All Together Now 2019

D.Q

ghostdancer wrote: »

I've seen portaloos being cleaned at other Irish festivals during the day. You just need an access road behind the toilets, open the fence, bring the truck out, and close off the toilets to people for 30mins.

I never encountered any manky portaloos all weekend at ATN, between either campsite or arena. Every one I used was fine to use/flush and relatively clean. Only once was there no toilet paper, so I used my own. Never had to queue either.

I had to queue once all weekend and only once was it so manky I couldn't actually use the thing.

Portaloos are disgusting. They always, always are. There's never enough toilet paper, but thankfully, you're allowed to bring your own. I can't believe this is a topic of discussion.

ghostdancer

bodhrandude wrote: »

Sorry I've been away so long, I had a lovely half week and weekend, I ended up putting phone on flight mode as the boards group on Whatsapp was constantly pinging and was away too busy for me. I was working in the camper van and caravan area and Friday was the most stressful day. The guys we were directing the vehicles to were panicking as we were running out of parking space.

There was times I had to halt them as the vans gathered would be choking movement in other areas. This where I found out from some who just arrived, that they had been waiting in traffic from anything up to 6 to 8 hours. All I could do was smile and empathise with them that we were just as stressed coping with it too. I met Pablo and he gave me a coffee which I gladly took. I was glad that shift finished as the vans were still arriving and it was 9.30 PM. Another thing was groups of people arriving in campers and caravans. This year strict orders were given to allocate separate sections for caravans and campers because a fire officer almost had ATN shut down last year when he saw the vehicles mixed together, apparently its a health and safety issue. Anyways, going back to the groups arriving, it was hard to say that they had to be split up, but split up they had to be and I'm sorry about that grief but I had to follow these rules.

Were you given much training before the gates opened BD?

The reason I ask is that neither steward we met going into the red carpark even knew what the Both Sides Now campsite was. They didn't seem to know if we could even get to general camping from that carpark at all. Completely useless.

Then in the field, there were 2 or 3 people lining up cars, but they were doing it in a completely disorganised and inefficient way.

It just seemed like all the stewards/volunteers hadn't a clue what they were doing, or had no idea about the festival layout, something that several people have echoed in other reports.....

lbj666

Reggie noble wrote: »

Sorry but that’s dung about only being able to clean the toilets at festivals after everyone’s left. I was at rock werchter this summer and the jacks were constantly being cleaned through the day, I never once went into a manky portaloo with no bog roll over the 4 days.

We mustn’t have the quality of toilet cleaners in Ireland as they do in Belgium

I said they were ok, not amazing like the rock werchter example you give. Saying that Ive seen festivals here done a lot better no doubt.

PabloAndRoy

Speaking of the toilets, did anyone notice the disgusting urinals beside Something Kind of Wonderful stage on Saturday evening? They were literally leaking streams of p1ss. There was a massive mud puddle and it was only partially water in there.

I saw a guy standing there in shorts and boots and there was p1ss pouring out of the thing about 1 inch from his socks. I don't think he noticed.

I discovered on Sunday that my mate had walked right in the p1ss mud puddle and had to go back to campervans to change his footwear.

Seathrun66

alastair wrote: »

No it doesn’t. Stop digging.

True. But I'd still contend that POD have liability towards those forced to turn back. If contested you're talking about a three month wait and a cost of €25 for the claim. But judges would look very sympathetically on the scenario I portrayed.

Stillill42

I think someone mentioned dogs and their owners earlier. Fair comparison with festivals, or at least festival arcs and their threads. All the beauty and excitement is gone, friends. All we're left with is a cranky old hangover of a thread that needs to be taken to the farm.

Eod100

lbj666 wrote: »

I was gonna hold off posting anything up but anyway.

Looking at the backlash on social media and the reaction from some people, id say half of them id wish would never comeback to the festival again anyway.

The toilet situation was ok, bog roll always runs out. They always get too full and unclean at somepoint but you cannot access the main area to clean them until people are outta there thats a good 14-16 hours of without maintenance. Have these moaners every been to a festival before?

The other thing that really annoyed me was throwing the john reynolds card back at POD. These people were firing really harsh words bringing up a deceased boss of theirs, it was really unfair potentially very upsetting for organisers who were already having a really tough day.

