All Together Now 2020

Sneaking up on people at the festival, really? Jesus the last thing you want when you're enjoying yourself is being stopped out of no where even when you're doing nothing wrong.

Would i be correct to say that the vast majority of it is dance/trace/house music now?

Needs more guitars 🎸. . .and real musicians 😉

Just the best festival now. Doesn't matter the line up (it was effing brilliant btw), the crowd make it... Brought the curtain down around 5 and caught this moment

The most music I've ever fit in at a festival, the best shape I've got through a festival in (big part I think down to low alcohol cans during the day... The way forward), and the best craic I've had at a festival.

Friday - got down around 1 and headed over to the middle aged middle class pr1cks area (😜) where we "set-up" and sat out with our wonderful new neighbors. Used a camping trolley for the first time... Genius. Didn't head in till later to meet friends and went to Lazarus Soul. Didn't think it was going to be the right start to the weekend but really enjoyed him and the vibe... Really liked the global roots area. Then a wander about and decided to flake out at the main stage for the Trinity Orchestra... You could tell they were buzzing and dying to go on the tear after... Lots of energy. Then over to Dry Cleaning who I knew little of... Very good and had a good spot which we returned to often just down to the left side of the stage, where it seemed that left entrance few people used and you could get right in the mix easily enough all weekend. Popped over to see Gemma Dunleavys second half... Didn't know what to expect there but again was very enjoyable... She was well able for a main stage I thought. Self esteem next and the atmosphere was brilliant. Back to Jungle on main stage. A break back to the tents then before KKC who always deliver... Tent hopping... and finished out the night at John Daly who was a great finish to the first day.

Saturday - had notions of heading in to D'OD who's a favorite but were having the chats with the neighbors about the night before and plans for day 2 and didn't head in until later to grab some eats and sit down at Glasshouse to relax into it. Mary Wallopers in the tent was a highlight having not seen them before... Brilliant madness and will be bringing mates along to the next time they're on closeby. Fairly pissing at this point and we were wandering from sheltered spot to sheltered spot. Over to AE Mak and enjoyed her. I'd seen her before and brought a few over, but I thought the sound in road to nowhere wasn't great and didn't do her justice. After was Shame and then on to Nick Cave... Didn't get to stay at Shame for long as one of the lads is a Nick Cave super fan and wanted to get up the front early... We'd dragged him to alot of stuff he wouldn't be keen on up till then so we said let's go with the flow and give him his due so off we went ... Best decision of the weekend... Wasn't a fan and tried a few times to give him a chance listening wise over the years but just couldn't get into him... Holy **** did we enjoy that performance... **** amazing... Blown away... We were about 10 from the front... I will not forget it... Then a quick skip to the tents and catch the second part of Floating Points then Groove Armada... Big fan and Had a great party at that but I've seen them rock it more... Been an age since seeing them live though so was more than happy... Then honey Dijon and Joy Orbison to round things off...

Sunday - Waking up seeing 27k steps on your watch is an amusing start to the day. Brought coffee over to friends in general where a generous dose of baileys was added to give the day a delicious kick start. In to blindboy for food and flaking out in the sun and a cheeky snooze... Wandered down to the house then and surrounding areas... Lovely quiet chilled space... Had a look over to the kids area where myself and herself commented on how good the setup looked and how great it seemed for the kids there enjoying themselves, while at the same time agreeing that we will never bring our kids as we are selfish fuckers who need this as our own time to leave it responsibilities at the gate😆... We agreed to meet up friends at mainstage for Rufus Wainwright who I have no interest in but was able to enjoy the sun and I do appreciate his voice is pretty amazing... It was so hot at this stage there were people who'd sheltered under the bins ingeniously flipping over the lids and hiding between them...a moment that made me realize there were feck all wasps around this year... So fair play to ATN if this was through design or maybe it was just a happy coincidence. John Francis Flynn next, followed by CMAT... Both were fine. Jessie Buckley and Bernard Butler we popped into for about 15 but it was a bit too mellow so back out to mainstage to Denise Chaila. Lots of energy and was good. Another to file under, enjoyed more than I thought I would. Bit of a mistake next as we decided to pop back to the tent but didn't longer there chatting than intended and missed murder capital. However DIIV was not missed and not to be missed. They were brilliant and again great atmosphere in the tent. I dragged a few to them that weren't to keen beforehand but we're delighted after which is always nice! King Gizzard were brilliant, second half is what I saw. Then Mano Le tough for the first half... Good crowd at that, followed by Underworld who I thought really topped the festival off from a headliner standpoint...DJ Koze and Or.la over at a too packed Arcadia to dance the socks off one last time... Went to general to finish off a few drinks and caught that pic on the way back to ours at 5... Where I had a little moment just standing there on my Todd... Best festival experience I've had 💥💥💥

Yeah I'm not sure it was advertised but they had a DJ at either end of the Bandstand field, which was a great idea as it filled up rightly by about 11pm. Bar was open too. Was nice to have something to lose the run of yourself at rather than just losing the run of your self at the tent skulling cans.

