King Of Leon & Kodaline Marlay Park July 4th

marco_polo

Forgot to mention thanks to the random female stranger who gave me one of her surplus pints for free while I was standing in the beer queue about 1km away from the bar.

Whoever you are it is people like you who make this country great

MattD

horseburger wrote: »

Can you post a link to the item you read?

I attended the Arcade Fire gig and I rang Dublin Bus to see were they putting on special shuttle services for any of the Marlay Park gigs and they said they were not.

The reason I rang is because they have done so in the past, for example when Santana and Meatloaf played in Marlay Park in 2002 and when Lenny Kravitz played there in 2008. He said they were not doing any direct shuttle services for these gigs.

The chap to whom I spoke said they were running their normal services, so even if there were more buses running on a Friday night as opposed to a Sunday night, there was still no certainty about there being room on any of the Dublin Buses heading back into town, to accommodate the large numbers of people waiting at the various bus stops near Marlay Park looking to get the buses at the same time.

Even if there was a 16 due, there's no guarantee that by the time it passed by your stop, that there'd be enough seats to accommodate everyone at the stop. It may even have been full and not stopped at all.

I have seen this happen after gigs in the RDS at the bus stop on the main road nearest the gate to the RDS, huge numbers waiting at a stop, bus goes by full without stopping, having picked up people at the bus stop further up the road, then people legging it down the road trying to hail taxis.

Anyway, I don't see how the Gardaí to whom you spoke could possibly know if there was a number 16 bus due to pass by at any specific time.

At all the Marlay gigs, and particularly at KoL there has been a line of 16 buses waiting to fill up and go to town...

If you came out of the park and turned left down the closed road and walked for five minutes, you would have come across at least 7 double decker buses sitting there waiting for people. I know it's not much help now, but it was actually particularly well serviced on Friday.

I'm pretty sure they can't advertise an increased service as it takes money away from businesses such as Marathon and MCD

horseburger

MattD wrote: »

At all the Marlay gigs, and particularly at KoL there has been a line of 16 buses waiting to fill up and go to town...

If you came out of the park and turned left down the closed road and walked for five minutes, you would have come across at least 7 double decker buses sitting there waiting for people. I know it's not much help now, but it was actually particularly well serviced on Friday.

I'm pretty sure they can't advertise an increased service as it takes money away from businesses such as Marathon and MCD

Hi MattD,

thanks for the detail, I'll keep it in mind in future for any gigs I attend there.

I was responding to the comment from the person who said they couldn't believe there were no buses going.

There was an organised shuttle service by Marathon Coaches, the details of which are on MCDs site.

I got the Marathon Coach service last Sunday for Arcade Fire and found it very good. As far as I know, it leaves people closer to the venue area at Marlay Park than where the Dublin Buses stop.

It took little more than 30 minutes to get there from Customs House Quay and the bus I took, got to Marlay Park around 3.15pm. Then for the service back into town, there were queues formed, and buses in line loading one at a time. After the people who queued, boarded and filled the bus I got, it left around 11.10pm and was in town at Batchelors Walk between 11.45-11.50pm.

There is always a risk in relying on the Dublin Bus service, considering the increased amount of people hoping to get it at the same time back into town.

I guess the buses you mentioned were extra buses waiting before the show ended?

But when they filled up - presumably with the first few hundred people to leave the venue after Kings of Leon ended - then anyone who missed them who were hoping to get Dublin Bus, then had to wait for the normally scheduled buses to come by?

Just wondering, do you know if any of these extra number 16 buses that were waiting, filled and left before Kings of Leon had actually ended? (I know of people who left Marlay Park before Arcade Fire ended, to make sure they got back into town to get their last normal service bus home. The Marathon Coach service started running buses back into town before Arcade Fire ended, I think from 10pm onwards)

I presume the person to whom I replied above, missed these extra buses that were waiting to go back into town.

Gongoozler

I can't remember where I saw it written about the extra buses after the gig, so can't produce that for you. I know there were buses by marathon but I was not happy to pay 9 for a bus when dublin bus, who were meant to be running around normal, would've been 2 something. I'm pretty sure dublin bus themselves tweeted that their normal service would run anyway, plus there would be extra buses. So that plus the guards telling us they'd be along in a few minutes plus a number of other people waiting around for dublin bus meant we waited for about an hour trying to get a bus or taxi.

Anyway, this is way off topic, and don't want to be given out to, so I'm out.

horseburger

Gongoozler wrote: »

I can't remember where I saw it written about the extra buses after the gig, so can't produce that for you. I know there were buses by marathon but I was not happy to pay 9 for a bus when dublin bus, who were meant to be running around normal, would've been 2 something. I'm pretty sure dublin bus themselves tweeted that their normal service would run anyway, plus there would be extra buses. So that plus the guards telling us they'd be along in a few minutes plus a number of other people waiting around for dublin bus meant we waited for about an hour trying to get a bus or taxi.

Anyway, this is way off topic, and don't want to be given out to, so I'm out.

I mentioned the details of the Marathon Coach service in response to you saying that you couldn't believe there were no buses going.

I had interpreted that to mean that you couldn't believe that there were no special services going to and from the venue, and that you were unaware of the Marathon Coach service.

The point I'm making about the Dublin Bus service is that you were never going to be certain of getting it back if they ran their normal service, taking into account the huge numbers of people that would be looking to get it back into town at the same time.

Even if Dublin Bus put on extra buses after the gigs, there is still no certainty of getting them, unless you are one of the first few hundred leaving the venue, considering, as MattD has indicated above, it sounds like the buses are waiting to load as soon as the gigs end. (I am curious to know if any of the waiting buses fill and leave before the gigs end, perhaps with people aiming to get into town early enough to get their last buses or trains home).

You would be relying on those buses doing a return journey back to Marlay Park to pick up more people leaving the venue. Since you mentioned that there were no signs of any buses heading into town at the time you were hoping to get them, it sounds like these buses did not return to the venue to pick up more people.

I acknowledge that the Marathon Coach service was more expensive, but it was more direct, and once you paid for it from Customs house Quay, you were sure of getting it back into town after the gig by showing your wristband when joining the queue for the buses that were waiting after the gig,

It sounds like the Gardaí misinformed you regarding the number 16 buses they said were due, if they did not go by.

It may be off topic, but you brought this issue into the discussion.:)

Becki-Jay

what I learned at this gig - I can jog 2 miles and not die lol !

Guards sent us on a detour the long way to catch our bus, but we made it thank god !

Great gig, even loved the rain !!!!!!!!!!!!!!