All Together Now 2019

hetuzozaho

SteelyDanJalapeno wrote: »

Checked into tangerine fields, no line when we arrived just some guy on the phone sorting tent numbers, got taken to our tent then, great service really I'll be sticking with them going forward, general camping looked a little cramped.

They were a mess for the rest of the day.

Weepsie

Got out at 10 this morn and to Kilkenny by 11 for a night of recovery in a hotel. Timed it just right as traffic is apparently crap again.

They made people leaving main entrance walk all the way down by the woods and to get to car park which was entirely unnecessary as people would be crossing the traffic anyway. Just another bit of wacky planning if you ask me.

Seathrun66

Stillill42 wrote: »

Right, I preface this by saying I had a great weekend but if you're giving a review, you give it warts and all.

So, some great gigs. The Good the Bad and the Queen best of the weekend, a proper show, Damon flying. The National great also, honourable mentions to the Claque, Just Mustard, Angie McMahon, Patti, Black Midi, Fontaines Mick Flannery and David Keenan. I love the Murder Capital but they could really do with giving up the am dram, faffing around with cigarettes, hugging each other, sitting on the stage etc.

The rain doesn't help but lots of minuses for me this year. Toilets and bins worse than I've ever seen them at EP and what were they thinking with the vendors? Queues all weekend, loads of places sold out and closed early.

I thought the loss of the house area was a huge miss. Loved it down there last year, obviously they had their reasons for limiting it to kids and curious minds but not having it at night changed the feel of the place for me.

Never again with Podpads either, loads of problems, manky toilets whole weekend.

More people, less staff, less room. Lost the house area at night but despite upping capacity the only extra land was the overflow campsite becoming the new bandstand area.

Music card felt light last year, same again this year. Times when there was zero music playing anywhere on site. You can't have that.

Not much point in me going on about the traffic, lack of signage or thought in the traffic situation. Old news but still pretty much beyond belief.

Lots of giving out there. Soz. First world problems, eh?I'm back to Stradbally in a few weeks and I'm confident it will be a more fulfilling weekend for me.

Great review Stillill. Glad you got out pretty quickly, enjoy your day off and here's hoping that EP is a tad better in a few weeks.

darzog

I echo everything in Stillill’s review with a few additions. Wasn’t there last year, so can’t compare like for like, but as a regular festival goer I felt that this year’s ATN fell short in a few key areas.

Firstly, my personal experience. We all know about the traffic chaos, so we’ll leave that aside. The herding of the crowd from the car park through the forest to the blue entrance was a shocker. Even sturdy trolleys were rendered useless by the rutted, rocky and mucky conditions.

The lack of clarity about being able to get into BSN campsite from red car park meant I didn’t want to risk it so I headed to blue. That was a hike and a half (including a very steep hill) from the wristband exchange to the bottom of BSN. I camped in the last field right hand side, hoping it would be a bit less frantic than general camping, but it was party central until 8 on Sat morning and 6 on Sunday morning. Maybe I was unlucky (and I suspect those stuck in traffic for hours just wanted to make up for lost time...so get a bit of leeway for that) but I would interested what others’ experiences of BSN was like re. revelling until crazy o’clock or was it generally quiet?

Re. Food. Not only were they running out early, some were taking the P re. prices. €10 for a modest portion of chicken fried rice is insulting as was the €17 being asked for a pizza on Friday evening (that’s festivals for ya, I know, I know). The queues in BSN for coffee were insane. I counted 50 at one point. My campsite neighbour queued for food for almost 2 hours on Sunday morning. Never seen anything close to this at EP. Also, despite no single-use plastic rhetoric, I saw plenty of plastic cutlery being dished out.

Music. Enough to keep me happy over the weekend and an eclectic mix. Jacqui Carroll’s mod/soul/ska set in RTE tent had me skanking before lunchtime which is brilliant, albeit a sight for sore eyes! Kamaal Williams’ band were bang on the money. Paddy Hanna was an irascible delight. Murder Capital were great but there is nothing new under the sun (*cough* Birthday Party *cough*). Great Dad were nuts with added nuts on top but very entertaining. Loyle Carner was an unexpected joy. John Grant is a beautiful man (and Budgie is a complete ham!) Disappointed with Fontaines as well...just didn’t work for me. Shame.

Funny the wasps didn’t bother me. Used to them, but I was more in danger of getting a slap in the coupon off a fellow punter windmilling their arms about to bat them away. Saw one boy throw his pint at a wasp. Very expensive deterrent!

