All Together Now 2020

Had intended listening to the first 30 minutes of Christian Loffler and then heading to DIIV, but very quickly decided there was no way I was leaving. WHAT A SET.

Only complaints are the Arcadia area was way too cramped and I think they got it wrong with some of the stage placements - George Fitz should have been in the bigger tent, and caroline's set could have been moved to somewhere more serene. Thought the bars would be serving Hophouse at least, can't stomach Rockshore. But these are minor gripes - an incredible weekend in an amazing location.

Friday

Traffic/getting in was zero hassle.

Got a half decent spot in main campsite around 1.30, rake of cans and wondered into Firehouse Skank at the new Global Roots Cambium stage (some serious craftmanship on display there!)

A little bit of A Lazerous Soul, was up the very front for Dry Cleaning, Self Esteem wasnt doing it for me, so caught most of HousePlants. Annoyed that Sad Night Dynamite pulled, back to Cambium for Cian Finn, then King Kong Company, up to Arcadia for a bit, think it was Heidi and finally back to Global Roots for John Daly who was excellent. Im wrecked with just typing that out....Saturday and Sunday to come.

I *think it was George Fitz that played the Madonna/JT tune. He did give us some lovely Hot Chip tho so he's still alright in my book 🙂

There was Hop House hidden away down at the house, actually tatsed alright after a weekend of rough guinness. Agree the lawn in front of the house has been wasted since moving the bandstand, but it was nice to venture down there and chill every now and then.

On the food, the best value/quality I actually found to be the Vegan burrito/gyros place. Got my full there on Sat/Sun afternoon. Massive portions for 13 euros, I'm not vegan but my little one keeps singing "fruits and vegetables keep us alive, always remembered to eat your 5", so i took her advice and it worked. My festival diet of 1 portion of poutine on Saturday and Sunday has come to its end!

The global roots stages were lovely too, with some great tunes and dancing....i was very confused with the two woodlands areas....did global roots used to live in where the Jameson circle was this year??

Brilliant weekend folks, best ATN in terms of music for me and even better than 2018 I'm beginning to think but it's far too early to make such statements. I need more time to digest everything fully. My favourite performances are in bold below.

Friday

Arrived on site at around 2 pm and it was a fair trek to where we finally set up camp, two trips in and out was 5 km. First time bringing a wheelbarrow - never going without again. We found a lovely spot down at the back of This Must Be The Place, really quiet, very friendly and respectful neighbours, everyone seemed to keep their area so clean and tidy and we had such a lovely view of the whole site from there. This was the first time in almost 3 years that my mates and I were all together (now) in one place so we had a really nice time catching up.

Into the arena then for Enola Gay, Dry Cleaning, MELTS, HousePlants, Jungle, Crazy P. I had an awful sleep, pretty much none, on Thursday night so I was fast asleep in my tent by 2 am. I wish I had caught some of Gilla and John Daly but that's the nature of a festival!

Saturday

Pitt Bro's BBQ was the first port of call on Saturday and while it was lovely to sit down and have a meal, I was expecting better quality food/meat for the price paid. It was during this that the rain started (lasted 6 to 8 hours) and while at times it bucketed down the ground held up remarkably well. The beauty of the Carraghmore House estate is there are loads of areas to get cover from the rain. Then it was music from Niamh Regan, Halli, Conor Miley, shame, New Jackon, Flight Facilities, Rival Consoles, Floating Points, Groove Armada (second word bold as I really only liked the second half of the setlist 😅. Maybe I was fecked though from all dancing I was doing 8 pm). That was me finished again for the night and I missed Job Orbison unfortunately.

Sunday

Sunday saw 50% of our crew leave due to family commitments but the great of us ploughed on. It was glorious day weather wise and that helped lift the spirits. We started with two gorgeous sets from caroline and John Francis Flynn, we were seated for caroline and the first half of JFF but he had us up and dancing by the end. I then caught the last 20 minutes of CMAT. Back to freshen up at the tents and in again for The Murder Capital, Christian Loffler, Thumper and Underworld. It killed me to miss Diiv and George Fitz but...Thumper's 45-minute set was just such fun and so good! They play Dublin in October so I am definitely going and dragging a few mates along.

Monday

I was driving out of the field at 11:30ish and after a 15-minute queue to get out of the field we were away with absolutely no traffic problems.

ATN deserve a lot of credit for this year's festival, I am sure the organisers were nervous as hell on Thursday and Friday but they should be very proud of what they have created here now, it's nearing perfection for me and the likes of me anyway. Everyone seemed so lovely and chilled, great vibe. Please keep the festival at 22k ATN, no more than 25k! Also a word about water stations - nowhere near enough! There should be way more and separate ones for washing one's teeth, face, dishes etc and drinking water. Annoying as hell queueing to fill your bottle of water when people are washing up and not very hygienic having people spit into the same trough. The prices - I tend to block out what I am paying for food and drink at these things, I don't even look at what they are charging me when I tap 😂 probably a stupid thing to do but I only get one or two weekends like this a year if I'm lucky so I just don't want to know 😂

Things that worked for me personally and I will be certainly doing from now on:

1. The wheelbarrow
2. Low percentage beers
3. Using ice water to wash my face/head
4. Bringing some of my own fruit and other foodstuffs.

Roll on 2023 😎

Yeah I was working the Info Point on Sunday in the main arena and one of the most asked questions was where was the water points, the only one we had info on was down by the Rockshore bar.

Great Weekend. Nick Cave was the absolute highlight. The man is a legend. I enjoyed the Murder Captial, DIIV and King Gizzard. Can anyone tell me what cover version King Gizzard worked into the last song (Dripping Tap)?

The lineup was a little bit too dancey for me, especially at night. It would be good to have a more diverse range of genres. 

I liked the mix of ages attending the event. I hope ATN stays like this and doesn't go down the EP route with a younger crowd and a more commercial vibe.

The Arcadia site was a bit of a letdown compared to the previous set-up in 2019. I'm not sure if the areas down by the house worked well; it felt a bit disjointed there. I loved all the areas in the woods.

Great event overall. Very well organised. I'm looking forward to next year. 

You might consider reviewing that post and editing. Thanks.

The Gilla Band two clips.

Ah deadly. Look forward to that.

100% the Rockshore was awful wee. Wandered over the Hophouse bar once or twice, deffo appreciated that.. I heard Diageo were finishing the Rockshore, maybe they were trying to get rid of the last few kegs..

It was our pleasure!

What a weekend! Especially Sunday - we were absolutely flat to the mat all day long. Plenty of satisfied customers anyway. Thanks to all who came!

Unfortunately I didn't get to see much of the festival but I managed to get in to see Underworld after we shut up shop for the night on Sunday which was great - they played a stonker of a set - all my faves, Juanita, King of Snake, Rez, Cowgirl, Border Country, Born Slippy all in there.

Realistically, probably not. I am absolutely snowed under with other stuff myself over the next few weeks and generally speaking the TC crew don't really have much of an appetite for spending yet another festival cooling hundreds of cans and being asked how the machine works 100 times an hour instead of kicking back, listening to music and hanging out! 😅

BUT.... ATN went rather well..... 🤔

Saturday.

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.

Floating Points.

Groove Armada.