All Together Now 2019

Blackie_IRL

patch wrote: »

How did Galway people find the drive down? Via limerick I guess and cross country? Lack of a motorway straight there is a bit off putting.
A few of us had planned ATN next year instead of EP so just weighing up all the factors.

I drove direct from work in Limerick. Piece of cake. I drove as far as Clonmel then across mountains , came out right at red gate. Took me 1.40. Then about 30 mins from car to belltent via check in. Only a slightly longer journey than EP for me.

Fuzzy_Dunlop

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.

We discovered that as well on Sunday night, so cool.

A couple of guards showed up when everyone was looking at it and one of them couldn't figure it out so thought we were all taking the piss out of him!

showpony1

Deleted User wrote: »

I had no idea this festival was marketed for children. I find it unsettling bumping into a toddler in a what is essentially a nightclub. Each to their own.

Quick someone post that link again to the kids area.

showpony1

ILIKEFOOD wrote: »

Loved it just as much as last year - got stuck in the traffic for 8 hours but got in having missed only one act..

Zero issues after that and enjoyed the whole thing from start to end..

Good to see this attitude after all the complaining in here this year.

WM18

boomshakalaka wrote: »

I drove from Galway last year and this year. Don't find it a bad drive at all tbh probably because two years ago we went to Townlands in Macroom and that really felt like a trek. Small country roads for most of it.
For ATN Motorway to Limerick then a little bit of slowness through Tipp and Clonmel. A lot of it consists of good roads that are 2 lanes and speed limits of 80 or 100. So it doesn't feel slow. Beautiful part of the country too if you ask me so I enjoy the drive!
Home drive is sound too because the last stretch is motorway and that's easy, so cruising really

Had to laugh at the series of 13 roundabouts around Tipp. So many roundabouts!

Landed in Carrick on Suir from Galway in under 3 hours.. we won't talk about what happened after....

Blackie_IRL wrote: »

I drove direct from work in Limerick. Piece of cake. I drove as far as Clonmel then across mountains , came out right at red gate. Took me 1.40. Then about 30 mins from car to belltent via check in. Only a slightly longer journey than EP for me.

patch wrote: »

How did Galway people find the drive down? Via limerick I guess and cross country? Lack of a motorway straight there is a bit off putting.
A few of us had planned ATN next year instead of EP so just weighing up all the factors.

did it from galway 2 years now,back roads are your friend,from clonmel be imaginative, arrived at red gate 30 mins ish from clonmel..... more detail next years thread

amadangomor

Can't really add much to what's being said. Had amazing time even though stuck in car for 8+ hours getting there, people were great.

One question- Why do people piss at the fence of the urinals even when urinals are free or minimal queuing??? Groundwater must be heavily polluted now, glad I wore wellies on Sat/Sun.

IspeakcozIcan

Overall, I had a brilliant weekend and would return.

But as a regular Body and Souler, I think it is a better all-round festival experience.

I thought the line-up was the most important part of festival, but after going to ATN this year I realise it is only part of the package.

The food (esp food on board area – sooo good), the woods and all its stages, toilets, music until 5.00am (very important!) the sanctuary area, the organisation all make the Body and Soul weekend so epic.

If I had to pick one next year, it would be B&S, easily. Finishing the music at 3.30am at ATN left me feeling very unfulfilled.

The line-up is not as impressive at B&S, but I listen to new acts prior to the festival and discover new music.

I was critical of B&S before regarding line-up, but it is worth the ticket price for a perfect weekend.

Music highlights from ATN: Patti Smith, Pillow Queens, Kojaque, Fontaines DC and Jon Hopkins.

ILIKEFOOD

showpony1 wrote: »

Good to see this attitude after all the complaining in here this year.

exactly!

It was a music festival... you'd swear some people booked into the Hilton and got the equivalent to a scouts hostel...

People screaming about paying €200 and getting dirty toilets, or no hand sanitzer..or having to queue for the showers..

How about thinking about all the wonderful music and entertainment you got for that €200..

if you can't handle a bit of rough and ready don't bother coming..

maximoose

ILIKEFOOD wrote: »

if you can't handle a bit of rough and ready don't bother coming..

I haven't been overly critical of it, actually hardly at all. I had a great time and will more than likely be back next year

There were serious shortcomings in some areas of organization though, to say otherwise is silly and I hope they learn from it and make up for it

billybonkers

ILIKEFOOD wrote: »

exactly!

