All Together Now 2019

charlietully

mooseknunkle wrote: »

They did last year anyway so i would presume they were going to this year too,probably better if they were just put up in a hotel for the weekend.

it would be better if they were shipped back to England with their fecking grandiose titles and the estate taken off them. Only in Ireland.

fricatus

charlietully wrote: »

it would be better if they were shipped back to England with their fecking grandiose titles and the estate taken off them. Only in Ireland.

I think I remember you from the Sinn Féin tent! Green and white stripy soccer jersey? I was soooo hammered!

Wooderson

MJohnston wrote: »

Bit rich considering it was the judgemental anti-family brigade who kicked things off on this thread. Par for the course, really, with this forum.

Agreed. Few decent voices amongst the noise like your own.

dodo87

charlietully wrote: »

it would be better if they were shipped back to England with their fecking grandiose titles and the estate taken off them. Only in Ireland.

Oh my God (facepalm)

WM18

I was poxed with the traffic,left galway 3.40 hit the jam in carrig on clonmel side only for that i was goosed,was able to get on the back roads and in through clonea to red entrance set up by 8.00... i was blessed to be honest i knew the road from last year getting out. Have to say if asked me yesterday it was a definate no for next year but today its 50/50 i had a nice week end. have opinions on a lot of stuff discussed today but feck it....im nearly cleansed...........

sporina

billybonkers wrote: »

Kiasmos are a must see people!!

something profound happened to me at that gig... i am not exaggerating or being dramatic.. I actually dunno how to articulate it.. there must be a scientific explanation.. transcendence perhaps but this was beyond the mind - it also affected my body... like I could not stop moving in one particular way.. it still wows me when I think of it.. had to have some "me time" after the gig (went to have a solitary pint before Jon Hopkins)...

ghostdancer

Zechariah Small Beggar wrote: »

Traffic was a joke.

Left Dublin at 1pm, stopped 40 mins away for food and it took over 3 hours to get in to carpark.

Then it was mostly uphill with a trolley full of stuff.

Got into place about 7.45 pm. No one could tell us there was another campsite further down because they didn't know themselves, obviously hadnt been told. So eventually found a spot near a barrier but found later out it was a roadway for trucks/vans for the food wagons on the other side. LOUD ��

Dance music was great. Didn't see any scumbags at it. Could have done with a few more areas to shelter from the rain in.

Poor Kelly Anne Byrne, couldn't hear her stage unless you were right up the front. Main stage was proper drowning her out.

Getting out of the car park was also a bit of a joke.

Cant see how this traffic mess up will do them any favours on next years licence.

Would I go back? 50/50.

Are they responsible, or are the Gardai, for planning the traffic?

I just saw the traffic advice they posted on Friday and a link to the plan, which is on the Garda website:
https://www.garda.ie/en/about-us/our-departments/office-of-corporate-communications/news-media/traffic-routes-curraghmore-estate-portlaw-co-waterford-2019.pdf

Pretty sure when we were on the way down, Google maps had people coming off the M9 well before what's on that plan, and coming through the Carrick-on-Suir from the north.

We went all the way down the M9, onto the N25, across the toll bridge, took a right at the roundabout, and up to Collin Cottages (where we saw the very first sign for concert traffic) and across to Sallahean Cottages, then Orchardstown. Turned right there onto an empty road and towards the Red gate and it was just before it that we saw the first traffic - about 5 cars waiting to turn in, at about 2pm.
We didn't see one Garda until we were actually at the gate itself....

I guess they didn't want to be directing people to use the N25 toll road, but it would have made a lot more sense for people coming from Dublin/anywhere north of Waterford who were trying to access the Red gate/carpark to do that and come up the R677, rather than funnelling everyone to Carrick-on-Suir and using the same road down to the site, regardless of whether they were Blue or Red.

Wooderson

ghostdancer wrote: »

Are they responsible, or are the Gardai, for planning the traffic?

