Forest Fest - Emo, Co. Laois - July 21-23 2023

SteM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120809529#Comment_120809529

Try toutless.ie

sydthebeat

FROM TODAY....

Hi Forest Fest Fans……………really looking forward to seeing you all in a few weeks’ time, it’s getting closer, and we are beyond excited.

Last years event was a great success, and we have made every endeavour to improve this year’s festival especially when it comes to our lineup with headliners James, Sister Sledge and Suede plus many more top acts. We are also super excited about our new addition, the “Forest Fleadh Stage”. We will pretty much have the same set up as last year in terms of facilities and ease of access with a few minor changes. Our site map and stage running times are available on our website which will offer further clarity on locations etc,.

 

Campsite Opening Times:

This year the campsites will open on Thursday 20th July at 4pm which allows you to get in early and be well and truly situated for the great weekend ahead. So that applies for our tent camping, campervan, caravan camping and our glamp site as well.

We will be showing Ireland’s opening world cup soccer game against Australia in the Pub in Emo on Thursday evening with some light refreshments, kick off 8pm with some live music as well.

Campsite exit times on Monday 24th July

12 noon

Campsite Facilities

Hot showers, toilets, drinking water, food vendors. Please note here is no EHU for campervans and caravans.

Family Campsite

This year we are hosting families who have camping tickets in a dedicated family zone. Please see site map.

Alcohol Limits for Campers

Per person - 24 cans OR 1 litre of Spirits OR 1.5 litres of wine

Phone Charging

There will be a facility in the main arena for ticket holders to charge their phones.

Main Gate Opening Times

Friday 4pm – 1am

Saturday 12 noon – 1am

Sunday 12 noon – 1am

Weekend Camping Arrivals – Tents, Campervans & Caravans

For those camping in tents for the weekend you will drive to the park & ride car park as indicated on the sitemap and then bring your gear with you on the shuttle bus to the campsite. Same service will be in place on departure.

Those in campervans will go directly to the campervan campsite as indicated on the site map. Traffic direction will be in place.

Those travelling in caravans will go directly to the caravan campsite where you will also park your car and again traffic direction will be in place.

Day Ticket Arrivals

Day ticket holders will drive to the park and ride car park and use the free shuttle bus service dropping you right at the festival entrance. Only a five minute ride approximately

What you can bring into the main arena

Empty water containers (500ml) can be brought in and filled at the drinking water points around the festival site. You can also bring in fold up chairs to use around the festival site but these are not allowed in the tents where acts are performing. Also, no chairs allowed in front of the main stage after 6pm. Chairs will be allowed after 6pm behind the viewing platform in the main stage arena.

Bar Times

Our bars are closing slightly later this year so last drinks are 11.45pm . Along with full bars there will be craft beer options, a whiskey corner and cocktail bar.

Cash, Cards & Tokens

For the Main bars, tokens or tap payments with card or phone will be in place. No cash for the main bars. Cash or cards will be taken at all the food and merch stalls plus the craft beers stalls, whiskey, and cocktail bars.

 

sydthebeat

Shuttle Buses & Expressway festival Daily Return

Expressway are running daily festival return buses from Dublin’s custom House Quay to the festival stopping at Naas, Newbridge, Kildare and Monasterevin. There will also be a shuttle bus service from Portlaoise and the surrounding towns with details to be release shortly.

Car Parks

The main car park for this year event which is very close will provide a free “Park & Ride” service just minutes away to the campsites and the festival arena with the one exception of caravans. Caravan ticket holders can park their caravan and car on the same site. If you are a tent camping ticket holder you will park in the main park & ride car park and jump on the shuttle bus with your gear to your campsite entrance. Same goes for Glamping ticket holders.

Facilities for Disabled

There are a limited number of Accessible Car Parking Spaces available which MUST be booked in advance. There are limited number of Spaces for the Accessible Viewing Platform which MUST be booked in advance.