As for the traffic, we have no ideas what happened behind the scenes before the event and discussion and planning with the councils and guards. But the closing off of portlaw was a key factor, it was obvious that there was going to be more disruption but i think no one appreciated the level it would be.

That said POD have to hold their hands up regarding inside the site regarding parking etc.
Outside the site? well the guidance did have the Guards names on it didnt it? none around, its not enough on their part to said "well ye shouldnt have driven through Carrick etc." my understanding of it is that the guards stipulate how many they need and the promotor reimburses them, again we have no idea what happened behind the scenes here.

Theres probably some meeting this week to discuss the fallout and everyone will point the finger at each other, but the guards and council wont give a ****, they ll happilly pull the plug on something like this as they have relatively little to gain from it.

The campsite and parking situation very solvable for next year. The traffic situation i dont know, think with all best efforts more signage, guards waving etc ye could still talking potentially still up to 2hrs waiting to get in. But I am relatively ok with that. There is a science to traffic flows and theres plenty engineers that will set up a model to figure out the best way to do this.


Anyway it reminds of a story about what Eddie O Sullivan said to someone (cant remember) at a function once while eating pizza "You know what, Pizza is a bit like sex when its good its great!! and when its bad its still great". Thats how i found ATN this year and i got no hole or pizza :P

Have been to plenty of festivals. Don't expect toilets to be spotless and know to bring my own toilet roll but it's really not that big an ask to try and replace toilet paper, I don't think. And I think that also leaves people off the hook, can't we at least demand better? In terms of people bringing Reynolds name into complaints, I did see some out of order stuff which there was no need for. But can see why people would wonder if someone of his experience not being with us would have made the difference but that's a far cry from some of the comments. I think it being at such a high standard last year meant people had very high expectations going into it do when these weren't met there naturally would be critical. I think they can definitely solve the solvable and preventable problems and ideally need to reassure people in advance of tickets going on sale that they have worked on solutions. No reason why people can't hope for the best situation. Acts wise the price is very decent. Once everything works it's even better

Seathrun66

Stillill42 wrote: »

I think someone mentioned dogs and their owners earlier. Fair comparison with festivals, or at least festival arcs and their threads. All the beauty and excitement is gone, friends. All we're left with is a cranky old hangover of a thread that needs to be taken to the farm.

Ha ha. Brilliant.

See you at EP. And maybe ATN next Summer.

eplady2017

Anyone else think that Tangerine Fields was a pile of ****e... Queued for hours to check in only to find one lad on a phone to someone off site confirming details (I assume the person off site must have been the only one that was allowed use the computer!!!)
Too few showers which seemed to over flow or something on sunday morning as the area in front of them was like a lake. Our tent was clearly packed away without being allowed to dry, dirty and musty... Friends tent sprung a leak on Sunday. I heard to people being brought to their assigned tents only to have people already in them..
I've done boutique at EP many times and never seen the like...

lbj666

bodhrandude wrote: »

A fire officer almost had ATN shut down last year when he saw the vehicles mixed together, apparently its a health and safety issue. Anyways, going back to the groups arriving, it was hard to say that they had to be split up, but split up they had to be and I'm sorry about that grief but I had to follow these rules.

BD thats really bothering that the fire warden so up about that but no action was taken regarding the campsite this year like telling people to move tents etc. ive seen it done at body and soul before.

Eod100

lbj666 wrote: »

BD thats really bothering that the fire warden so up about that but no action was taken regarding the campsite this year like telling people to move tents etc. ive seen it done at body and soul before.

I did see a pick up truck full of extinguishers in BSN on the Sunday. Thought it would be an issue in the other campsites with is being so packed. At least rain meant it unlikely.

mojesius

The fear is dissipating now so here goes (also thank fcuk I took today off).

We left Dublin at 830 so missed most of the traffic carnage. Arrived at 1130, trek up that muddy hill in the sun getting stung by wasps was torture with a broken trolley but happy when tent was up by 130pm drinking a beer.

Highlights:
Nenah Cherry, Klasmos, Josh Wink, RTE Leonard Cohen, Hot Chip, KKC and the Wailers.

Yankari at global roots on Sunday night blew me away, best gig of the weekend IMO.

