The Big Grill Festival Festival

Phat Cat

I'm going to resurrect this thread as the first The Big Grill Festival since 2019 kicked off today. 

This year the tickets cost €26.62 to go from 12-4.30pm and €29.94 to go from 5.30-10pm, which is a big increase on the last few years that it was on. They also have a VIP ticket that gives you access to the the Rancho Relaxo Guest Area and two free drinks that will set you back €55.54 (all prices are including booking fees).

From looking at their social media feeds the prices of food and drinks have also gone up across the board.

Bites By Kwanghi have BBQ Char Sui (pork belly with rice and mushrooms) for 12e, 3 pork dumplings for 7e and 2 vegetable dumplings for 8e.

Reggie Does Pizza has 7 inch pizza for 7e with 2e garlic dip.

Taqueria Los Chicanos have Elotes for 7e and pork Tacos for 12e.

I couldn't see beer prices but I'd hazard a guess at 6 or 7 quid for a pint.

Could be great craic but for those prices I think alot of people will be having second thoughts.

irish_goat

€6 a pint. Not what I'm used to paying myself but surely it's the same for a pint of decent beer in most Dublin city centre bars?

Phat Cat

True, but after paying the steep entry fee you'll be paying city centre prices for a beer in a plastic cup.

BeerNut

Maybe some people are buying tickets based on something other than how much food and drink costs. Unlikely, obviously, but possible.

Blut2

The food and drink were always good at it, and its a lovely venue, but those aren't far off music festival prices for tickets - just minus the actual music festival.

The Big Grill charge vendors an absolute fortune to be at it, they make a bomb in ticket prices, and make good money from the bars. So I'd just wonder where all the money is going.

retalivity

Do you actually get anything for your entry ticket, like drink or food tokens or is just purely an entry fee? Seems extortionate.

9320

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119462851#Comment_119462851

And yet it seemed packed yesterday! Beautiful location, great selection of food, great weather. Not every event has to cater for everyone. I'm not in Dublin this weekend, if I were I'd probably go.

Cloudio9

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119462851#Comment_119462851

The last one I was at had some live music and various demos and chats about food. I enjoyed it early on but like so many events in Ireland they oversell it so queues just became a pain in the arse after a while.

The Nal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119462851#Comment_119462851

Just entry fee and then you've to buy tokens for food and booze. An absolute money racket. Some nice food there this year mind you.

Blut2

Back when it was first running in 2014 and 2015 it was about 10euro a ticket but you got a free drink with that if I remember correctly? I remember thinking that was a good value proposition.

Bit of a jump from that to 30eur with no free drink.

edit: just checked my email and I also got 6 tickets for 43euro, including booking fee, on a group ticket deal one of the years. That was very reasonable, no free drink but only 7euro a ticket.

Phat Cat

As far as I can remember Bodytonic used to run it but now it's run by Baste, who have jacked the prices up.

BeerNut

It's always been run by the same person, Andy, who also had Baste. Bodytonic may have been involved but it was never their gig and there's been no change in management.

The Nal

Nothings changed it seems

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMNGjqA97/

Phat Cat

Some of my work colleagues went yesterday, they had tickets for 12 - 4:30. They said they arrived at around 1 and still had to queue to get in. They also queued for around 25 minutes to get food and said that the portions were tiny for the price paid. Lots of craft beer on offer, €6.50 for a pint apparently. Overall they had two things to eat and a few beers then everything shut down at 4, so they were shepherded towards the exits, where there was a massive queue for the people with evening tickets. Doesn't sound like good craic at all but at least they got lucky with the weather.

Blut2

I steered clear of it (despite the weather and the great location) but had friends who went yesterday - apparently monster queues to get in, queues to get food, queues to get drinks, queues for the bathrooms. They said they spent the guts of 2 hours queueing to have one item of food and one drink each and then just said screw it and left to go elsewhere, much like that tiktokker.

They must have oversold the event massively? Pretty ridiculous given the ticket price.

Citizen Six

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119470995#Comment_119470995

Really makes me want to try Paulies pizza actually.

