Wild Roots Festival 2020

Thanks for asking, we got on exceptionally well, all things considered. I was really happy with the performance of the machine and loads of people used our service. The can cooler was universally well received by anyone who used it - especially with the sunshine we got. Once people got hooked on our deliciously cold cans, there was no going back to the hot tent cans!

Our location on site certainly could have been better, and the event itself while nicely set up and was not at capacity so that was a bit of a downer, even though it did make a lot of queues shorter, and the busy places a bit more bearable, it undoubtedly affected outcomes for traders.

I shot the breeze with BodhranDude and El Director as well. Onward and upward - see yiz at Body and Soul!

I didn't see any official merchandise stall at all which seemed a bit bizarre, I would imagine they left thousands of Euro on the table there.

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. A great inaugural event.

What Worked

• The weather could not have been better, although very sunny there always seemed to be a lovely breeze
• Location - you could walk into Sligo town in 20 minutes
• Luna coffee
• King Kong Company on the main stage
• Booka Shade (next year it would be nice if they came back and closed the main stage on Saturday night)
• Felix Da House Cat in District 22 on Friday night
• District 22
• The punters - a very sound crowd altogether
• The volunteers - a very sound crowd altogether
• The campsite - easy walk to and from the main area and plenty of space too
• Turbo Chillers - seriously...it was brilliant to be able to get your cans chilled so quickly. Lovely to meet @Van Doozy , Ailish (Van Doozy's wife) and Daragh (Van Doozy's buddy). Onwards and upwards for you guys.

Areas For Development

Most of these points are to do with - what happens if it pissed rain for the weekend!

• A tented area/stage - had it lashed there was nowhere to go (except the comedy yawning)
• The car park was in a very low lying field, tractors would have been needed on Sunday and Monday to pull cars out had it rained
• There seemed to be lots of woodland and forest, it would have been cool to use that and have little places to discover and shelter from the sun or rain

Tbh I cannot think of much else, they got a lot right, at 150 eur the loyalty tickets are very tempting.

The people behind the church or Gramphone Disco are the same people behind the Haunt at Body and Soul Village at Electric Picnic, a bunch of DJs, Colm Olwill, Christine McQuillan (Sligo based) among other artists. Colm I think has a fascination with the bodhran and Irish traditional music, so himself and his collection of DJs collect all these seriously rare records, old Christy Moore, Planxty, Bothy Band, Cheiftains and then they mix mad things like Morrocan bagpipes, lilters (Pat Butler lilting the Hunters Purse reel with the Chieftains) into the mix and the like. That was my final stop too as I found Greg Wilson to be quite dull and the church was a riot compared, the trad mix pulled in a huge crowd, so I bailed eventually as it got too packed.

The first act I filmed for weekend, Kerrie Herrity & Cairde doing the Maids of Mont Cisco reel.

Daft Punk Tribute at the District 22 stage Friday 3rd June.

Felix Da Housecat at District 22 Friday 3rd June.

We brought our 11 and 8 year old girls and had a great time overall. The weather made it special, all the better knowing the entire rest of the country was being washed out of it while we were sunning it up!

Pros: Good vibe, felt safe and welcoming for families with children. Site wasn't too far from the carpark, which is good when you've more stuff to carry for the kids. Crowds weren't too heavy and never felt like it would ever be a squash, even at the busier gigs. Mostly no issues paying by card at the majority of stalls (one or two had issues but mostly of their own making I would have said having spoken to them). We thought the Xpress charging thing was fantastic and very reasonable. The kids loved the sweet shop at the family area. Never had a problem with phone charge the entire weekend using their service. Would like to see them at other festivals. The site is small, but felt well laid out and accessible. Heavy rain would have been a total mudfest. Toilets were very well looked after, which is festival 101 so top marks for that. Also the app was very useful.

Cons: Not really a whole lot of kids activities, even though there was a heavy emphasis on family tickets. We didn't even know there were shows on during the day for kids in the comedy tent until the acts literally came around asking us to go! Not a mention anywhere of there even being acts for kids and families. No merch stand was a major surprise, the kids love getting the merch at all the festivals. Food choices were limited in my opinion. Some very nice stalls but needed a pizza/pasta and maybe another asian/indian type option. I saw mention of a big blue bus pizza thing on the app but couldn't find it anywhere. The family campsite is directly across from the Wild West stage (incidentally one of the coolest stages I've ever seen at a festival) which meant that the late night dance type acts on there were blasting full volume onto the site and keeping the kiddos awake! Quite a bit of noise bleed from District 22 and the beach thingy to the entire site. Also the comedy tent audio was completely drowned out by the wild west stage right beside it. Frogs everywhere!! While I like frogs and wildlife, I couldn't help but feel like we were trampling them underfoot, especially at District 22 where it was a little more marshy. The kids spent their time there catching them and trying to release them elsewhere on the site.

Overall a great time had. Would we go again? Yes, but only if there was a couple of half decent headliners. Felt the lineup was only OK, although those we did see were all excellent. Highlights were Damien Dempsey, Ham Sambo, Galway Street Club and James Bay, even if only because he drew the biggest crowd of the weekend and got a good buzz going. Didn't get to go into the Gramophone Disco as it didn't seem 'suitable' for the kids, which was fine. Also quite enjoyed the acrobatics stage which had some really good and entertaining shows. The cornerstone stage was interesting, could be a Salty Dog type spot with the right bands.

They have the makings of a potentially very decent festival. Onwards and upwards and fair play to them I say!

Just right now and getting around to posting.

What a great weekend. Stayed in the campervan campsite, the initial getting in wasn't great but once we had the awning out and a few tins we settled into it fairly well. Great gang around us in there who we met multiple times over the few days and had a great laugh.

Festival itself was made by the weather, it was a spectacular few days. Got proper sunburnt on Saturday and was gas to see all the folks around who'd probably arrived with no sun-tan lotion. The layout of the site was great, there was pretty good options for food and the overall vibe was great. Probably let down by the number of acts and particularly big name ones. Jenny Greene took over the main stage and her set was brilliant. Also loved Greg Wilson's DJ set as well as the gramophone disco. Also a big shout out for the effort that went into the Wild West Stage and area, it was brilliantly done and a massive kudos to the work that was involved.

Overall great to be back to a festival, and would definitely go again next year if it was on. Also, Sligo's a lovely part of the world.

Amy Montgomery - Wild West Stage Saturday 4th June.

Moodtrax at District 22 Saturday 4th June.

Ben Cutler at Wild Roots, Wild West Stage Sunday 5th June.

Yeah James Morrison cancelled because of illness, so Jenny stepped into the main stage close spot, or so I heard.