It was a music festival... you'd swear some people booked into the Hilton and got the equivalent to a scouts hostel...

People screaming about paying €200 and getting dirty toilets, or no hand sanitzer..or having to queue for the showers..

How about thinking about all the wonderful music and entertainment you got for that €200..

if you can't handle a bit of rough and ready don't bother coming..

Well now I think its acceptable to expect the toilets to be cleaned once a day

WM18

amadangomor wrote: »

Can't really add much to what's being said. Had amazing time even though stuck in car for 8+ hours getting there, people were great.

One question- Why do people piss at the fence of the urinals even when urinals are free or minimal queuing??? Groundwater must be heavily polluted now, glad I wore wellies on Sat/Sun.

Alot of the urinal sections did not have enough urinals even though the space was there for them. i would say thats the reason.......not good for the trainers mind....:rolleyes:

Eod100

ILIKEFOOD wrote: »

exactly!

It was a music festival... you'd swear some people booked into the Hilton and got the equivalent to a scouts hostel...

People screaming about paying €200 and getting dirty toilets, or no hand sanitzer..or having to queue for the showers..

How about thinking about all the wonderful music and entertainment you got for that €200..

if you can't handle a bit of rough and ready don't bother coming..

It's really not that high a bar to strive for both, i think. Lot of issues were basic. Need to be getting those right.

Suckit

showpony1 wrote: »

Good to see this attitude after all the complaining in here this year.

Well said. This was fast becoming my least liked thread of all time..

I get that the people stuck in traffic were p*ssed off and had to vent, understandable. But from saturday onwards, time to forget it. all the other stuff is just moaning for the sake of it.

Manning3000

K I haven't read the last 100 odd pages yet but here is how it went for myself.

Drive from Cork was perfect until about less than 5k outside the blue gate. was stuck there maybe just under 2 hours. Don't know has it been said but the issue was definitely only about 20 cars being let in at a time, 3 stewards only in the car park basically parking one car at a time 1 stopping the queue then letting 1 or two cars go to the 2nd steward stopping there then 1 car left go to be parked like landing a plane and asked to stay in the car till the next car was done. far too slow a process. I understand they need to keep correct spacing but there is 100% a quicker way.
Leaving the car park at about 10:30am 1 steward stood stopping the row of traffic I was in when we began beeping and giving out another steward appeared saying everyone was in the same boat not moving which was not true at that stage we ended up driving around the steward and got out in 15minutes after being held up bout half an hour.

That's all my negatives.And in saying that it did not effect my weekend at all. I had a great weekend.

The rest of the weekend was brilliant saw no trouble in the campsite had good neighbours, and really saw zero trouble all the weekend. The walk to the campsite was tough with that bloody hill and then to walk back out to be directed along a flat path.

Music Highlights were: Pillow Queens, Hot Chip, Father John Misty, The National, King Kong Company, Loyler Carner (Thats all I can think of now there was much more)

Food: I could live on Corn Dogs and Poutine. The Indian by the belonging bandstand was good too.

Areas: Loved the belonging Bandstand and Global Roots was great.

There were no bins in global roots on Friday but this was rectified by Saturday. Main problem with the bins is cross contamination everytime I went to a bin there was everything in every bin. That's were the Attendees need to do their part and use the correct bins, there still needs to be more bins.

So absolutely loved the weekend as much as last year even with the traffic hiccup but hopefully that will be sorted, a well organised fun affair once in there.

Cant wait for next year I will 100% be going again.

ghostdancer

sounds like some people in here would be happy with the days of Oxegen where they had a few burger vans in a field, a few stages, f- all else and being treated like money-extractable cattle.

"sure it's a festival, what do ya expect, quit yer whinging"

fillup

IspeakcozIcan wrote: »

Overall, I had a brilliant weekend and would return.

But as a regular Body and Souler, I think it is a better all-round festival experience.

I thought the line-up was the most important part of festival, but after going to ATN this year I realise it is only part of the package.

The food (esp food on board area – sooo good), the woods and all its stages, toilets, music until 5.00am (very important!) the sanctuary area, the organisation all make the Body and Soul weekend so epic.

If I had to pick one next year, it would be B&S, easily. Finishing the music at 3.30am at ATN left me feeling very unfulfilled.

