Body & Soul 2012

barryd09

First Body & Soul for me & my girlfriend, We'll be back. Very enjoyable, great atmosphere, no trouble & buckets full of craic. Even the rain on Saturday was mild enough in comparision to how bad Irish rain can be. Spent most of the time just wandering about taking it all in but the Upstage is where it was at for us. Anyone know what the capacity actually was? Seemed like there was about 300,000 cars in the car park!!

Next up: EP all going to plan!

Grimebox

barryd09 wrote: »

First Body & Soul for me & my girlfriend, We'll be back. Very enjoyable, great atmosphere, no trouble & buckets full of craic. Even the rain on Saturday was mild enough in comparision to how bad Irish rain can be. Spent most of the time just wandering about taking it all in but the Upstage is where it was at for us. Anyone know what the capacity actually was? Seemed like there was about 300,000 cars in the car park!!

Next up: EP all going to plan!

I heard 5,000 was capacity where as EP is ~35,000. There must have been more than 5,000 though

nxbyveromdwjpg

It was much bigger than I was expecting, definitely seemed like more than 5,000

harryd2

I heard 5k tickets sold, and ~2k staff/volunteers

Stompbox

To the good samaritans who stopped to pick up two haggard and desperate hitchhikers (whose Plan A had been to simply walk all the way to Navan), we're extremely grateful!

Denalihighway

crackin wknd - well done to all involved. sunday was a stunner.

went on my own but had a few people to meet up with here and there and met lots of great folk in between and for hijinks afterwards. too much fun.

great sets - lot of mainstage action for me - Spiritualised, M83, Django Django and St Vincent (she is a force of nature) all highlights. ending with John Talabot was superb. i did hope he'd play the album stuff but the set was incredible.

castlepalooza next, then EP. yes siree. I'll see what i can wedge in between then too - trying to set a personal best for festivals this year. 3 under the belt so far (although I'm counting Camden Crawl in there...which is cheating I think)

ghostdancer

great weekend, had so much fun.
only downside would be that it was a bit unorganised down there, could have been layed out much better.
still though, had a great weekend and will hopefully be back next year.

leakyboots

My first Body and Soul, a few thoughts:

I arrived up there at 2.30 on the Saturday, we were trying to drive in Gate A when we were told head up to Gate B. There was a massive backup and we basically ended up driving around in a circle back to Gate A over the next 1hr15mins. Very annoying and just bad planning. I know of people who drove into the artist coach's entrance without anyone batting an eyelid. Or local farmers giving people a shortcut. A couple of handdrawn signs on a lamppost was our only way of finding our way there, they could do better.

By the time we got set up (bit of a hike from the carpark down, the ground was already pretty torn up too) we were missing The Herbaliser, who were apparently brilliant.

Thought the Saturday was very weak music-wise, at least for me anyway. Caught Gold Panda (wasn't impressed), went down to Villagers on the main stage and the sound was brutal - a little lesson in how having a good sound engineer is essential - Lee Fields played an hour later and his sound was impeccable. Kind of hung around after that. He was my highlight of the weekend, class act.

Sunday was good, weather made a massive difference, and it was HOT. Music highlights were St. Vincent, Little Dragon and especially Kormac's Big Band - got everyone bouncing around 6pm. Didn't think much of M83, don't get the hype. Caught a bit of Jacques Greene, Fish Go Deep were very impressive. Didn't think John Talabot was all that.

Overall, it's a great little festival. Couple of stupid issues like one-way systems into the campsites, layout wasn't great in parts. Selection of food was great and not insanely priced. More bars needed. More toilets needed.

I don't buy into the hippy-dippy holistic stuff that comes with it, putting a few papier maché flags into the trees doesn't suddenly transport me into a wonderland, I'm there for the music. It all seems a bit 'home-made craft' and cheap-looking - I'd imagine they're trying to go for a Burning Man/Glastonbury look but don't quite pull it off as they don't have the budget. I think they'd be better off letting the natural scenery provided (what a setting for a festival) do the work and putting more money towards acts but that's just me. Other friends of mine loved it so each to their own.

The vibe I got from my mates that have been to the other two was it's lost a little of its charm as its gotten a lot bigger. The Saturday in particular seemed like a proper drug-fest. I saw three or four people being carried in one of them first aid hammocks. After around 8pm was no place for having children around with the heads on people and some of the music on offer, and yet I saw them out until the small hours. The Sunday was fantastic though.