Echo other sentiments about loos and rubbish.

Left at 8 this morning as I was worried about the ground churning up...and it was, even at that hour, plus I had a 5 hour journey home to Belfast ahead of me. I fear for late leavers...

Will I be back? Never predicted I would have said this, this time last week, but no, probably not. Which makes me a bit sad as I had such high hopes for this weekend and it just didn’t quite deliver. Hell of a hike from Co. Antrim (and I would normally be towing a caravan) as well, so it would take something special act-wise to tempt me. Wouldn’t it be nice to get back to the old days of ‘wait and see what the line-up’s like’ before buying a ticket, instead of the madness of click and refresh from 9:00 on ticket release day. Maybe I will sit back and if they’re gone, they’re gone. I doubt I’ll be the slightest bit annoyed...which is shame in itself.

Onward to Stradbally. See you at Salty Dog (inside or outside the Arena...now that, dear people, is a whole other story for a whole other thread!)

Thank you for reading D

BullBlackNova

A lot more good than bad for me but they definitely could make a few tweaks to ensure it runs much smoother next year. Basic things like emptying bins more, cleaning toilets more frequently (was there any hand sanitiser on the site after Friday evening!??), throwing a few flags up in the car parks to help locate cars after, etc. Weather can't be helped but generally thought it was fine - ground held together pretty well and it meant it was an awful lot easier to get decent spots for Father John Misty, Bombay Bicycle Club, etc.

The food vendors looked overwhelmed basically all the time and the hour plus long queues for showers isn't okay. Few extras for a crowd of that size wouldn't hurt.

The good - Father John Misty, Kiasmos, Orbital, the National and Patti Smith all excellent. Bombay Bicycle Club was good, despite the weather, and I enjoyed Just Mustard and the small bit of Angie Mcmahon that I saw. Also well impressed by the relaxed atmosphere even in the midst of the bad weather and enjoyed the Killarney Brewing beer at the bandstand.

The bad - luckily I got in and out before the traffic issues but understand the frustrations there. The food as I mentioned above.
Also, Fontaines - think someone else said it already but they didn't look interested. Wasn't a great gig bar 2/3 songs. I found an awful lot of stuff to be a bit meh - black midi doesn't do it for me, I've tried, and there were some long gaps in the schedule too but I guess that's just a matter of taste.

Overall, I enjoyed it but a return trip would be totally dependent on the line up.

pwisp

Well ... that was an experience.

Got the train to Waterford Friday morning from Heuston and the Bus Eireann shuttle to the Blue drop off point. Managed to avoid the traffic bar a short 15 minutes delay getting through Portlaw. Hopped off the bus at 2:15.

The entrance to the main campsite was right beside the drop off point, however we were made walk right passed it and sent on a huge expedition to join the queue past the blue car park. Absolute huer of a treck, took about 90 mins in scorching heat and was very hilly.

Finally got in and the tent up at around 4:30 and for the most part had a brilliant weekend thereafter. A great overall lineup imo with Jon Hopkins, Kiasmos, Loyle Carner and Kojaque the pick of the bunch for me.

Various food vendors and stages to wander round to which were great, but some of the Bulmers bars were being very badly managed. Some were poorly manned with people who looked as if they never worked a bar before. Toilets also smelled and looked like death from Saturday morning onwards.

Overall I'd give the weekend a 7/10 from my own experience. Unsure about next year though unless ATN properly address their shortfalls this year.

Aceso

Traffic management abysmal on the way out too, it took friends of ours 3 hours to get out of the carpark and on the road, and now an hour long drive ahead of them.

Weepsie

My actual thoughts...

Friday was obviously a bit of a sh!t show. It could have a very serious impact on them getting a licence again as that was not well planned.


The music. It was a bit sparse. Times were not staggered enough I'd say, particularly in the " outer" small stages. You couldn't really go from one to the other and guarantee there'd be something on as they all seemed to have the same breaks. Sound bleed was also worse than before I think.

Too many average radio djs basically playing a Spotify playlist and "tribute" acts that essentially played best of compilations while shouting over a mic. I thought sing along social was good craic last year, but boring and rather forced this time round.



Patti Smith was brilliant and my highlight. At 72 she has so much more energy than the acts a third her age.

Hot Chip were great fun too, they always deliver.

John Grant and the Good,The Bad were excellent on Sunday.

Olafur Arnalds was cursed by the rain. Forced a load of chatters into the tent which was annoying. Bedouin was very good too.

