY! We're AC/DC fans for gods sake! AC/DC fans don't call Joe Duffy to complain about traffic going to their gig.
Bon Scott is turning in his grave with this Joe Duffy talk

LOL

:D:D

I remember the Joe Duffy show that was on the day after the Barbra Streisand fiasco - that sounded even worse than AC/DC or Oasis tbh - walking frames sinking in the muck in the dark. At least everyone there last night was fit enough to cope with the crap

Slutmonkey57b · 29-06-2009 10:07pm

melekalikimaka wrote: »

no it wasnt, there was a road car route AND bus route, some drivers got their own ideas

Crap. The route that the buses were supposed to go down (I know, because I could read the signposts quite clearly as I was walking along....) was full of local traffic. If they had closed that road, the buses would have had a clear run in. But noooooooooooooooooooooo.

Slutmonkey57b · 29-06-2009 10:09pm

MikeyNT wrote: »

Oh yeah, back to my point - So what's with the Irish ladies Vs the English? My mate said that practically ALL the ladies at the London gig got their boobs out when they got on the video camera. Only 1 solitary girl out of at least 20 who were zoomed in on did the honours at Punchestown. Bad show. Was it the rain or something else?!!

I wholeheartedly agree. It's not like the crowd didn't give the girls the hint with the increase in cheering when the tits came out. But despite the best efforts ... nothing. All too well made up and desperate to get their faces (of all things) on camera.

TheDemiurge · 29-06-2009 10:12pm

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

I wholeheartedly agree. It's not like the crowd didn't give the girls the hint with the increase in cheering when the tits came out. But despite the best efforts ... nothing. All too well made up and desperate to get their faces (of all things) on camera.

Makes mental note for next gig - the diet starts now

One of those girls (see youtube clip earlier posted by someone) was the spitting image of Angelina Jolie - even she didn't take the hint!

KrazyLikeafox · 29-06-2009 10:12pm

It was a day of mixed emotions...

The Good:

Drove up the country to Goffs from Limerick... 1 1/2 hours
Got on the bus at Goffs, no queues straight on, lovely jubily...
Headed towards punchestown..

The Bad:

Bus caught in traffic.. v. bad... took almost 3 hours to bus it/ walk it to Punchestown.. Sweaty buses, tired feet, no cops/stewarts to be seen to ease the situation. Didn't expect it to be so bad, but also didn't expect the collective brain power to fix the situation, so not too bothered..

The Ugly:

Stepping over 10 individual people sleeping off a hangover at 5pm.. :-/ fine if im training for the 110m hurdles, but not what i expected on the way in to a concert..
Got in the gates, went for a burger. They even layed on an entertaining fight at the counter for us.. a fight is all good and well, but for the guy in the fight to throw the container of salt was completely uncalled for, depriving me of the once source of what i could kill the taste of my "gourmet" burger..
Went to get some merchandise but sold out of everything i wanted :-(
Blizzards came and went, hardly even noticed, decided to get a pint... Went to bar... Decided against... Started to Rain... Lot of very drunk lads pinballing they're way around getting nowhere.. Looking at them relaising they are our next generation of doctors and engineered had me a little worried.. The Answer came and went, not a huge fan. Was giving up hope, but hanging on to the fact that the best band in the world were behind that stage, and I was there :-) waiting...

The band emerged, the train broke through the stage.. The music began, and I witnessed the best concert of my life.. ACDC rocked.. absolutely epic.. Will never forget it..

Thanks to ACDC for perfect experience.
To those organisers who tried to ruin my day -- You didn't suceed...

Rock on...

poundhound · 29-06-2009 10:22pm

That was my 5th AC/DC show, and they were again fantastic.
However, I was looking forward to this show less than any of the previous shows because it was in Punchestown.

Im sick of going to outdoor shows in Ireland and being treated like an animal.

Im not surprised theres a huge number of people on here with the same gripes. I suggest everyone does what I did, go onto the promoters website, click on "contact us", and let them know what you think of their organisational skills.