The line-up is not as impressive at B&S, but I listen to new acts prior to the festival and discover new music.

I was critical of B&S before regarding line-up, but it is worth the ticket price for a perfect weekend.

Music highlights from ATN: Patti Smith, Pillow Queens, Kojaque, Fontaines DC and Jon Hopkins.

This +1
For general vibe, diversity of crowd, randomness, carefully curated pockets of craic, food and even the music (bar the big guns) I'd opt for B&S over ATN in a heartbeat.

But ATN seems to be more EP focused and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I stopped going to EP a while back but I've just done my 10th B&S and will be going my 11th next year.

ATN 2020 for me? I wouldn't be heartbroken if I missed it but I wouldn't be adverse to going either (I missed all the traffic shenanigans)

BullBlackNova

ghostdancer wrote: »

sounds like some people in here would be happy with the days of Oxegen where they had a few burger vans in a field, a few stages, f- all else and being treated like money-extractable cattle.

"sure it's a festival, what do ya expect, quit yer whinging"

It's such a strange response - most of the criticism on here has been totally valid and fair, I think. And, for the most part, people are saying the same things - bins, toilets and food - so surely there must be something in it.

The days of "suck it up, it's a festival, it'll be messy" are long gone in this country - there are plenty of alternatives that manage to empty their bins, clean their toilets and provide a wide range of food and drink options. It's been that way for about 15 years when POD changed the f*cking game with Electric Picnic!

I liked ATN, I'd go again if the line up was good. But I'd like them to make a handful of reasonably simple changes so that the weekend runs smoothly. If they don't, there is literally a dozen other festivals in this country every summer that people could go to.

MJohnston

ILIKEFOOD wrote: »

exactly!

It was a music festival... you'd swear some people booked into the Hilton and got the equivalent to a scouts hostel...

People screaming about paying €200 and getting dirty toilets, or no hand sanitzer..or having to queue for the showers..

How about thinking about all the wonderful music and entertainment you got for that €200..

if you can't handle a bit of rough and ready don't bother coming..

Ah here leave it out. There's festival complaints and there's what happened here. This is basic stuff that Pod have been doing for decades and they ****ed it up. There's absolutely no point in not calling that out, unless you don't want things to improve.

Additionally it looks like they didn't fix one of the biggest issues of last year - a top heavy lineup with no depth. Plenty of complaints about that lack of depth here, and I think that's a fair thing to expect from any music festival that's charging over €200. It really limits what could be an excellent festival too, right now you just get the sense that they've spread too little too thinly and are trying to expand far too rapidly. It's a bit greedy, and doesn't quite work for me as a festival ethos.

Fair play to you if you're willing to pay for that though!

PabloAndRoy

short review of our w/e:

I went last year and had an amazing time.

This year, I brought the caravan in on Thursday night. No hassle, camped up in minutes.

I left the site Friday 12:00 to pick up my SO in Dungarvan. We were having a drink at 2pm at the van. No hassle.

Good bits:

• The new route from campervans to the main arena is a huge improvement.
• The revised main arena area is easier to get around and better space up there than last year.
• The music. For me personally, this is the best lineup of any Irish festival this year.
• Highlights were Jose Gonzalez, black midi (best set of the w/e imho), The National (not a huge fan but blew me away), Kiasmos, Nenah Cherry, Moodyman, Father John Misty (I find his albums quite dull, but loved this performance), John Grant, Kamaal Williams.
• Food was pretty good. Fish and chips beside Eddie Rockets was lovely until Sunday when the fish fillet changed to this frozen block. Was still nice and they really apologetic about it. Halloumi fries also excellent.
• Crowd. What a lovely bunch of people. Always felt safe. Some great craic with the random chats. Top notch.

Not so good bits (not mentioning the traffic as we had no issues in or out):

• The state of the urinals from Saturday evening onwards.
• Really missed the stuff on the lawn in front of the house. Was a highlight last year and this year was let down by its absence.
• The sound in the Something Kind of Wonderful stage. Was brutal for Anna Calvi (couldn't hear one word of what she sang) The sound really let her down. The noise bleed in there for Olafur Arnalds was awful. I also heard the sound was terrible for Lisa Hannigan (I wasn't there). Road to Nowhere sound was way better over the whole w/e.

Overall, not as good as last year, but still a great weekend.

