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SLANE 2009 Oasis - All Discussion - No ticket sales.
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Attended Queue Fest 09.
Took an hour for get a beer so didn't bother getting another one. People were hanging out at the top of the queue trying to drink their pints as they could only get two at a time. Needed a bit of security. Lots of people just walking up the 'out queue'.
Found if you took the blue exit for Dublin apposed to the green exit for 'Dublin Only' it was a lot quicker. You didn't have to do the slow trek through the forest. Had some friends go the other way, was home in bed before they got back to Dublin
Oasis were great, good set list. Nice to see them play for 2 hours. Last time I seen them in Lansdowne they played for 45 minutes.
Wouldn't go to Slane again unless it was for a reformed Guns N' Roses or something equally as unlikely.0 -
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People paid for a service, if they and the majority of posts on here, seen to be unhappy with that service, they have every right to complain here. (I do urge everyone with a complaint to take 10minutes and make it to the appropriate place)
A big +1 to that.
However I do concur with Wile.E.Coyote in respect of peoples expectations in relation to attending such an event in a small town such as Slane.
I did one trip to Slane in the early afternoon and even at 14.30 things were going seriously awry in terms of crowd control and stewarding.
I have worked on Slane Gigs for 15 years and without doubt the single most Important issue is CO-OPERATION between the Agencies.
The major Agencies in-this-case are NOT MCD or Henry Mountcharles,whose remit and responsibilities end at Slane`s boundary wall,but the Gardai and the Major Transport Providers INCLUDING the great swathe of Private Coach and Bus operators travelling from far flung corners of Ireland.
The essential thrust should ALWAYS be to maintain a Flow of vehicles,however slow,to the closest point which can be safely accessed by a Fully Laden Double Deck Bus....(Somebody`s driveway will not suffice).
This entails having a secure and spacious TURNING AREA marked out and fully marshalled in Slane,with immediate and fast disembarkation of large numbers possible.
With each and every Slane event,this simple and necessary element becomes further from actuality.
This lack of definite pre-planned Drop-Off then leads to the bunching of buses which was a feature of Public Transport access ALL -DAY on Saturday.
Once the Buses stopped to allow the Piss-Takers off that in turn led to further delay and the knock-on,knock- back effect took hold.
The first major delay leading to a tailback then saw Busdrivers pressurized into allowing passengers to disembark and start walking to Slane.
Many of the young punters on My bus were Slane newbies,and the Village might as well have been in Afghanistan,for all the local knowledge they possessed,but they were adamant that they would get off and walk,cos they were pisxed off sittin.....I`m not a jailer,and my attempts to reason or explain were lost in a haze of Bulmers n`Belch.
I was most reluctant to allow anybody off to start walking as this of itself immediately caused major problems for the buses following behind who had a rapidly increasing amount of "Tired and Emotional" pedestrians to avoid killing as they attempted to get to the Drop-Off point.
The issue of Buses and Coaches Parking-Up allong the N2 really needs to be addressed ASAP and in advance of any more events here,as it completely frustrates the safe operation of any Public Transport Plan which relies on using two-way traffic on the N2.
The only way it can be tolerated is if the N2 is made One-Way and ALL returning Buses are directed to a DEDICATED alternative route back to Dublin to reload and return.
Equally,at the end-of-event the N2 should be One-Way OUT of Slane and returning Buses utilize the same alternative in reverse to reload.
ALL of this is ABC stuff and hardly rocket science BUT it underlines a far greater deficiency in our native physche.
We,as a culture,simply will NOT have anything to do with the imposition of a plan,scheme,or rule which is devised in the common good....NO WAY !
Slane 2009 was so very close to becoming a major Public Order incident with so much opportunity for disaster it was scary....and that was at 14.30 in the afternoon !! :eek:
Some elements of the Bus Operation need serious revision,starting with the need for continious movement and guaranteed access/exit from the Site.
Posters who speak of using fields to park-up Buses need to get that idea out of their heads as it is simply NOT POSSIBLE to use an ordinary field to park hundreds of 12 tonne buses/coaches.
(UNLESS...One seeks assistance from the Military in terms of support and flotation beams used for AFV operations in similar terrain.- I understand such equipment IS available for rent in the UK,but hey...more cost-less gross profit).
There are also some Public Transport/Public Order Policing issues which are specific to Slane 2009 and which were NOT in place in previous years.
1.Dublin Bus operations were constrained by the recent implimentation of the EU Working Time Directive.
This piece of Administrative Fluff (AKA The 48Hour Week) ensured that the Supervisors on the day had even more restriction imposed upon their ability to deploy and utilize Staff.
In many cases Drivers did not have enough available working hours to make themselves available to work Slane in the first instance.
Subsequently those that did,found themselves running out of working hours before even completing a single round-trip.
This led to drivers,although willing and able to work on,being unable to do so,and the company being unable to ask them.
There are knock on effects also as a requirement for a minimum 10 hour rest period (Seemingly set-in-stone) would result in many ORDINARY Bus services being unable to operate on the following day (Sunday) a their drivers would not have enough (theoretical) rest hours to allow LEGAL working.
There is little doubt but that part of any multi-agency pre-planning for an event such as Slane should entail a suspension of such theoretical administrative frippery IN THE INTERESTS OF PUBLIC ORDER AND SAFETY.
This can be easily addressed by way of specific Ministerial Dispensation but I would be surprised if any Senior Planner or Civil Servant even considered such a notion so Minister Noel Dempsey was left undisturbed in his Royal County slumber whilst the exhausted peasantry lay about in the ditches of his constituency
2. There were also some issues with the availability and deployment of sufficient Garda resources,at a sufficiently early point.
It was immediately noticeable to me that there were FAR less Gardai deployed in the lead up to the perimeter.
This early deployment can be VERY important in maintaining the flow of vehicles so much an essential element of making the thing WORK.
It needs to be remembered that this type of event is like a Swiss Watch (In transport Terms).
It depends ABSOLUTELY upon getting the flow established and maintained,with NOTHING allowed to restrict it.
Slane 2009 was a crystal clear Masterclass in how NOT to Police such an event.
One of the obvious aspects is that the resources of the Garda Traffic Divisions need to be fully deployed at an early stage.
These Officers are totally focused upon Traffic Issues and generally know-their-stuff,to a degree not generally present in an "Ordinary" beat Garda (No offence Gard,but it`s down to the specific Training and experience of the Traffic Corps).
This year,as in other years there were also the problems of Communication between individual Gardai,perhaps from different divisions.
There needs to be ONE Chief and ALL decisions need to be made by or through that Chief,who needs to be centrally located close to the epicentre.
(I would suggest that the Traffic situation is sufficently important to merit a dedicated Chief,who is resourced independently of the "General" policing situation).
The general level of dissatisfaction with Bus Atha Cliath`s operation this year is disappointing for me to see,but sadly it reflects just where the company is now after the recent "survival plan" drama.
From my vantage point,Bus Atha Cliath has a huge resource which it needs to repackage and remarket to both MCD,Mountcharles,Meath County Council and the Gardai.
That resource is the ability to move large numbers of people rapidly IN and OUT of the venue in safety.
However,the company cannot even think of continuing with it`s current Slane "Plan" in the light of the 2009 gig.
The conflict between Buses and Incapicated Pedestrians along dark unfamiliar roads is unsustainable full-stop !
It represents a Risk Factor way beyond what a court of law would deem acceptable for a proffessional operator.
ALL that is required is a fully agreed PLAN,with somebody In-Charge and no deviations permitted from whatever is agreed...however this is Éire so I`m not holding my breath !!! :cool:Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.
Charles Mackay (1812-1889)
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