And to have the biggest rock band in the world supported by 2 pub bands was another slap in the face!

df1985 · 29-06-2009 10:33pm

MikeyNT wrote: »

Oh yeah, back to my point - So what's with the Irish ladies Vs the English? My mate said that practically ALL the ladies at the London gig got their boobs out when they got on the video camera. Only 1 solitary girl out of at least 20 who were zoomed in on did the honours at Punchestown. Bad show. Was it the rain or something else?!!

irish girls dont want to bring shame on their mammys while english girls would get their tits out for a dairy milk.pretty simple!

Professey Chin · 29-06-2009 10:40pm

df1985 wrote: »

irish girls dont want to bring shame on their mammys while english girls would get their tits out for a dairy milk.pretty simple!

*moves to england.brings chocolate*

Music wise im pretty happy. Mainly cause of the legends that are AC/DC.Missed out on O2 tickets but delighted I got to see them here. Only bad thing was they didnt play The Razors Edge (shush I love that intro).

Organisation wise it was a mess everywhere. We were waiting ages for a park & ride bus but we were in a good natured queue so everyone was having a good joke and spirits were pretty high.I had to pity the single steward we had.She was only about 20 at most and was doin her best to stop queue skippers and get the buses that were there filled fast as possible.

It will be a long ass time before I go to punchestown for another gig though

motorheadman · 29-06-2009 10:41pm

Its time people stoped moaning and started acting, MCD last night were a farce in terms of public safety during the dublin bus post show disaster. Most of their stewarts did nothing while people got crushed and frustrated trying to get a bus back to Dublin.

MCD need to be publicly exposed for their ongoing failures in terms of public safety.

People should as I have email them with their complaints. I intend to seek to ensure that their licences will not be granted as a given, but that they have to improve or else face the possibility that they will not get licences for events.

My friends are going to set up a lobby group to press the relevany authorities to take a keener interest in ensuring public safety at all future MCD events.

People could have died in those bus queues last night, must we wait for this to happen?

chughes · 29-06-2009 10:47pm

Slutmonkey57b wrote: »

I wholeheartedly agree. It's not like the crowd didn't give the girls the hint with the increase in cheering when the tits came out. But despite the best efforts ... nothing. All too well made up and desperate to get their faces (of all things) on camera.

Maybe if Brian could sing an ACDC version of this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf80jYNg8Og

it might help to get more of them out.

TouchingVirus · 29-06-2009 10:50pm

df1985 wrote: »

...english girls would get their tits out for a dairy milk...

Could you pass me the tar and feathers?

Good

AC fcuking DC! Epic!
Getting a bus before the fence broke and people went bananas

Bad

Pretty much everything else.
Lads pissing where they stood.
Wading through a sea of piss to get to the plastic urinal things at the top of the "hill" way at the back.
Getting the bus at 4:45 and landing in at 8:25 after the walk.
The walk.
Not having a jacket because who expects rain at an outdoor concert in ireland?
Having to put up with watching the lads on the screens because they were tiny because I was so far away and didn't get in early enough.
The lack of big screens anywhere else apart from the stage.
The price of food vs. quality of food - 5.95 for a chicken fillet burger where the "fillet" was Tesco generic compressed breaded chicken, what the hell?
Having to move through the crowd before the encore to get to the back of it so I could make a quick getaway after the gig.
"Missing" Angus' solo because I was so far away and wading through to the back.
Having to leave after Highway to Hell so I wouldn't have a problem getting a bus.
Having problems getting a bus because of queue mismanagement.
Getting crushed to get on a bus - not easy to do to a guy with my body dimensions.

Of course I'm not going to let it spoil a great night, it was my first AC/DC gig and it was only worth it for those reasons (AC/DC first gig, probably my only one). I'll never venture out to Punchestown again though, not a chance.

melekalikimaka · 29-06-2009 10:53pm

motorheadman wrote: »

Its time people stoped moaning and started acting, MCD last night were a farce in terms of public safety during the dublin bus post show disaster. Most of their stewarts did nothing while people got crushed and frustrated trying to get a bus back to Dublin.

MCD need to be publisly exposed for their ongoing failures in terms of public safety.

People should as I have email them with their complaints. I intend to seek to ensure that their licences will not be granted as a given, but that they have to improve or else face the possibility that they will not get licences for events.

My friends are going to set up a lobby group to press the relevany authorities to take a keener interest in ensuring public safety at all future MCD events.

People could have died in those bus queues last night, must we wait for this to happen?

they provided a safe route... fans anf congestion due to failure of support infastructure from the council and bus services are more to blame i thinks...