Ah cool pic.

Fab pic !! well done !! 💯🆒

Like Rubick, we had a long old journey down from Belfast. Me and Mrs darzog were in the Accessible Camping field this year and as it didn’t open until 9am on the Friday, we set out at the ungodly hour of 4:45 and managed to swing into Gate 4 at 9:00 on the button. Good sign… The Accessible Camping team were superb all weekend. There were volunteers helping folk put up tents, handing out recycling rubbish bags and keeping the portaloos well stocked. Thank you, you very nice people.

Friday

I wandered into the new area The Last City and perched myself on the single-person  wooden ‘throne’ right in the corner, replete with a little hollowed-out can-holder. A guy sidled up to me and asked me if I liked it. I told him that it was a king’s-eye view and I wasn’t planning to move from the spot for the whole weekend! He smiled and told me that it was his creation, and that that was the vibe he was going for. Kudos! 

Popped my head into the new Global Roots Cambium Club to catch a bit of lovers’ rock. The young ‘uns were mad for it… Nice space to catch your breath for 30 minutes. 

Caught the first bit of the Trinity Orchestra’s 80s set before rolling up the sleeves and heading into the fray for Belfast-lads Enola Gay. Noisy and chaotic. Just how I like it. Straight from there to see Skinner with more of the same energy and chaos. Beautiful. Self Esteem and Jungle were (ahem) tolerated so that I at least attempted to spend a bit of time watching the better half’s picks. And then there was Gilla Band. “Er…you won’t like these love. Very loud.” Apart from Nick Cave, this was my set of the weekend. Like going 15 rounds with Ali, but somehow managing to still smile maniacally whilst being punched repeatedly. 

Saturday

After D O’D at the Bandstand, I watched some of the folk from Dublin Ukelele Orchestra playing the whole of Abbey Road as ‘Polythene Jam’. AR is my all-time favourite album, so this was going to either annoy me or send me into a blissful state. It was only their second time playing it all the way through (got chatting to them later upstairs in the Jameson thing) and the crowd were onside for a bit of a singalong, so all good. 

Saw a bit of Glasshouse doing Kate Bush / Prince. It was another sing-a-long-athon and was great craic, then caught Jason Byrne in the comedy tent. Outstanding. Get the 4 Gardai up at the end to do YMCA was worth the admission. Talented boy… 

Ah, Nick Cave. A pal of mine saw him at Reading in 1992 and he said it was like watching an exorcism. I now understand what he meant. Quite simply the best ever set I have seen at a festival. That good…

Sunday

Rufus Wainwright and the tail end of the Classic Beatles in the sun was a great way to kick Sunday off. Buckley & Butler a bit too mellow for my tastes at that time on the final day…as nice as it was. Glad I swapped out Murder Capital for Gurriers. Best decision of the weekend. Great bunch of lads and look forward to catching them at EP. King Gizzard spun me off into the cosmos in a beautifully nutzrageous fashion, and I loved every second. 

What a weekend. ATN, you barely put a foot wrong (bar some eye-watering food prices and a little bit of noise bleed). Special mention to the beardy lad in the Ping Pong Tent brandishing the ‘No Selfies’ sign. He was going round stamping “Bring Back Fingering” on to folks’ arms. Perfectly daft. Daftly perfect. Great weekend. See you all next year.

Apologies in advance. I’ve been writing this offline and once I finished, I realised it is a bit long.

TLDR – Well Done ATN, Had fun, Some good points, Some bad points, probably see you next year.

Well, the dust has settled, the camping gear has been cleaned and put away (for a few weeks) and I can finally sit down and put pen to paper/fingers to keyboard.

As with a lot of the other posters, I think ATN managed to banish the demons of 2019 and pulled off a great weekend. Like everything, there were some things that were just right and some that could have been a bit better. But overall, we had a great time.