King Kong company we're good craic, but left to watch the end of Orbital who I'd have watched in full but seen plenty of times.

The National. I like them, they're consistly good but I don't get the reverence. They sounded grand but thought as a whole they were very dull in comparison to most other headline acts.


Immediately felt it had a different vibe to before. Loads of extra event junkies who just come and sit in a circle around their Bluetooth speakers and do nothing else. With that, the crowds were all grand. I think the traffic woes and rain bonded people.

Didn't like the stage layout as much. The area down around the house was great before and it spread it out, without it being too big. They essentially out the stages closer while cramming an extra 8 people in and making it feel cramped a bit. Last year I'd have said it was a great family festival,this year not so much.

Personally never had an issue with the toilets or showers. Bins could've been emptied quicker, but people were filling them at a rate of knots in fairness. Don't think I waited more than 15 mins for food either. I think experience has taught me when not to go looking for it.

On a whole, the logistical stuff was the worst I've ever experienced at a festival. I've gotten to Glastonbury from Dublin in about the same time as this took.

Also, why not have a proper John Reynolds tribute, or if there was I missed it.This was his baby. I imagine it was done by committee and not quite the labour of love as last year.

BaZmO*

I’ve seen a good few different numbers quoted with regards to the increased capacity. Not sure how accurate this is but it’s saying it increased from 10k to 15k. https://www.98fm.com/news/atn-traffic-all-together-now-traffic-890146

I also heard from a fairly reliable source that the organisers sacked (didn’t pay) the guy that organises the car parks on Thursday.

MJohnston

It's wild how many of these problems are absolute basic issues for festivals that are no brainers to prepare for. Pod, the organisers, can't claim teething issues or any of that stuff because they have been running festivals in Ireland for literally decades. They've even messed up the same stuff in the past when they were running EP and then sorted it out. They have the experience and knowledge to know what they need to do and they didn't do it.

From the absolute hash they made of their social media handling all the way back a year ago, to the greedy moves they made with the capacity and ticket prices, to the disasters this year with the basics...I don't know, I'm not one for conspiracies but it just seems like they were in the mode to rip people off from day one.

Weepsie

BaZmO* wrote: »

I’ve seen a good few different numbers quoted with regards to the increased capacity. Not sure how accurate this is but it’s saying it increased from 10k to 15k. https://www.98fm.com/news/atn-traffic-all-together-now-traffic-890146

I also heard from a fairly reliable source that the organisers sacked (didn’t pay) the guy that organises the car parks on Thursday.

It was stated as 20k up from 15k , while only 12-13k attended last year.

Another version of the rumour was, that they hadn't settled the bill for last year's work done by the Gardai so they sent them the absolute minimum before.

Pod have a history of clangers when organising events (Blur 2013 and the bar madness, running out of beer at the first Forbidden fruit) plus EP was losing money before the sold their stake.

They need to plan it better and start now

MJohnston wrote: »

They've even messed up the same stuff in the past when they were running EP and then sorted it out.

I think it was festival Republic who sorted it out really. First year they came on board was 09. It rained endlessly and they had to change routes for people and they seemed to have contingency in place. Not sure POD would have on their own

D.Q

Why wasn't the re entry route open for the exit this morning. Herding people down that hill in the mud.

Wooderson

The Good The Bad and The Queen was sensational.

BaZmO*

Weepsie wrote: »

It was stated as 20k up from 15k , while only 12-13k attended last year.

I just read an article there on the IT website saying it was 15k to 20k. So who knows?!

Wooderson

Only thing I didn't queue for all weekend was beer. Lol

MJohnston

Weepsie wrote: »

It was stated as 20k up from 15k , while only 12-13k attended last year.

Another version of the rumour was, that they hadn't settled the bill for last year's work done by the Gardai so they sent them the absolute minimum before.

Pod have a history of clangers when organising events (Blur 2013 and the bar madness, running out of beer at the first Forbidden fruit) plus EP was losing money before the sold their stake.

They need to plan it better and start now

I think it was festival Republic who sorted it out really. First year they came on board was 09. It rained endlessly and they had to change routes for people and they seemed to have contingency in place. Not sure POD would have on their own

Could well have been FR that fixed the issues with EP, although traffic management was definitely better by 2008 iirc. I believe in that case they were rumoured to be close to a license refusal if they didn't sort out the traffic.