I just saw the traffic advice they posted on Friday and a link to the plan, which is on the Garda website:
https://www.garda.ie/en/about-us/our-departments/office-of-corporate-communications/news-media/traffic-routes-curraghmore-estate-portlaw-co-waterford-2019.pdf

Pretty sure Google maps had people coming off the M9 well before what's on that plan, and coming through the Carrick-on-Suir from the north.

We went all the way down the M9, onto the N25, across the toll bridge, took a right at the roundabout, and up to Collin Cottages (where we saw the very first sign for concert traffic) and across to Sallahean Cottages, then Orchardstown. Turned right there onto an empty road and towards the Red gate and it was just before it that we saw the first traffic - about 5 cars waiting to turn in, at about 2pm.
We didn't see one Garda until we were actually at the gate itself....

I guess they didn't want to be directing people to use the N25 toll road, but it would have made a lot more sense for people coming from Dublin/anywhere north of Waterford who were trying to access the Red gate/carpark to do that and come up the R677, rather than funnelling everyone to Carrick-on-Suir and using the same road down to the site, regardless of whether they were Blue or Red:
https://goo.gl/maps/2x7wsnLyAnfomwjZ8

Really well made point. I came home this way - think all of us leaving the Red were compelled to go this way.


That hilly boreen we were forced up was a farce. The single worst bit of "organisation" i can recall from the sorry day. A joke. Guard on a motorcycle said "what use is that? place is a mess" when asked to do something.

arse..biscuits

sporina wrote: »

something profound happened to me at that gig... i am not exaggerating or being dramatic.. I actually dunno how to articulate it.. there must be a scientific explanation.. transcendence perhaps but this was beyond the mind - it also affected my body... like I could not stop moving in one particular way.. it still wows me when I think of it.. had to have some "me time" after the gig (went to have a solitary pint before Jon Hopkins)...

I decided to go based on that exact post that you quoted, similar to yourself, there was something magical that I tried to explain to friends but couldn't. Can't stop thinking about it and listening to Kiasmos all day.

D.Q

Wooderson wrote: »

Really well made point. I came home this way - think all of us leaving the Red were compelled to go this way.


That hilly boreen we were forced up was a farce. The single worst bit of "organisation" i can recall from the sorry day. A joke. Guard on a motorcycle said "what use is that? place is a mess" when asked to do something.

I'd love for them to provide the answers as to what actually happened.

alastair

On designated routes etc.

I’d headed down early from Dublin to the blue car park, and, based on last year’s experience, decided to try and take that rat run lane to the left hand side (Retagh?) between the Fiddown bridge and Carrick. I’d expected that it might be blocked off by Gardaí last year, and drove by to do the whole ‘Carrick and back’ route, but on the off-chance it wasn’t blocked this year, was going to chance my arm.

Turns out everyone else had the same idea, including a coach in front of me. Got up and into the blue car park in short order - so grand at that moment (11.20?), but when things backed up later, I imagine it just made matters worse.

Wooderson

D.Q wrote: »

I'd love for them to provide the answers as to what actually happened.

Indeed. Not all on Pod. The Guards were AWOL outside the estate. TONNES of them in there of course.



That poor unfortunate guard at the redgate. 3 directions of anger-filled traffic descending upon him. Drippy aint the word for it.

ghostdancer

Wooderson wrote: »

Really well made point. I came home this way - think all of us leaving the Red were compelled to go this way.


That hilly boreen we were forced up was a farce. The single worst bit of "organisation" i can recall from the sorry day. A joke. Guard on a motorcycle said "what use is that? place is a mess" when asked to do something.

just looking at this now on Street View, crazy that this was the main route to the festival for everyone going to general camping, and probably most people in family/"glamping"/campervans.


next year they should definitely have an alternative route for the Red gate, and should really open the campsites before midday. It seems most people planned to arrive down there between 12pm-3pm....

Opening the carparks/campsite from 9am would help the spread of traffic.

Wooderson

ghostdancer wrote: »

just looking at this now on Street View, crazy that this was the main route to the festival for everyone going to general camping, and probably most people in family/"glamping"/campervans.


next year they should definitely have an alternative route for the Red gate, and should really open the campsites before midday. It seems most people planned to arrive down there between 12pm-3pm....