If last year was a 10, this year was an 8.5

WM18

From cork next year dont go blue go to red much easier for you,lovely campsite smaller than other one and no hill,i didnt see this hill but believe twas a bastard....

johnnyskeleton

Suckit wrote: »

Well said. This was fast becoming my least liked thread of all time..

I get that the people stuck in traffic were p*ssed off and had to vent, understandable. But from saturday onwards, time to forget it. all the other stuff is just moaning for the sake of it.

The thing is though that as a nation we like the following things:
1. Talking about the weather
2. Talking about the traffic
3. Father Ted
4. Complaining
5. Complaining about the weather
6. Hating the Brits; and
7. Complaining about the traffic.

All I'm saying is that if Boris Johnson turned up and said "I had my fun, and that's all that matters", then it probably would have been the best festival ever. As it is, we have 5 out of 7 boxes ticked!

Seriously though, people are discussing their festival experiences. Some praise, some criticism. I think it's important that people can discuss these things so that others can make their mind up next year etc.

alastair

PabloAndRoy wrote:

[*]The sound in the Something Kind of Wonderful stage. Was brutal for Anna Calvi (couldn't hear one word of what she sang) The sound really let her down. The noise bleed in there for Olafur Arnalds was awful. I also heard the sound was terrible for Lisa Hannigan (I wasn't there). Road to Nowhere sound was way better over the whole w/e.

Surprised to hear that about Anna Calvi. Sound was faultless for her where I was standing. Still wasn’t won over however. 😁

The entire Olafur Arnalds context was shafted from the get-go, sadly. The fireworks being the icing on the cake.

Eod100

PabloAndRoy wrote: »

[*]The sound in the Something Kind of Wonderful stage. Was brutal for Anna Calvi (couldn't hear one word of what she sang) The sound really let her down. The noise bleed in there for Olafur Arnalds was awful. I also heard the sound was terrible for Lisa Hannigan (I wasn't there). Road to Nowhere sound was way better over the whole w/e.
[/LIST]

Yeah sound wasn't great for Lisa Hannigan . Moved back to the sound desk and nor sure was it that but seemed to improve a fair bit that way. Think that tent is probably too close to main stage to avoid noise bleed but dunno where they could put it instead!

johnnyskeleton

fillup wrote: »

I've just done my 10th B&S and will be going my 11th next year.

Hopefully! Slightly worried that they haven't announced their loyalty tickets for next year yet.

I suspect we have reached a point where the current scenario (high prices for insurance, services and staff, bands demanding a larger slice of the pie, ticket prices being more or less at a maximum) makes it very difficult for small free flow festivals to turn a profit.

My suspicions re: ATN are that they made a loss last year and tried to make a profit this year but found themselves very squeezed. Rather than cut back on music, they tightened up on other things and increased the ticket prices. Regarding B&S, I think the recession meant that a lot of really good bands were willing to play for small money, but now that people are back to paying €100+ for tickets to the Three Arena. Rather than cut back on other things or raise the ticket prices, the lineup suffered.

harryd2

phantom_lord wrote: »

I'd say it went through periods of not being noticed. People must have noticed in their peripheral vision when turning to look at someone?

Tried googling about it but no luck.

Think this is the one:
https://www.facebook.com/thelightofluv/

Suckit

Suckit wrote: »

Well said. This was fast becoming my least liked thread of all time..

I get that the people stuck in traffic were p*ssed off and had to vent, understandable. But from saturday onwards, time to forget it. all the other stuff is just moaning for the sake of it.

I'm perfectly okay with roughing it at festivals, I get on with things but getting a sock full of piss at the urinals shouldn't be on the menu.

johnnyskeleton

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm perfectly okay with roughing it at festivals, I get on with things but getting a sock full of piss at the urinals shouldn't be on the menu.

I didn't know they sold Rockshore in eco friendly containers at the urinals this year!

timmyjimmy

Deleted User wrote: »

I'm perfectly okay with roughing it at festivals, I get on with things but getting a sock full of piss at the urinals shouldn't be on the menu.

People had plenty of socks fulla piss at EP and B&S as well. Wear wellies next time and stop the whingin.

PabloAndRoy

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

I didn't know they sold Rockshore in eco friendly containers at the urinals this year!

Post of the day!

Weepsie

Neneh Cherry threatened to stop playing because the sound wasn't up to standard Im told