I'd go back - line-up permitting - it's a cheaper (and friendlier) alternative to Electric Picnic.

draiochtanois

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Grimebox

draiochtanois wrote: »

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Unfortunately, they don't mix well together

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Mickolution

Do festivals usually have late licences in this country? I thought they always stopped serving at normal pub times.

Fi H

They normally stop serving around 10.30 and allow cans on site after that. I didnt see a queue at a single bar all weekend so would thing the gauged it right.

On the other hand......WTF .......where were the toilets? We were camped 2 fields over from the nearest set which always had massive queues.

When you see girls publically peeing behind bushes in the bar area early in the evening you know theres a problem!

ghostdancer

Mickolution wrote: »

Do festivals usually have late licences in this country? I thought they always stopped serving at normal pub times.

Indiependence does anyway.
EP or Oxegen never did as far as i know.

i prefer bars shutting earlier and being able to bring in your own drink after 10pm tbh, much cheaper, although it's a bit of a hassle if you want to lug around cans, grand for spirits though...

actuallylike

Mickolution wrote: »

Do festivals usually have late licences in this country? I thought they always stopped serving at normal pub times.

They were serving at 11am on the Sunday and I'm pretty sure that's not pub times. Suited me though for the Ukulele Orchestra

babymanval

leakyboots wrote: »

The Saturday in particular seemed like a proper drug-fest. I saw three or four people being carried in one of them first aid hammocks. After around 8pm was no place for having children around with the heads on people and some of the music on offer, and yet I saw them out until the small hours.

This, tbh.

Children at a music festival is poor, poor parenting imo. The "free-thinking" 'rents I saw at the weekend can dress it up as a liberal/arts-introduction pursuit all they like, but music festivals (at least as Ireland's festival-goers know them) are no place for kids. I challenge anyone to give me an example of an Irish music festival where 24 hour drug use isn't prevalent by at least some % of festivalgoers, albeit to differing degrees; Much less one that has multiple DJ's playing until 4am each night. I've been to a lot of Irish festivals, and I've never been to one where it isn't.

The amount of people blatantly out of it at the weekend mixing with children was shocking. I watched three little girls standing looking at a guy, off his face, pissing in their direction, while their parents got drunk in the sun close-by. Friends of mine who were flying on pills on Sunday were asked if there was any chance that they could keep an eye on their neighbouring campers' young child for a few minutes. Myself and my mates had a guy come in to a dragon's belly looking for a "little guy, about yay high" (his son) at about midnight on Saturday. These are people in their 30's/40's!

You got knocked up, ffs embrace responsible parenthood and accept the ranking of your priorities. At the very least get a sitter for the weekend if you're that insistent on not letting your twenties go.

My review goes something like what has already been said: Decent weekend, few sound issues etc. The layout could do with some work, fairly confusing. The one way camping system wasn't ideal. Security was nowhere near the level it needed to be; a lot of people simply walking in to campsite on day 1 and down to music venues without armbands all weekend, one of which in our group. Queues; lots of em. 20 mins to get a toilet at times, about the same for a slice of pizza. Little Dragon were my highlight.

Funkfield

babymanval wrote: »

Children at a music festival is poor, poor parenting imo.

Bollóx. Poor parenting is poor parenting.

babymanval wrote: »

I watched three little girls standing looking at a guy, off his face, pissing in their direction, while their parents got drunk in the sun close-by.

Poor parenting

babymanval wrote: »

Friends of mine who were flying on pills on Sunday were asked if there was any chance that they could keep an eye on their neighbouring campers' young child for a few minutes.

Poor parenting

babymanval wrote: »

Myself and my mates had a guy come in to a dragon's belly looking for a "little guy, about yay high" (his son) at about midnight on Saturday. These are people in their 30's/40's!

Poor parenting

babymanval wrote: »

You got knocked up, ffs embrace responsible parenthood and accept the ranking of your priorities. At the very least get a sitter for the weekend if you're that insistent on not letting your twenties go.

You go to a festival that allows kids then that's what you get. I have no problem bringing my kid to festivals but I look after her. Kids at festivals is no problem. Kids mixing with some of the things that go on at festivals is fúcked up and should never be allowed.
Do you really care that much that kids are there because of the kids? Or was it ruining your buzz?
I thought Body & Soul was class. Didn't bring my daughter this year but maybe next year.
If you have such a problem with kids at festivals stick to going to ones that don't allow them....

...like Oxegen.