Opening the carparks/campsite from 9am would help the spread of traffic.

Its lunacy innit. People were doing three point turns on it. Saw tonnes of people boozing at the wheel. Chaos.

Eod100

Muahahaha wrote: »

What food vendor was charging €17 for a pizza? Wouildnt even pay that a decent restaurant.

There was one charging 15e alright in main arena. Staff seemed Italian. Dunno name

Suckit

ghostdancer wrote: »

just looking at this now on Street View, crazy that this was the main route to the festival for everyone going to general camping, and probably most people in family/"glamping"/campervans.


next year they should definitely have an alternative route for the Red gate, and should really open the campsites before midday. It seems most people planned to arrive down there between 12pm-3pm....

Opening the carparks/campsite from 9am would help the spread of traffic.

They should open on the Thursday night. Is there any real reason that they don't?
There will no doubt be a few that would be happy to go on Thursday night. Some people work a half day on Friday so would be unable. That would spread out a fair bit of it.

Eod100

Fairly balanced review here I think: https://nialler9.com/all-together-now-2019-review/

alastair

Eod100 wrote: »

Fairly balanced review here I think: https://nialler9.com/all-together-now-2019-review/

Ooh! Reminder of the great jazz band on the Schweppes bar on Friday.

MJohnston

Eod100 wrote: »

Fairly balanced review here I think: https://nialler9.com/all-together-now-2019-review/

It's extremely generous to be calling these teething problems imo - POD aren't new to the festival game, they aren't even new to the countryside camping boutique festival game (one might say they invented it in Ireland).

The comparisons with EP are striking specifically because POD ran EP themselves for years. This institutional knowledge can't just disappear because John Reynolds passed away, so either they couldn't afford proper organisation or they didn't care.

BangBeater

Eod100 wrote: »

Fairly balanced review here I think: https://nialler9.com/all-together-now-2019-review/

Agreed. Thought this was a fair review.

Eod100

MJohnston wrote: »

It's extremely generous to be calling these teething problems imo - POD aren't new to the festival game, they aren't even new to the countryside camping boutique festival game (one might say they invented it in Ireland).

The comparisons with EP are striking specifically because POD ran EP themselves for years. This institutional knowledge can't just disappear because John Reynolds passed away, so either they couldn't afford proper organisation or they didn't care.

Yeah I'm leaning a bit towards that but I see the argument about the festival site having fairly limited access toads. I think next year they need to really encourage people to get buses and trains down. Have ticket bundles with competitive price. Wonder would putting a charge per car encourage people to car pool . Could either be waived if you carpool or sane price but divided between passengers. Need to be proactive and more needs to be done than "we encourage people to use sustainable methods." Infrastructure needs to be there to make it very attractive.

Aceso

MJohnston wrote: »

It's extremely generous to be calling these teething problems imo - POD aren't new to the festival game, they aren't even new to the countryside camping boutique festival game (one might say they invented it in Ireland).

The comparisons with EP are striking specifically because POD ran EP themselves for years. This institutional knowledge can't just disappear because John Reynolds passed away, so either they couldn't afford proper organisation or they didn't care.

Well said. I said it already in this thread, aside from Pod being very very experienced festival organisers themselves, all of the different core employee groups - security, stewards, cleaning etc - most certainly have worked at other festivals and have probably done so for many many years, sure, how many festivals have they all worked at this year alone?! The most basic stuff was severely lacking.

ghostdancer

Suckit wrote: »

They should open on the Thursday night. Is there any real reason that they don't?
There will no doubt be a few that would be happy to go on Thursday night. Some people work a half day on Friday so would be unable. That would spread out a fair bit of it.

I presume it's a condition of the licence, but I'd imagine that can be amended for future licence applications?

It might not be worth the costs of staff/security/cleaning/etc for opening general camping on the Thursday though. Campervans are relatively straight forward and self sufficient, so it makes sense for it to be open on Thursday for them.

PabloAndRoy

Hoboo wrote: »

People who use quotes from the internet to argue a point don't have one.

At least that's original.