The well sourced info I heard during last years festival, which I believe I posted in another thread, was 5k increases each year until they got to 30k. That's why they picked such a big site.

mooseknunkle

I think the general feeling from people on here is they wont be going back next year unless something big on the lineup is announced i would be thinking the same myself,is there any reason why they couldn't open the campsite on the Thursday and just let people in throughout the night?

SteelyDanJalapeno

mooseknunkle wrote: »

I think the general feeling from people on here is they wont be going back next year unless something big on the lineup is announced i would be thinking the same myself,is there any reason why they couldn't open the campsite on the Thursday and just let people in throughout the night?

I'll be going back next year, the mood on this thread versus the WhatsApp group is like black and white

Stillill42

SteelyDanJalapeno wrote: »

I'll be going back next year, the mood on this thread versus the WhatsApp group is like black and white

There you go. All the miserable old bastards like me out of touch again. Well I'm glad to hear people had a good experience. Everything's pretty subjective at a festival, who your neighbour's are, hitting the food queues at the right time, catching the right gigs, missing the traffic/ showers etc. I had a good time myself but I'll probably stick with EP next year.

lbj666

MJohnston wrote: »

Could well have been FR that fixed the issues with EP, although traffic management was definitely better by 2008 iirc. I believe in that case they were rumoured to be close to a license refusal if they didn't sort out the traffic.

The well sourced info I heard during last years festival, which I believe I posted in another thread, was 5k increases each year until they got to 30k. That's why they picked such a big site.

They have to scale it back again, that site maybe massive but access is very limited. It's gonna take years to rebuild reputation. I reckon they just about sell last year's capacity next year.

SteelyDanJalapeno

Stillill42 wrote: »

There you go. All the miserable old bastards like me out of touch again. Well I'm glad to hear people had a good experience. Everything's pretty subjective at a festival, who your neighbour's are, hitting the food queues at the right time, catching the right gigs, missing the traffic/ showers etc. I had a good time myself but I'll probably stick with EP next year.

Ah I get ya, I do hope they learn from some of this weekends issues, but it won't put me off.

reubenreuben

SteelyDanJalapeno wrote: »

I'll be going back next year, the mood on this thread versus the WhatsApp group is like black and white

So which festival were you at then?

kg703

So took me 4 and a quarter hours from Dublin, left at 10am on the Friday. Someone left twenty five mins behind us and arrived two and a half hours later. Struggled up the hill, got in and went looking for a spot, put our bags down while we looked and got moved along by security who told us we were in a fire safety walkway and no tents could camp there. Which was fine. Went off to the back of that field and set up. Came back later and the entire walkway was filled with tents, we literally had no path to get in or out so that was a bit annoying.

Enjoyed the music, John grant was my highlight I was right up the front. Noticed some sound issues alright in a couple of tents... Was lovely sitting in the sun and watching the main stage and having a beer. Neighbours were fine but could hear music pumping all night. What was the story with random time changes? One band said the bandstand(or tent?) fell apart and destroyed their gear did anyone else hear that? Was a reggae band on last night.

Had no problem with food or drink queues. Could have had a few more cafe / breakfasty places....

Toilets. Wow. I went at 5am from my tent and someone had left a dump on one of the seats.... Was still there Sunday. They were pretty bad.

Sustainable nonsense is laughable.... What is the point in serving water in cartons and all the drink tents selling you your drinks in plastic cups? Why not use the reusable ones??!! Plastic cutlery everywhere, plastic all over the grass at main stage.

Took 45 mins to leave the car park this morning.... A friend of mine left an hour later, took him two hours.

I had a great weekend overall, did enjoy myself. But I'll think twice before forking over 200 quid for a ticket. And I was one of the luckier ones! EP is sadly the better festival... Think its just too big for me now and I'm getting old!

alastair

Got down to blue car park from Dublin at 11.20. No traffic issues then, so bullet dodged. The long route into wristbands was needlessly difficult for small wheel trolly punters. Schoolboy error, but they should make allowances regardless. Got a good spot for camping, and decent neighbors, so all good so far.

The site changes are not an improvement on last year. The folly of wasting the house (and courtyard) was compounded by the inferior location for the bandstand. In general it seemed too congested with the current numbers, so something serious is going to have to be done if they plan on continuing bumping up attendance numbers.

The various sponsored bars, and the Arcadia bar were a pretty good addition. Lords of Lightning didn’t work well in that location, but I wasn’t going to bother with them again anyway. Local food vendors seemed down on last year. Lala Poutine and home fries ftw regardless.