Crowd as friendly as ever, nice staff behind bars/stalls depsite being overwhelmed. Loved the additional hidden paths and forest areas.

Lowlights:
Needed more toilets and showers. Seemed to have the same amount as last year despite the increased capacity. Think they should have separate women's/men's toilets personally, even if just in the arena.

Aggro teenagers running around the place fighting on Sunday night.

Dickheads in the big white tent next to us in general camping playing the intro to 'Crazy in Love' by Beyonce on repeat all night, even til 730am on Monday morning. Security just stood outside their tent looking gormless while neighbours went in to tell them to shut the fcuk up.

Manky breakfast rolls in same campsite. Bacon looked like it was cooked the week before and the roll was a stale burger bun. For 7 euro.

Last year was a lot better, more space, more going on at house, better line up at main stage, less noise bleeding.

Took us a while to get out on Monday but it was our fault hanging around til 12ish



I'll go back next year but if the crowd gets younger, I'm out.

lbj666

Eod100 wrote: »

I think they can definitely solve the solvable and preventable problems and ideally need to reassure people in advance of tickets going on sale that they have worked on solutions. No reason why people can't hope for the best situation. Acts wise the price is very decent. Once everything works it's even better

As i said you never know what happens behind their scenes, all it take is one contractor to tender for a job and not do their job properly or not do as promised. It happens in all walks off business its just in events theres very little room for rectifying things.

I agree though, before early birds are released they need to come out with some statement of assurance.

Organising these things are hard and MCD Aiken stay miles away from it due to the risk involved.

Eod100

lbj666 wrote: »

As i said you never know what happens behind their scenes, all it take is one contractor to tender for a job and not do their job properly or not do as promised. It happens in all walks off business its just in events theres very little room for rectifying things.

I agree though, before early birds are released they need to come out with some statement of assurance.

True and I definitely get that and have sympathy for that arguments. At same time POD and ATN as festival organisers and public face of festival will naturally get the backlash. Like many said lot of food vendors, stewards seemed to be from the UK. Would think they would have experience of going to similar sized festivals in UK. Logistically can imagine organising a festival is undertaking and as you say all it takes is a few cogs not to turn to grind thinks down.

Weepsie

ghostdancer wrote: »

Then in the field, there were 2 or 3 people lining up cars, but they were doing it in a completely disorganised and inefficient way.
.....

Oh yeah, forgot about this.

The blue car park for ages had a guy leading cars individually to spots. Rather than a very straightforward filling it up from the front backwards they seemed to be playing car Tetris.

We were made park in the furthest possible spot from the entrance with a few others, and then a load of cars were sent up towards the front.


P!as poor management and added a not inconsiderable time to our walk in and out when had to make it. It also then delayed further people getting in as they had to check rows individually for free spots rather than knowing because they'd done it the way it's done at any other event

lbj666

Eod100 wrote: »

True and I definitely get that and have sympathy for that arguments. At same time POD and ATN as festival organisers and public face of festival will naturally get the backlash. Like many said lot of food vendors, stewards seemed to be from the UK. Would think they would have experience of going to similar sized festivals in UK. Logistically can imagine organising a festival is undertaking and as you say all it takes is a few cogs not to turn to grind thinks down.

There was and probably still is a time where hearing nordie,scottish or english security personnel was pretty comforting to hear. One of things EP got right from very early on is to look for an experience event security company from across the water. The ones here just werent up to scratch.

I totally agree and maybe that POD have the most to gain and lose to this and do have to hold their hands up.

Ya with the vendors keep in mind that there were 2 other festivals this weekend and god knows what else for the long weekend. They definitely need more though.

I presume metropolis is not happening this year, so i presume they can focus their efforts for next year sooner.

little me

I had a fab time at the festival. Feeling a bit sad that there seems to be a lot of giving out about it.


Traffic...
It's always a bit of a struggle at to get to a festival, drag your stuff everywhere and get set up. Fingers crossed, the long delays will be sorted by next year. But hopefully most people were able to put aside their frustration and enjoy this wonderful festival, in a beautiful setting that you don't find at other festivals.