Book spaces by emailing info@forestfest.ie

There is an accessible WC at the main stage platform and all other WC areas.

Taxis

There will be taxis running this year from opposite the festival grounds. Location will be on the site map when released.

Reminder

Please note that sleeping in the main carpark is not allowed. Also be sure if you are bringing an electric car to have it fully charged as there are no charging points on site.

 

Lastly… make sure to have the time of your life. It’s going to be a super weekend and we can’t wait to see you all.

sydthebeat

....

sydthebeat

STAGE TIMES

sydthebeat

Shuttle Buses & Expressway festival Daily Return

Expressway are running daily festival return buses from Dublin’s custom House Quay to the festival stopping at Naas, Newbridge, Kildare and Monasterevin. There will also be a shuttle bus service from Portlaoise and the surrounding towns with details to be release shortly.

Car Parks

The main car park for this year event which is very close will provide a free “Park & Ride” service just minutes away to the campsites and the festival arena with the one exception of caravans. Caravan ticket holders can park their caravan and car on the same site. If you are a tent camping ticket holder you will park in the main park & ride car park and jump on the shuttle bus with your gear to your campsite entrance. Same goes for Glamping ticket holders.

Facilities for Disabled

There are a limited number of Accessible Car Parking Spaces available which MUST be booked in advance. There are limited number of Spaces for the Accessible Viewing Platform which MUST be booked in advance.

Book spaces by emailing info@forestfest.ie

There is an accessible WC at the main stage platform and all other WC areas.

Taxis

There will be taxis running this year from opposite the festival grounds. Location will be on the site map when released.

Reminder

Please note that sleeping in the main carpark is not allowed. Also be sure if you are bringing an electric car to have it fully charged as there are no charging points on site.

 

Lastly… make sure to have the time of your life. It’s going to be a super weekend and we can’t wait to see you all.

Stillill42

Looks great Syd. Had a look at nipping down on the Sunday with my wife but it would cost me 90 euro for a day ticket plus 40 return on the bus from Naas, a pretty hefty amount. I'll put it on the 'wait and see' list.

sydthebeat

The scale on the site map is a bit misleading so heres a coloured satellite shot so you can get an idea of distances.

The yellow dot is the village center, and the location of the village pub and shop.

the festival boundary is outlined in red

its probably a 15 min walk max from the light blue campervan campsite to the festival entrance.

scruff monkey

their park and ride from car park to camp is setting off alarm bells tbh, sounds like a right faff to unload the car, load into something else and then unload again

Thundercats Ho

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120811040#Comment_120811040

They're getting a huge amount of pushback on Facebook about the park and ride. Hopefully they reconsider that.

We'll have to do 2 trips, what with the tent, camp beds, sleeping bags, clothes, booze, water and food etc.

Reeno78

Planning on going for the Friday night only.

Has anyone slept in the carpark in car before? I know it's in the rules that you can't do this, but do they really check this?

scruff monkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120811840#Comment_120811840

good to know that, don't have facebook so not seeing it.

Thundercats Ho

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120812315#Comment_120812315

I don't have Facebook either.

Just hit the X and you can view the posts.

scruff monkey

Noice!

think a trip to ikea to pick up their super large bags might be in order, this is going to be a right pain in the hole for those of us flying solo.

Thundercats Ho

Seen this on FB. I don't know if the person is local, involved in the festival or just guessing, but hopefully that's the case. 20-30 mins walk along a tarmac road will be grand tbh.

sydthebeat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120816545#Comment_120816545

IF the main car park is on the r445 as some people as saying on FB, it will be a complete ba$tard of a walk if your lugging gear.

it would be close to 3KM and quite and "up and down" road.

There are two different routes to the R445 from the village, one is by means of a very narrow local road and the other is on the r422. Hopefully it closer to teh village than the r445.

Ill try to find out exactly where park and ride is located on the week of the festival. i was around that area today and didnt see any sign of it yet.