I don't think he was arguing a point, more making a fresh point. It didn't really need making as we were all thinking the same.

The quote is from Mark Twain I believe. I don't think he used internet. Some of us who are old enough remember time before the internet.

Eod100

Aceso wrote: »

Well said. I said it already in this thread, aside from Pod being very very experienced festival organisers themselves, all of the different core employee groups - security, stewards, cleaning etc - most certainly have worked at other festivals and have probably done so for many many years, sure, how many festivals have they all worked at this year alone?! The most basic stuff was severely lacking.

Yeah I was told by security that toilet rolls would ve changed at 7am next day. This was at 8pm when I just gave them heads up there was no toilet roll. Next day saw toilet rolls behind the loos behind a fence but nobody had bothered to change them

PabloAndRoy

hetuzozaho wrote: »

Five Lamps Lager.
Five Lamps Red Ale.
ATN Brew (which tasted like FL Red Ale, maybe she grabbed me the wrong one)
O'Sullivans Ale.
Killarney Brewing Company Blonde Ale.
And another Killarney Brewing Beer that slips my mind.

Killarney IPA. It was nice enough.

Seathrun66

Eod100 wrote: »

Fairly balanced review here I think: https://nialler9.com/all-together-now-2019-review/

POD have been running festivals for at least 15 years. Traffic, toilets, campsite signs, informed stewards, sufficient food providers & bins are basic stuff. Seemingly they got them all wrong and aren't yet acknowledging it. I'd contemplate going next year but clarity on their planning is required.

johnnyskeleton

hetuzozaho wrote: »

Five Lamps Lager.
Five Lamps Red Ale.
ATN Brew (which tasted like FL Red Ale, maybe she grabbed me the wrong one)
O'Sullivans Ale.
Killarney Brewing Company Blonde Ale.
And another Killarney Brewing Beer that slips my mind.

Seathrun66 wrote: »

Nice to have that option of some decent beer. EP misses having some craft ales (I don't count that little bar with Heineken-owned ales).

The fifth beer was Killarney's Full Circle IPA. Was pretty good. The problem is the two Killarney beers were only available from the bar near the bandstand, not from the main bar. Maybe that's a sign that where I really belong is at the belonging bandstand. I would say the best parts of the festival were had at that bandstand.




Bandstand

grudgehugger

Best bits of the weekend...

* Kojaque, Jon Hopkins and TGTB&TQ were totally class, as were the punters attending them. Really brilliant gigs - delighted to have been there. Super atmosphere in that tent which you don't always get at festivals. I know others have said chatting annoyed them but I guess I got lucky with where I stood - I was delighted at the low amount of chatting at gigs all weekend Honourable mention for Black Midi, who were also excellent. Missus tells me Patti Smith was awesome

* Sound crowd all round. In fairness, I tend to be happy with the crowds at all festivals I attend, however ATN was as good as I've been to in that respect. Given the traffic issues and dodgy weather, well done everyone!

* Lots to keep the kids happy especially the Reality Arcade, spray painting, Greencrafts stuff and Samsung Maze. Big success Having the area down by the house be more or less just for the kids or the wellness/Mindfield stuff worked well for us as a family attending

* Site is very compact - no overly long walks from place to place. And reasonably well decorated too

Please do better next time...
* More food options - especially in campsites. Nothing in family camping whatsoever??!!!?!!??!?!?!

* Traffic. We waltzed in early on Friday via Waterford back roads but clearly this needs to be improved

Eod100

Seathrun66 wrote: »

POD have been running festivals for at least 15 years. Traffic, toilets, campsite signs, informed stewards, sufficient food providers & bins are basic stuff. Seemingly they got them all wrong and aren't yet acknowledging it. I'd contemplate going next year but clarity on their planning is required.

I didn't write that or anything, just think it gives decent overall summary. Yes agree on that. Saw people asking for the event licence which either wasn't available online beforehand or is now taken down. Won't make a difference for this year but hopefully can learn from mistakes this year. I really hope they don't upscale again further this year. Would be nice to know at least what intended maximum capacity is once buying ticket