Arriving on Friday, the atmosphere was super! I found the stewards really friendly and pleasant. This makes a huge difference. Walking around, you could tell that the organisers had put a lot of effort in making the place look soo beautiful and magical. A lot of trust must be giving over to the organisers to ensure the wonderful gardens and the estate itself is looked after. Sunday evening, and those gardens still were perfectly intact and not wrecked or trampled on.

The rain... ah we live in Ireland. It does but a dampener on things, festivals are soo much easier in the sun, but it is what it is.

Really enjoyed the variety of music acts. Lords of Lightning and the arcadia were great fun! Food tasty, a tad pricey but that's to be expected at any festival. Pity some stalls ran out of food, but it's hard to judge exactly how many they will need to cater for, as you could bring in your own food and drink. Not the end of the world, there was loads of stalls to choose from.

Anyway, thanks for a lovely festival, it had the magic of the early days of ep for me. What a pretty place to have a festival, I'll be back next year!

Stop moaning!

xxx

sporina

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 thought they did open thurs night?
if not must have imagined that i had read that

Eod100

sporina wrote: »

i thought they did open thurs night?
if not must have imagined that i had read that

They did for campervan tickets afaik

lbj666

little me wrote: »

Stop moaning!

xxx

I agree, but at least things are bit constructive here. We are mostly concerned followers who fell in love with it last year and doesnt want to see anything happen to it.

PabloAndRoy

eplady2017 wrote: »

Anyone else think that Tangerine Fields was a pile of ****e... Queued for hours to check in only to find one lad on a phone to someone off site confirming details (I assume the person off site must have been the only one that was allowed use the computer!!!)
Too few showers which seemed to over flow or something on sunday morning as the area in front of them was like a lake. Our tent was clearly packed away without being allowed to dry, dirty and musty... Friends tent sprung a leak on Sunday. I heard to people being brought to their assigned tents only to have people already in them..
I've done boutique at EP many times and never seen the like...

I thought the Tangerine Fields and PodPad set up looked like pure sh1te this year. Anyone can walk in there. In fact we came home through there multiple times over the weekend (to caravans). Zero security, no food or coffee outlets, no decent bogs. The whole boutique camping thing has really gone downhill. I would be pissed off if I had paid to stay there.

How much are those 4 person bell tents in podpads?

phantom_lord

Mixed feelings about ATN, think it'd take a really strong line up to bring me back. Esp as everyone raved about it so much from last year.

Traffic doesn't anything more said. Logistics and set up was lacking. Tangerine fields was crazy, I emailed them about it from the queue, felt like the people on the group were doing the best they could, staying friendly and apologising, but whoever was behind it messed up massively. I was emailed back telling me there was 35 people on the ground and it was just because everyone came at once (???), not due to them having one person in reception confirming details on the phone. Have never had an issue with any other company. Even the guy working there said he hadn't seen anything like it in 5 years. I heard people who got delayed by the traffic didn't even get to their tents the first night as the reception had closed?

Showers were lacking, they could have done with more and cleaner toilets, more food vendors (17 blips for a pizza is crazy, the big blue bus at KS would be 12 for something like that, ATN must be extortionate for the pitches.

Sound was bad for Bitch Falcon unfort. KKC were great, and George Fitz, Just Mustard too, The Good the Bad and the Queen was something different altogether, still trying to get my head about that show as I knew nothing about them, seemed like so much was ad libbed and off the cuff but it fell into place so well that it obv wasn't. Damon Albarn was a genius puppet master, never seen someone have so much fun on stage. I found Murder Capital's on stage presence just embarrassing to watch, seems like a waste of talented musicians. DC Fountains looked burnt out. that they're trying way too hard to be something they're not, it's clearly so not natural, it's just cringe watching them lighting up each others smokes, handing around the bottle, they're from Skerries, c'mon, give it up. It's so far from 'Too Real'.

One thing that was really unique, was the light installation on one of the tress that looked like a light straight on, but had a message if turned your head looking at it. Never seen anything like that.


edit: also, felt pretty bad for the young guy trying to direct traffic out of the Red Cark Park on Monday, he was getting torrents abuse from people getting out their cars, there was nothing he could do about the small lane way out, the festival balls up there, he shouldn't have been taking that ire.

eplady2017

PabloAndRoy wrote: »

I thought the Tangerine Fields and PodPad set up looked like pure sh1te this year. Anyone can walk in there. In fact we came home through there multiple times over the weekend (to caravans). Zero security, no food or coffee outlets, no decent bogs. The whole boutique camping thing has really gone downhill. I would be pissed off if I had paid to stay there.