We went for the early entry on Thursday and due to missing a stop for lunch on the way down, we arrived earlier than we had planned and ended up in the queue for wristbands before the wristband exchange even opened. Even with the shorter walk from the car, with the trek around crew camping and the bit of a hill into A Hard Day’s Night, I was really glad to have a good trolley.

We picked a spot over towards the edge of crew camping about halfway up the walkway. It turned out to be a good choice as I mapped it out when I game home and it was about 750m to the Main stage via one Arena entrance and the same to the Belonging Bandstand via the other.

Opening the area down by the Belonging Bandstand on Thursday was nice as it gave us a break away from sitting at the tent all night. There wasn’t a hell of a lot going on and some vendors were still closed or still getting ready, but it was a nice easy introduction to the festival. It was only after I was sitting there for a while that I realised the DJ on the Bandstand was Cian Finn. Coincidentally, he was the last person I saw at EP19 as they literally pulled the plug on him in Trenchtown at 5am on the Monday morning, so he kinda bookended my time away.

Friday morning saw the arrival of new neighbours, who were all lovely and we didn’t have an ounce of bother for the whole weekend.

We were itching to get exploring, but the Bandstand area didn’t open until 12:30 (I think) and the opening time for rest of the site seemed to be a moving target. When it did open, we spent Friday afternoon exploring/chilling. Friday evening was The Trinity Orchestra, (Some of) Dry Cleaning, Self Esteem and King Kong Company.

Saturday opened with Breakfast ciders watching David O’Doherty, some lunch and then on to Glasshouse, (Some of) The Mary Wallopers/Iarla O’Lionaird, Pillow Queens and (Some of) Nick Cave. We went wandering later, ended up at David Kitt down by the house. At that stage, the breakfast ciders and the on/off rain showers probably caught up with me and we decided that could be the nice mellow end to the evening I needed.

Sunday was another day for taking it easy. So it was Caroline, Kevin Gildea, CMAT, (Some of) The Murder Capital, Clare Sands, (Some of) King Gizz and finished in Global Roots with Yankari. We didn’t bother going to the main stage for Underworld but could hear them clearly back at the tent.

Looking back at what I did see and didn’t see, I’m not sure if I need a more detailed plan including a backup act if the primary doesn’t work out, to do a “5 acts to see today” plan or to simply have no plan at all. I think I visited every stage at some point over the weekend sometimes spending only 5-10 minutes, sometimes a lot more.

Monday morning was a nice leisurely breakfast, pack up, say bye to the neighbours and join the Zombie hoard trudging back to the carparks with heads down, muttering occasionally to one another.

And the exit plan for the traffic worked as well as the entrance plan. A small bit of marshalling and we were out the gate in maybe 10-15 mins after starting the car.

Pros

·        The traffic plan worked a treat. We followed the directions from Dublin via Portlaw village and had no problems coming or going.

·        Wasps were down to normal festival levels. Nothing like 2019, but you still saw the occasional person doing ‘The Wasp Dance’.

·        Cashless payments. I was sceptical, but I’m glad to say I never saw or heard of any problems over the whole weekend. (except for a poor embarrassed teenager who managed to lock out his PIN at one of the coffee vans when he got a bit flustered. He was actually only buying a pack of Rolos. We were going to offer to pay but fair play to the girl at the counter as she gave them free of charge to his Mam who came running over to help and probably only embarrassed him more. He legged it with his tail between his legs on the phone to the bank to unlock his PIN. We felt really bad for him for hours after.)

·        Site size/capacity. It was just right for the amount of people there. If there is to be any increase in capacity, I would think both the arena and the campsites would have to expand.

·        Site layout. The addition of the extra routes to the Main Stage via AVA in the Woods and Global Roots was great to help with getting about. The only downside was that it turned Global Roots into a bit of a thoroughfare, so it could do with some tweaking.

·        New Stages/areas.  The addition of new stages, and especially new structures such as The Cambium Club was brilliant, and they will hopefully get better and better.

Cons

·        More Water points needed. Where there is a toilet block, there should always be a water point. (Also, maybe someone with a cattle prod to move along the people hogging them in the morning while brushing their teeth.)

·        The line of portaloos along the hill going down to the house. That is a ridiculous place to have them. They can’t be serviced during the day and once they fill up, they are horrible for anyone walking or working near them.