(if you could hide your car somewhere in the woods on the moutmellick side of the junction of the r419 and r422 youd be sorted for the weekend) ;)

traco

This shuttlebus thing is a bit of a mess. This is what I find on the planning application and the traffic management plan has the park and ride at Site 9 whcih by google maps is at least a 3k walk and possibly more depending on routes. Have a look through the planning docs here and the screen shots below but this looks like a nightmare. As for park and drop - thats no use for me as I am going down on my own with friends gear as well as ours so I have to lug in two sets of gear for two tents.

Planning docs:

https://laois.ie/forest-fest-2023/

Thundercats Ho

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120829639#Comment_120829639

Their post last week doesn't tie in with the above, but this would be much better if park and ride is only for day trippers.

Plus, there appears to be a car park for campers, just up from the campsite so hopefully that will be the case.

Edit: Scratch that. I see on other maps that they changed that field to staff parking.

tbh, this map is out of date as it's swapped the campervans and glamping sites.

Thundercats Ho

Just to add to this re camping.

From the site map below, it looks like general camping and glamping are sharing the same toilets, showers, water points, entrance and vendors.

Looking at google maps, They'll need to break through the ditch, to join up the two fields.

Stillill42

RTE news : Solicitor creates his dream music festival in Co Laois

http://www.rte.ie/entertainment/2023/0710/1393701-forest-fest/

traco

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120829834#Comment_120829834

Yes - it would have made sense for the staff parking site to be the car park for the camping and have staff park in a designated are at the park and ride where they could have used the shuttle bus in and out. Overall the planning doesn't seem to have been well thought out as I'd imagine the long term success of it will depend on a well planned camping facilities. As it looks to me this is a longer trek than EP for a festival one tenth the size.

rossie1977

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120830472#Comment_120830472

First EP has no organised camping facilities at all..

Hebs14

Does anyone know if there will be access between the caravan and campervan areas?

We're taking a caravan and all our friends are in campervans. Was presuming we'd all be in the same field.

Also, why do James and Peter Hook overlap!?! Massive audience crossover there.

Anyway... looking forward to it!

traco

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120831689#Comment_120831689

I don't understand? There is loads of camping at EP from the mayhem, eco, the Irish one, pink moon and glamping?

I've never walked over 3k to pink moon.

scruff monkey

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120833728#Comment_120833728

They're saying the very first EP was not camping.

traco

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120834264#Comment_120834264

OK - sorry, should have picked that up from the punctuation. The joy of forums.

Anyway - Forest Fest had camping last year and site clearly shows it was close to parking. Scanning that FB post it seems like many rebooked based on how good the setup was last year and this year is definitely not accessible.

I don't see the current park and ride location being an easy walkable option with gear etc. At 3km + how much more depending on closures it is probably more like an hour excluding any security / ticket checks and queues. If weather is nasty it won't be a relaxing start for anyone camping. I've my setup failrly well dialled in at this stage but its not geared for transferring from van to trolley to bus to trolley etc.

Anybody know what kind of busses we are talking about here? Small minibuses or large buses with proper storage undeneath for luggage etc. No idea how I will manage cooler, ice, beer, tent, backapack etc if its a mini bus with no load space.

Thundercats Ho

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120834839#Comment_120834839

Yea that is a bit of a worry alright.

If you have a Facebook account (I don't) maybe ask them to explain how the P&R will work, outlining your concerns above.

Changing that one field from camping carpark to staff parking has made a balls of things it seems.

scruff monkey

I'd suspect they had to drop last years parking setup due to needing to accomadate a larger number of campers in the same area, they're quite constrained in the space they have.

Thundercats Ho

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120836543#Comment_120836543

This whole parking bolloxology only came about when they changed site 7 from camping carpark to staff carpark. I think that map was from mid April. It would have been the perfect place to park, and surely they could've got another field for staff parking.

Their planning submissions also stated that park & ride was only for day trippers.

So somethings changed in the last few months.

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120831689#Comment_120831689

Secondly, line-up far better than EP.