The Nal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119492487#Comment_119492487

Great pizza and a lovely restaraunt

Citizen Six

Yeah, been meaning to go for a long time. Just haven't got around to it, and generally only pass through the area. But heard great things about their pizza.

youcancallmeal

I've never been myself but I always hear 2 versions from friends who've been:

1. I got tickets free through work or something like that, queues were crazy and/or stalls ran out of food. I wouldn't pay to go again.

2. I paid for my tickets, queues were crazy and/or stalls ran out of food. I won't be back.

It's a nice idea in theory but greed and/or poor organisation has put me off ever going

helimachoptor

I've been a couple of times, but wont be back.

Went saturday - met a friend and his OH there, just as I arrived he started in a Q - he was 80 mins, i was 3 pints in by the time he came back.

We had whole hog passes, but we still got kicked out at 4:30, and had to Q up to get back in (I left - wasnt interested in waiting around).

Phat Cat

The latest Google reviews are pretty much all negative. It seems like splitting the days into two separate entries and over selling tickets has ruined the festival for many people. The organisers will need to revert back to the way it was before Covid, and possibly make the tickets more reasonable, or give free food or drink vouchers as part of the entrance fee.

BeerNut

Don't be surprised if they don't do any of those things.

kg703

I went in 2015 - it was great craic, loads of food to try, samples, not overly busy, chilled out. Went with a bigger group in 2016 - totally different, place was rammed, vendors were now a lot more of the regulars you see, just completely different feeling to it all.

Never bought a ticket again. Hilarious now that you have to pay extra to go for different parts of the day. Cost of entry is far too much for a public park where you also have to buy your food and drink inside.

All over Europe they have class street & food markets where they have beers, food and music every day or every weekend and you can just rock up and chill out. Dublin is desperately missing one of these.

Citizen Six

I think we are starting to have places like that, but it's happening slowly.

There's Dosa Dosa at Grand Canal Street Lower, which has two other vendors in there now. Dine Town on Francis St. was promising, until it fell apart due to numerous complications. Just Chubby's in Clontarf, which looks to have a cannoli stand setting up too. And then there's the food market on the canal around Baggot St bridge. And the food trucks that used to be in Merrion Sq., not sure if they are still there.

magic_murph

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119492795#Comment_119492795

The organiser was on the radio during the week defending all the negative comments

The event wasn't oversold as they had a permit for 4999 people and ticket entry is monitored by a 3rd party and the cops - unless people were jumping a fence somewhere.

He also commented on the price of everything going up from Insurance to materials (he did mention a sheet of Ply or MDF used to be 25e but is now 125e - I think he was wrong on that front but prices have definitely gone up.)

Having the two different time slots my sound good in theory but it was really just a money grab that didn't work for the consumer.

I was at the event a good few years back and it was a great day as in zero queues for food and drink but it may have been one of the first years so not as busy as this years.

I am sure they will be back next year but hopefully with some fixes

Citizen Six

Just checked some plywood I got in 2018, 18mm birch 1525 x 1525. It cost €32.50, and the same thing is now €61. So almost twice the price. Not five times as he's claiming.

The Nal

Organisers are rip off merchants and have been since day 1. I was at the first one and it was fine for a few hours but then turned into huge queues quite quickly in the avo so we left. 10 quid for a dry floury bun with a few tablespoons of pulled pork etc.

Imagine going on national radio and blatantly lying about something that can be disproved with a quick Google.

Cloudio9

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119493267#Comment_119493267

When we're talking about "Oversold" we don't mean they breached their license, we mean the number of outlets and service staff was woefully under-resourced for the number of attendees making it an unpleasant experience for most people.

It seems to be a recurring theme for events in Ireland. I only went to Taste of Dublin once because of the same issue. It's a pleasant surprise when it doesn't happen such as at a couple of MCD outdoor concerts over the summer.

I wouldn't mind paying that entry fee if it was well run and you felt that they gave a crap about the customer.

Dave_The_Sheep

Sounds like typical Irish greedy overpriced shite.

the beer revolu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119493997#Comment_119493997

Whoever was interviewing shouldn't have let them away with that justification.

Obviously people were referring to the queues, not the licence capacity.