Not much in the way of sound bleed problems - surprisingly. The rain got old on Sunday, and meant disinterested punters in tents just to avoid getting soaked. Knocked a fair bit of joy out of the day, but I was crippled by that stage in any case. Nice mix of acts, and I enjoyed sing along social as much as last year. Highlights - Kamaal Williams, black midi (****e vocals, tight great sounds, serious drumming), Patti Smith (and kudos for the John Reynolds shout-out), Orbital, Josh Wink, Jon Hopkins, and ongoing general nice vibe amongst the punters. Not as great as last year in general, and not all for reasons of weather.

Dutchy

Anyone know how much the 4 man tents in Tangerine Fields cost ?

I booked a two man tent and think I paid 130. We were brought to a tent twice that was already occupied so they upgraded me to the 4 man. Sweet.

Bar that , great weekend. Friendliest festival goers I have ever met (and I've been to all the EP's). Two many wasps and kids. Could swat the wasps but wasn't brave enough to do the same to the Rugrats. Tempted.

WhatsApp group was also fun - let's hope one is set up for EP.

MJohnston

lbj666 wrote: »

They have to scale it back again, that site maybe massive but access is very limited. It's gonna take years to rebuild reputation. I reckon they just about sell last year's capacity next year.

I don't know, I still think it'll sell well, it's just the way Irish people are about festivals, especially ones that now have a rep for selling out very quickly.

That said, there was definitely a hugely positive word of mouth last year to drive those sales, and it really doesn't look like that will be there this year, it may even be outright negative word of mouth going by the sentiments on twitter.

BadTurtle

Great weekend. Myself, my partner and her friend drove up for 12 and managed to avoid the traffic by and large - we were part of the initial entry that spent a lot of time stop starting on that bastard of a hill on the way in though. My friends coming in after werent so lucky, some were delayed 3-4 hours, one person 6 hours(!) which as has been stated here is a ****show from POD.
Organisationally, it had its ups and downs, but I had few enough complaints other than the overly laissez faire attitude to everything and the inevitable feeling that we're flying by the seats of our pants when anything unexpected happens, like mud after rain (who could have predicted that?!).
Musically, things were great. The Good the Bad and the Queen unquestionably gave the best performance of the weekend for me, ive seen Damon solo, with Blur and with Gorillaz, and this was the most into a gig Ive ever seen him. The band were tight as hell, and the crowd reacted exactly as youd expect with that level of confidence and quality.
Hot Chip and The National were great headliners, Black Midi and the Murder Capital were also excellent on Sunday. Fontaines DC were a bit underwhelming I have to say, considering the year theyve been having. Orbital also failed to do anything for me. Kiasmos very good, Lisa Hannigan enjoyable too, as were the West Cork Ukelele Orchestra. The glasshouse holocene thing was very poor, I thought.

hetuzozaho

BadTurtle wrote: »

The glasshouse holocene thing was very poor, I thought.

Where I was probably, but the sound was too low to compete with that stupid inflatable church. What is that thing?

Lester Freamon

Nothing from ATN on social media today.

Probably scared of the backlash and media picking up on it again

pah

Lester Freamon wrote: »

Nothing from ATN on social media today.

Probably scared of the backlash and media picking up on it again

The big thing to do now is acknowledge the issues, specifically and state that they are taking steps to understand what went wrong.

Get feedback, analyse it and in a few weeks, maybe after EP give an honest review about what happened and how they plan to fix it.

A bit of honesty and transparency can mend most relationships and will be well received IMO. If they just ignore it because they reckon they will sell out again next year it may backfire on them based on the sentiment here.

Personally I had no issues with traffic, arrived easily to red car park from Cork via clonmel, about 30-40 mins to get out this afternoon.

Enjoyed the weekend as a whole, all the main stage headliners were great, huge fan of the national and haven't seen them for a few years. Some lulls between stages musically as pointed out.

I'm not a regular festival goer but EP not for me and the great word of mouth sold this for me. I would consider going again next year. If they address things as I've recommended above I'll be sold.




Edit: as I posted this got notification on ATN APP

https://www.facebook.com/363135634109793/posts/695743207515699/

You, the people, performers, volunteers, artists, creators, and rebels - it's you who make this festival very special. For a lot of you, this journey started with long delays. We understand the frustration this caused and it was far from how we wanted this weekend to start together. We have to make this right, and we will. You endured not just traffic but testing weather at times over the weekend, while the atmosphere and spirit remained truly amazing. You were respectful of each other, of the beautiful landscape and all our wonderful performers - even wasps couldn't ruin your buzz.

..

Not enough IMO