Oh wait, Oxegen is shít.

barryd09

Id gladly see kids at a festival than SCUMBAG teenagers on their post-Leaving Cert pilgrimage & general "storeeeeee bud" skangers.

Eventually though festivals become victims of their own success in these terms.

Grimebox

I accidently wandered into the family area and I was terrified. I was just coming up on some illegal stuff and didn't want anyone that age to be seeing me!

babymanval

Funkfield wrote: »

You go to a festival that allows kids then that's what you get. I have no problem bringing my kid to festivals but I look after her. Kids at festivals is no problem. Kids mixing with some of the things that go on at festivals is fúcked up and should never be allowed.
Do you really care that much that kids are there because of the kids? Or was it ruining your buzz?
I thought Body & Soul was class. Didn't bring my daughter this year but maybe next year.
If you have such a problem with kids at festivals stick to going to ones that don't allow them....

...like Oxegen.

Oh wait, Oxegen is shít.

Agreed, Oxegen is a joke (going by my one half-attendance).

I'm not exactly so put out by kids being there that I would let it interfere with my own attendance/enjoyment. I don't see how they would "ruin my buzz" (whatever that means). My "buzz" is completely irrelevant, and doesn't come in to it. My point is that even the most diligent parent cannot guard against every single case of things a child shouldn't see over the course of the weekend, so in that regard I consider it voluntary exposure to these influences by said parents.

Tbh though, my point is more that I feel sorry for the children of parents who have rationalised bringing them to an environment that is replete with drug taking, loud music, and general excess; and I fear for what kind of message that sends to them, consciously or subconsciously.

All that said, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, as did I, and that you hopefully do the same with your little one next year

Mickolution

Funkfield wrote: »

You go to a festival that allows kids then that's what you get. I have no problem bringing my kid to festivals but I look after her. Kids at festivals is no problem. Kids mixing with some of the things that go on at festivals is fúcked up and should never be allowed.
Do you really care that much that kids are there because of the kids? Or was it ruining your buzz?

I don't think the kids were "ruining anyone's buzz", but for me, I really didn't like being in an altered state and looking down and seeing a small child wandering around at my feet. Not because of how it made me feel, but rather I felt really bad for the kids themselves having to witness some of the sights on display there.

barryd09 wrote: »

Id gladly see kids at a festival than SCUMBAG teenagers on their post-Leaving Cert pilgrimage & general "storeeeeee bud" skangers.

Nice snobbery.

babymanval

Mickolution wrote: »

I don't think the kids were "ruining anyone's buzz", but for me, I really didn't like being in an altered state and looking down and seeing a small child wandering around at my feet. Not because of how it made me feel, but rather I felt really bad for the kids themselves having to witness some of the sights on display there.

This is my point in a nutshell.

barryd09

Mickolution wrote: »

Nice snobbery.

So you would like stabbings & tent burning & slashings? Cool

Fi H

I had no problem with the kids, it was nice to see them enjoying themselves running around in their fancy dress like the rest of us big kids

My only concern was that there seemed to be a number of people with tiny kids in really noisy places and this could be damaging to their ears. I've been to many festivals with kids even download festival in UK but the parents always had those big headphone things on them to mind their ears! I think its something that should be promoted here too!

mardybumbum

Did anyone spend any time in those serpent shrines?
I found they were packed with weirdos. Saw a kid who must have been 5 or 6 sitting on his fathers lap smoking a joint in one of them.

bodhrandude

My review so far, have still to fill in the details of Saturday and Sunday, enjoy.
http://niallmcquaid.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/bodysoul2012/

bodhrandude

My complete review of the Body & Soul Festival 2012, enjoy. http://niallmcquaid.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/bodysoul2012/

guerito

Brilliant event (the end of M83's set was one of the best things I've seen at a festival), fantastic crowd, but did anyone else think the Ticketmaster staff were complete pr*cks? Saw them laugh in the faces of people from our bus who turned up to the ticket van on Sunday after it was sold out, saw one older guy physically throw out one other lad who he said had a dodgy wristband, and the other security staff told me they were having problems with them all weekend. Really out of step with the general vibe.

moonsun12

Bit of a long shot but does anyone know who the dj's on after 12 were on sunday night in the radio shack?

ghostdancer

moonsun12 wrote: »

Bit of a long shot but does anyone know who the dj's on after 12 were on sunday night in the radio shack?

Quilley/Roy Hegarty according to the lineup:
http://bodyandsoul.ie/downloads/SUNDAY_TIMETABLE_2012.pdf