Ash.J.Williams · 29-06-2009 11:01pm

just thinking, outside of forums, the only "news" i've heard about all these issues was about people disembarking the busses and causing traffic problems....so basically they're blaming the fans?

BrianD · 29-06-2009 11:01pm

motorheadman wrote: »

Its time people stoped moaning and started acting, MCD last night were a farce in terms of public safety during the dublin bus post show disaster. Most of their stewarts did nothing while people got crushed and frustrated trying to get a bus back to Dublin.

MCD need to be publisly exposed for their ongoing failures in terms of public safety.

People should as I have email them with their complaints. I intend to seek to ensure that their licences will not be granted as a given, but that they have to improve or else face the possibility that they will not get licences for events.

My friends are going to set up a lobby group to press the relevany authorities to take a keener interest in ensuring public safety at all future MCD events.

People could have died in those bus queues last night, must we wait for this to happen?

Here we go again. It's every body elses fault but our own.

It is time for the Irish music fan to square up to their own behaviour and lack of social responsibility. If the Irish music fan started behaving responsibly then we would not have these issues. Accepted that there will always be some organisation issues and failures highlighted but the majority of these issues are caused DIRECTLY by the behaviour of fans.

I liken it to the litter problem in this country. Who is the first people that the media or citizens will blame? It's always the council for not having enough bins or having enough staff. It's never the bleedin' obvious - the people who dropped it there. Irish people just never take responsibility and they constantly bemoan themselves that nobody saved them from themselves. Always somebody else to blame.

I would bet that MCD's plan for the event would be on a par with anybody elses worldwide for a one off event. Where they are going wrong is that they are underestimating the outrageous behaviour of Irish fans and the complete and utter disrespect that they show for each other, private and public property and event staff.

Time to wake up guys, you can't keep on blaming somebody else.

Slutmonkey57b · 29-06-2009 11:06pm

melekalikimaka wrote: »

they provided a safe route... fans anf congestion due to failure of support infastructure from the council and bus services are more to blame i thinks...

Bull. MCD are responsible for setting all this up. They are responsible for providing stewards to control the crowd. They are responsible for planning how people are going to get in and out of the site.
Before, they had a steward at every bus, stewards in the fenced off areas of the queue, and stewards at the head of the pack. This year? Nothing.

ghouldaddy07 · 29-06-2009 11:08pm

melekalikimaka wrote: »

they provided a safe route... fans anf congestion due to failure of support infastructure from the council and bus services are more to blame i thinks...

Would have to disagree, they either did not have enough stewards to handle the route or else they had them delegated somewhere less important because their was no stewards anywhere around the vast majority of the line to the dublin bus's. watching people jump fences and run up to the car park and get on a bus well before it reached the designated area.

Theirs only so many Bus's full of people you can watch go by while standing in a queue of few thousand barely able to move before you get pissed off.

If the stewards had been doing there job insteading of standing at the roadside shooting the breeze with the garda, the queue jumpers could of been stopped the barriers would not of come down, and people would not of charged like lunatics.

I hope someone gets it mentioned on some form of radio show so that least M.C.D will have to make some sort of statement regarding it.

ghouldaddy07 · 29-06-2009 11:10pm

BrianD wrote: »

Here we go again. It's every body elses fault but our own.

It is time for the Irish music fan to square up to their own behaviour and lack of social responsibility. If the Irish music fan started behaving responsibly then we would not have these issues. Accepted that there will always be some organisation issues and failures highlighted but the majority of these issues are caused DIRECTLY by the behaviour of fans.

I liken it to the litter problem in this country. Who is the first people that the media or citizens will blame? It's always the council for not having enough bins or having enough staff. It's never the bleedin' obvious - the people who dropped it there. Irish people just never take responsibility and they constantly bemoan themselves that nobody saved them from themselves. Always somebody else to blame.

I would bet that MCD's plan for the event would be on a par with anybody elses worldwide for a one off event. Where they are going wrong is that they are underestimating the outrageous behaviour of Irish fans and the complete and utter disrespect that they show for each other, private and public property and event staff.

Time to wake up guys, you can't keep on blaming somebody else.

Where you there?

AC/DC Punchestown 28/06/09

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