All Together Now 2023

Just home and chilling out. Washing machine on the go to get rid of the festival mud. Had another fantastic festival even though I didn’t love some of the music the atmosphere and the people we met made up for it. I found the majority of the dance music on offer sounded the same just one long repetitive beat. (Sound like my mother now!) I’m a lover of dance but no one really stood out except Overmono.

I think the organisers let themselves down a bit with facilities definitely needed more toilets and lights. Bins in our camp site were emptied Friday morning and not again after that. I did see them laying some wood chip on Friday night down near AVA in the woods. But didn’t see any put anywhere else. The guys in Londis didn’t do a thing about the mud. There was so much mud on the entrance at some stages was almost impossible to get in. The sound was also awful at the main stage and way too much sound bleed from bandstand and the well.

That all sounds very negative but in fact had a very positive time. Really enjoyed everything apart from the rain but can’t blame anyone for that. Will deffo go again I think it’s a magical little festival and love the whole setup. Finding all the installations in the woods is fantastic and as always made a pig of myself with fantastic found.

Caribou themselves were insane as well. Sun was the moment of the weekend for me.

Caribou were probably the best I've seen them - unbelievably tight. But **** me Daphni was possibly the best live set I've seen and not just the music. Visuals were outstanding.

Sunday definitely the best of the crop for me. Tourist and Le Boom real standouts, but then even smaller things like Kelly-Anne Byrne spinning some great disco as the sun as out really felt soothing after the slog of Saturday.

Agree with what others have said re. poor ground management by the organisers. Can only assume they cheaped out and chanced it, but that backfired. Thought the lighting was really insufficient in a lot of the main walkways as well, which made things dicey with the mud. Compared to a smaller festival like Body & Soul which really light their site up well.

The first year of the festival the food area and comedy tent were around the house I heard something about the house having someone living in it and that’s why it was stopped ( could be a lie!)

Last year definitely had more seating around the bandstand/food area but I thought this year the main area had more than last.

Some of my best memories at EP is great bands on in Body & Soul at late night, thinking back to Austra for example, that calibre of act on at 2 or 3am, I think ATN need to create that vibe somewhere around the site.

Enjoying the reviews lads. I'm not going to lie to you, it looked like a bit of a slog. Any feedback on Wunderhorse, Gretyl Hänlyn or Biig Piig gratefully received.

Didn't see Wunderhorse.

Biig Pigg was great. Her band were pretty funky.

I only got the first 30 minutes or so of Gretyl Hanlyn, before Lisa O Neill. They had some issues with their gear getting lost in transit so it was more of a pared down set but i enjoyed them and I'd say would be definitely worth checking out when they have their own gear.

Thee UFO were one of my highlights, not sure if they play eotr.

First time at ATN and absolutely loved it,

Organisation in and out of the event was really well done, the walk to the campsite was nothing crazy,

@Stillill42 Biig Piig was incredible - niced sized band for the set made it feel like a super established performance. For someone who is only 25 years of age she really owned the stage and crowd, amazing energy and love for her from the crowd. I would see her again at a solo show.

Pros:

RE: Conditions Sunday was a perfect day - the sun really redeemed the sting of the rain on the friday for sure. It was nice to leave the festival with a good taste in your mouth (metaphorically) 😂....

Loved all the tents down by the house - it felt night and day to the main stage area

Loved the tip that boutique campers have access to the guest area - this saved us many a queue from the main toilet areas

Loved the app & schedule planner & push reminders

Cons:

Was disappointed in the lack of action on the mud situation - I think we can all agree no money could cover the full event - just for danger spots eg bottle necks & hills. I had good boots so managed ok to get around the site. I felt for people with mobility challenges or kids.

Would love to have seen some sort of early main stage action on Sunday - like a gospel choir or ska band or something cool early in the day while everyone was in great spirits.

Would love to have seen better efforts on recycling on the site, I know its impossible with thousands of drunk people but I love festivals who do the returnable cups for the bar situation.

We never knew till Sunday that there were food/coffee trucks in the boutique camping area as it wasnt on the map - and like fools we were trekking in each morning to big queues.

Anyway maybe the festival organisers wont care for our feedback & festivals are tough to manage and I think its one of the best in Ireland so kudos to the organisers for taking the punt a few years ago and kicking ATN off. I can only imagine the stress the festival team was under trying to see how the high winds would play out..

Really looking forward to next year already! Hope everyone had a great time!

Great weekend.

Line up was great and delivered across the three days. Highlights were Iggy, TV Girl, Jessie Ware, Max Richter, Greta Hanlyn, The Scratch and The Yard. Low lights, Sorcha Richardson can never deliver her recorded talent live and same applied to Whenyoung.

Liked the new layout for Arcadia and PPD. It felt like the whole area around the house had been abandoned.

Sound was mixed. You definitely needed to be centre of the stage or you were losing quality pretty quickly. New stage was excellent as was The Well.

Agree with others that a little more late night variety would be great.

A slightly younger crowd, possibly because EP is sold out. That definitely added to the level of chatting at the gigs.

Food choice was good. Would be nice if Diageo added an ale to their list. Heineken used to do a nice Cute Hoor bar at EP, that was a rip off but it least it gave you the choice to be ripped off.

Mud was tough going, but I've been at worse and after a month and a half of rain, there is only so much that wood chip can do and sometimes it can make things worse.

The new layout shifting the campervans way out up a hill was a pain in the ass.

An early arrival on Thursday meant a stroll to the entrance from red car park. Felt sorry for campervan/caravan folk whose area was pushed back. That looked like a heck of a hike from their area to the main stage. 

