Body & Soul 2025

Jdawg009

Lot to be said for a good mass.

crl84

Hope Fr. Ultan Crosby is doing it.

Jdawg009

I still stick by they ran themselves into the ground. Was totally avoidable.

Fanirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123320109#Comment_123320109

sadly external factors main cause. Artist fees skyrocketed. New festivals by well established entities such as ATN and BTP hoovered up a) audience b) talent.

Electric picnic so established now they have financial means and power to outbid small festivals like body and soul for solid acts.
There was deffo should dodgy booking decisions in last decade. Chronixx as a headliner was not a good one.

crl84

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123320109#Comment_123320109

100%

"Interesting" act bookings rather than ones that would shift tickets, and a focus on wellness and "vibes" rather than a music-first approach was never going to be winner in the long run.

Fanirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123320336#Comment_123320336

the ones that shift tickets were either too expensive or aligned to other promoters.
pretty sure avril the promoter said the Nick Cave booking took years to recover from. But it was only chance to get him to b&s.

Ferris_Bueller

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123320336#Comment_123320336

I think they really struggled transitioning from being a small artsy type festival to a bigger one. Around maybe 2016 or so the festival was growing a lot but the lineups didn't really follow suit. The organisers I think struggled with deciding whether to go with the growth or to stick to their principles and it backfired then when other festivals came along and took their spot. A shame it's come to an end, at it's peak it was up there with any festival I've been to.

bodhrandude

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123320467#Comment_123320467

Add the fact that 2016 was a downpour making the site quite hazardous.

dav09

Music is subjective, maybe not financially/crowd draw wise for Chronixx great but on the night, the set went off very well and got a big audience, he was maybe on a different trajectory then vs now too. James Hodlen and the Animal Spirits drew a much smaller crowd that year and I thought was really poor. I think it comes down to availability of acts mostly/fees, very few people went to B&S for the headliners anyway in the last few years. 2023 was great in recent years with great bookings. Repeat bookings didn't help hugely as it seemed to attract the same few acts/headliners every few years in the end, felt Moderat/Modeselektor were there regularly as with others but I assume that was due to the above issue.

I think overall the pandemic was a huge factor, since then it never fully recovered, numbers had been dwindling but 2019 was still very busy and a bigger site. I thought the medium size festival really suited them around the 10k mark where it still had the big circuis tents and open areas, mother area, Absolut/Hennessy area, etc, surprised none of the bigger promoters have went back in for them in recent years to run it as a duel event i.e. POD as the festival has a huge reputation built up. Genuinely will be very sad to see it go, the best festival in Ireland.

Fanirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123322524#Comment_123322524

singular artists were involved in 2022, behind the scenes with a few of the bookings. But that year was empty, only about 3500 on site by Friday night.
Mcd and aiken were offering big numbers to buy it over the years. Wanted to stay independently owned though

RINO87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123320336#Comment_123320336

Interesting booking worked very well for the early years tho, no real massive names but they were fantastic festivals.

For me I think they jumped the shark the year they put the Gloaming headlining the main stage on a Friday night...Crazy. Think that was also the year that Reckless in Love was banished out to a field as opposed to its rightful home in the woods. Downhill from there.

Fanirish

mogwai played to barely a few hundred on the Sunday night in 2022. Sure sign that it was done as a festival

Charlie

2022, as it was the first festival I’d been to post Covid, and we had gotten used to a much smaller way of doing things in life, it actually still felt quite alive and vibrant. Everyone there was just ecstatic to be out again.

2023 it was really noticeable that it was on life support. Can think of plenty of times that weekend me and my group were wandering aimlessly just looking for any sort of crowd / atmosphere / craic, but it just wasn’t really there.

A real pity, as others have said, on its day, it was probably one of Irelands best events.

kwat

Whatever about the overall line-up, the weather in 2018 made it. Jon Hopkins was class and dancing to Mother as the sun came up in the Reckless in Love field was just 👌🏻

RINO87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123357797#Comment_123357797

Reckless in Love was also the scene for another epic moment in 2014, probably still my favourite festival moment to date. Closely followed by John Grant in 2014 too come to think of it....

The stage was still in the woods, it was in the middle of the Brazil World cup, and the Hidden Agenda (I think!) lads finished up with Samba de Janeiro and Carnival de Paris...the joy in that moment was something else.

The weather in both 2014 and 2018 was beyond amazing... 🙂

Fanirish

2012 with m83 was a scorcher as well

RINO87

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123357839#Comment_123357839

John Talabot in the stretch tent that had 3D protection mapping on what I can only describe as teeth above and below the DJ booth was a real standout for me that year. He really blew the roof off that tent!

Fat Freddy's drop, Holy ****! Joris Voorn and Alle Farben in 2011 when the whole festival still fit inside the walled garden and woods 🙂

so many good times in ballinlough looking back.