·        Not enough portaloos/urinals. If you don’t want people p1ss1ng everywhere, have more portaloos/urinals and have them better located. As far as I could see, there was only 1 set in A Hard Day’s Night campsite. It could have done with 2 or 3 sets. Also, if you look at Global Roots/AVA in the Woods and ignore the ones on the hill, you have to walk far too far to get one.

·        The area down at the house was really badly utilised this year. If the house is to play a part, there should really be more down there. It felt like an overflow area and the stages down there all seemed a bit lost. It would be an ideal spot for some quieter late-night entertainment for people who want something a little different or a break from the more ‘energetic’ areas.

·        Food Prices/Availability/Range. I know there will always be queues at peak times, but a few more food vendors would be more than welcome, especially in the campsite. Prices were a bit higher, but it has been a weird 3 years everywhere.

·        Hills. It is a lovely site, but it would be nice if it was flatter. 😊. That walkway/hill from crew camping to the main arena was hard and could be horrible if it was really wet. I saw one of the Portaloo trucks had slid sideways on it and nearly toppled over.

·        Rain. Even though the site held up well to the amount of rain that fell over the weekend and despite what I once said on the EP thread about the Public Service Broadcasting late night appearance in Body and Soul, rain is never welcome at a festival. It is ALWAYS better when it is dry.

I’m still feeling tired at the moment and to be honest I’m not overly sure which I would pick if I was only to do EP or ATN, but I imagine when the enticement of early bird tickets comes knocking I will probably be tempted.

Roll on ATN23.

I know there's a river bed, but it would be amazing if they did something about letting people walk directly from the entrance into the back of the camp site rather then making everyone do a loop down and up the hill getting in and out of the festival

Well lads - only getting to write this now after going away for a few days to rest and recover after the festival.

As previously said this year was brilliant and POD really fixed most of the issues around the place. I didn’t notice the lack of water and just went to the one beside ‘Something Kind of Wondeful’ and worked fine.

Ate some great food shoutout to Oh My Goodness for the best nachos of the weekend. Unreal! The burger place beside them was class! Dumpling were unreal and the pieman really picked me up on Sunday afternoon.

Freeflow worked a treat and not sure I would go to a festival without it now tbh. Looking at you EP.

Music wise Friday consisted of Altered Hours who were brilliant as always. Dry Cleaning - first time seeing them and thought they were brilliant. The lead singer really keeps your attention. Then saw the end of Gemma Dunleavy (up d flats) and watched some of Self Esteem from the back nipping off to get some food. Was up the front for Gilla Band. Best Irish band doing it around these days. Wandered down the Well stage to see Yenkee which was chill and lovely before having a wander around an eventually finishing at Arcadia which was class. I might prefer to the afterburner to be honest. Felt a better connection with artists and crowd.

Saturday;

The cure of a Bloody Mary from that wonderful cocktail bar. Watched Dod while munching on nachos and then over to see PowPig. Low-key set but nice all the same. Chilled out for a while before going to see The Mary Wallopers always class and should play every festival. Chilled vibes in the rain for Junior Brother and back for Shame. Amazing stage presence of those guys and suffered a little from the scheduling against Nick Cave. I waited 3 years to hear One Rizla live and didn’t disappoint! Nick Cave. Gig of the weekend and maybe my life. O’Children was just sublime. Amazing. Popped down to see the Onion Boys after who were garage rock and picked us up after Nick Cave blowing us away. Floated down to see David Kitt but unfortunately he was just playing a new album or something was boring. Called it a night there.

Sunday - will make this short. Caroline would’ve been better on a small stage but looking forward to seeing them again. CMAT was good fun and liked her speech. Strange Boy was whopper the trad backed band. DIIV and King Gizz were unreal. Gizz are so tight and felt a real privilege to see them and as they never play here. Went down to the Cobblestone session for the night and danced the night away to some trad.

I see people saying nothing on other than electronic which is surprising as there was 2 stages on the lawn with guitar/trad music until 3am and the Well until 3am also. Anyway class weekend was had. See you all next year.

Bjork would be my top choice too🙂Pulp may also doing be some shows next year to mark 25th annivesary of This Is Hardcore,Jarvis is always puts on a great show🤞

Lovely post.

I hope he was actually a guard!

Jesus that's a bit much that you're expected to comply with that.

Tickets secured for next year! Now the excruciating wait for even a sliver of line-up news

They kept coming up as none available from about 2 minutes past.

But I kept trying and got the tier 1 eventually.

The option is gone now.

Just noticed this morning that the '23 thread has already started.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058257558/all-together-now-2023#latest