Music wise. Highlights were: Black Country, New Road; Thee UFO; Iggy; Really Good Time (an unexpected delight); and, the ever reliable Billy Bragg. Having seen The Twisted Sisters on numerous occasions at smaller festivals, I was pleased for them to hear that they were on the bill at ATN. I bumped into Susie and Karen in Global Roots the night before and said I would come along to give a bit of verbal support (i.e press ganged into service!) It was fun to see the looks of bemusement on the faces of Cambium-bound punters at the incongruous sight of this wee woman with a broad Co.Armagh accent singing about big knickers and freeing the weed, all delivered with liberal use of industrial language. 

As clean as the sound at Lovely Days was, I missed the old tent. There are certain bands that only truly work in a dark, heaving tent. The layout of the new stage meant that it was all a bit…sanitised or dare I say, soulless? Others will doubtless disagree. That’s ok.

I also missed there being music in The Well on Saturday and Sunday evenings. For me, that’s usually where my most interesting acts tend to play. Last year on Sat & Sun: Onion Boys, Gurriers, Silverback, Thumper… I accept that there is a lot of noise bleed between the Bandstand and the Well at noisier/quieter moments. This could have been the reason…or keeping costs down perhaps? Loved Filmore! (One half of Tebi Rex) on Thursday evening in The Well. Felt for them though. A dozen or so hardy souls stayed from beginning to end.

Enjoyed the Grub Circus and All Curious Minds areas. Maybe it’s an age thing as there are chairs for a nice old sit-down. Big shout out for John Murry on Sunday. Interesting guy, amazing musician, fascinating life. The tent was heaving for Danny Kelly interviewing Liam Brady. Again, brilliant interview and both very engaging. Poor Danny. I went full fan boy on him and made him have a selfie with me but instead of saying cheese, I asked him to say “Any more pie?” If you know, you know…

Sound was poor at times in SKW tent, Lankum in particular. Gave up on Max Richter as everyone in the tent seemed to have been storing up all their chat, ready to unleash it and talk their way through a set that required a bit of hush / respect for the musicians. 

Does anyone know what happened to The Eskies on Sunday? They were due to play Last City at 9, but Ispíní na hÉireann were in their time slot… I was really looking forward to seeing them after a poor run mid-afternoon to early evening.

I’m certain that putting Ping Ping Disco and Éalú Le Grá outside of the main festival area must have affected their numbers. PPD was always packed last year, but when I popped my head in on Sunday afternoon, the place was virtually empty. No fun for the guys up there giving it plenty… I would love to hear that I’m wrong and that these areas were well attended overall.

The issues with the mud have been extensively covered. Also made the weekend that bit more draining having to wade through the proper hot-spots for two and a bit days. Went down twice. Sore ankle. I got off lightly by the sounds of it though… 

As with any solo flight, the weekend is always brightened when you bump into familiar, friendly faces. Was lovely being reacquainted with Desk Tidy and Rubick as well as getting to meet Thundercats Ho and pal, and also CoffeeImpala. All a great bunch…look forward to paths crossing again.

edit: reading all that back, it does read as quite negative. There were lots of plus points and overall I had a good weekend….honestly!

I'm bummed to have missed Daphni, as I had to head back to Dublin before he played.

Caught a good DJ set from Caribou's drummer earlier in the day though, which was cool.

Absolutely shattered here after an amazing weekend. Almost 5 hours of sitting in the car to get home between an hour in the carpark and getting caught behind a crash on the M7. But it feels good to be back sleeping in a real bed!

Music wise I managed to catch a lot of acts over the 4 days, highlights were Iggy Pop, Le Boom, Skatbard (that was a great run of a Sunday night), Caribou and Overmono. Moving Still b2b with Coy Haste from Caribou also amazing. However there were a number of acts that let me down over the weekend too such as Todd Terje, Sugababes and Jamie XX.

A criticism I had last year was the late night options being very samey, I thought they had better variety this year (although some above disagree) - albeit still very dance music focused. But for me there were much better options this year at least.

Site wise I'd love to see them have a walkway from Ping Pong Disco/Ealu le Grá straight into the main arena. It was too disconnected from the rest of the festival and that walk was very heavy on the legs with all of the mud. I'd also love to see them make better use of the area around the house, we went down on the Sunday and would have stayed but just felt there wasn't much to keep us there and no food trucks/bars.

The muck was very difficult particularly on Saturday, I was genuinely in disbelief coming out of SKOW on the Friday night at the stage of the place compared to 4 hours earlier. Would echo others that you'd have liked to have seen more done. But apparently there were trucks/diggers in the main arena on the Sunday morning scraping out the heavy muck according to a friend who was working there.

It's a great festival. Lovely atmosphere, site, food, drink options and IMO a great lineup this year. Bumped into so many friendly people over the weekend. The bar was set high in 2018, 2019 was a bit of a disappointment but last year was a return to form and they kept that going this year despite the muck. Hope ye all had a great one!

I think I was in at Overmono on Friday night and couldn't believe the state of the place when I walked out of the tent. The place was destroyed.

The ground had been very soft even arriving into the grounds Friday morning so it shouldn't have been a surprise that a heavy shower would make such a mess of things. God, it's hard work traipsing around in the mud all day. Thank god Sunday was better.

Our tent took a pummelling Saturday morning, some of our tent poles were split but it held up well other than that, thankfully!

Just on that ELG / PPD area.

There was a walkway from there, that came out at the RHS of the Lovely Days stage (at the bar / toilets).

It was open early Friday to the public and then sporadically over the weekend.

It was supposed to be only for staff but regular campers were using it too. A buddy of mine used it as he wasn't so mobile on the muddy tracks.