How much are those 4 person bell tents in podpads?

Don't know about the PodPads but we paid €280 for the 4 man tent in Tangerine Fields

sporina

Eod100 wrote: »

They did for campervan tickets afaik

yeah that musta been wat i had read - thanks

whelzer

eplady2017 wrote: »

Don't know about the PodPads but we paid €280 for the 4 man tent in Tangerine Fields

Think I paid 190 for 2 man, including airbed and new sleeping bags that you could keep... which I did, loads around me didn't.

As I said in my previous post, I would not use TF again, main issue being lack of space btn tents.

On the security thing, I was in/out at least 3 times per day and every time had wristband checked. Couple of times I just raised my arm (all I could manage!) but they insisted on seeing the TF band - so no complaints on that front.

ghostdancer

phantom_lord wrote: »

One thing that was really unique, was the light installation on one of the tress that looked like a light straight on, but had a message if turned your head looking at it. Never seen anything like that.

forgot about that, really good. I saw some people shaking their head from side to side while staring at the light and thought they were just off their head.

curiosity got the better of me, and did it myself going past and it was a brilliant discovery. Made sure that a few more people going past discovered it too! I'd say almost everyone just walked past and just thought they were normal lights.

evani1976

Re the traffic management plan speaking as a local it doesnt make sense not too have channelled all Northern & Western traffic over the new toll bridge. It is the easiest way to cross the River Suir and leads you straight past all that maze of roads around Carrick. Once you cross bridge you have duel carriageway more or less to Red Gate access road at Kilmacthomas. I think all traffic (blue and red) could of being filtered in that way.

Only reason i can think for not going over new bridge is permission being refused by road operater as it is a private road and not under the remit of local authority. Crazy fecking plan whatever went on.

phantom_lord

lbj666 wrote: »

I was gonna hold off posting anything up but anyway.

Looking at the backlash on social media and the reaction from some people, id say half of them id wish would never comeback to the festival again anyway.

The toilet situation was ok, bog roll always runs out. They always get too full and unclean at somepoint but you cannot access the main area to clean them until people are outta there thats a good 14-16 hours of without maintenance. Have these moaners every been to a festival before?

Every other festival at the least, they're cleaned first thing in the morning. That didn't happen at ATN, it's a failure on pretty basic level. They also really scrimped on the urinals. Just seems like cutting corners to save costs. They're were areas with no hand sanitizer stands too.

Ferris_Bueller

ghostdancer wrote: »

forgot about that, really good. I saw some people shaking their head from side to side while staring at the light and thought they were just off their head.

curiosity got the better of me, and did it myself going past and it was a brilliant discovery. Made sure that a few more people going past discovered it too! I'd say almost everyone just walked past and just thought they were normal lights.

Oh yeah I completely forgot about that too! Stumbled across it during one of the downpours on Sunday evening after the Wailers. That was so cool, I wonder how did people figure out in the first place :pac: as far as I can remember it was smiley faces and love hearts and maybe writing that said 'Love'.

whelzer

eplady2017 wrote: »

Anyone else think that Tangerine Fields was a pile of ****e... Queued for hours to check in only to find one lad on a phone to someone off site confirming details (I assume the person off site must have been the only one that was allowed use the computer!!!)
Too few showers which seemed to over flow or something on sunday morning as the area in front of them was like a lake. Our tent was clearly packed away without being allowed to dry, dirty and musty... Friends tent sprung a leak on Sunday. I heard to people being brought to their assigned tents only to have people already in them..
I've done boutique at EP many times and never seen the like...

The checking in thing was very odd. Normally they have a list and, tents are pre-allocated and you get checked off the list, kind of like at a voting station.

Who was your man talking to on the phone? Whoever came up with that system needs a bollocking.

There was a bell tent across from us that was booked at least 3 times. The first people in there were well pissed off in the end as groups of newbies turned up....


Men's showers were grand - Q'd for 10 mins around 11AM on Sunday.