All Together Now 2023

Summary: a good ATN. They’ve made a few changes. Not all of them have worked. But it’s still the best festival in the country.

Highlights: Overmono, Todd Terje, The Clockworks, Lankum*, Daphni, Sing Along Social, Claire Beck, Bacchus and the Big Beats, Tourist, Max Richter*, Queen Beatz.

The good: the venue overall.

• it’s still the most beautiful place to spend a festival weekend. While the walk from the campervan site was mahoosive, the hills and valleys of the place really add to the sense of a festival using the landscape as part of the experience.
• The Last City: what a beautiful little stage. Reminds me of a super-mini version of the Body & Soul stage. And, just like Body & Soul used to do at EP, they had a cool German DJ playing sweet house/disco beats until 4am.
• Cambium Club: again, it’s just such a lovely place to listen to music and dance. The venue itself creates a sense of togetherness. I’m not sure it’s possible to do anything other than smile.

The bad: geography changes.

• Ping Pong Disco is not the sort of thing that can be stuck off by itself in a corner. It needs foot traffic walking by it. You don’t deliberately go there; you just stumble upon it and check it out for a while.
• ELG: similar but different. Sticking this out in that little annexe of a place was poor.
• Arcadia: this was the worst change of the festival. It was in the perfect place beforehand. People could drift in and out; stay at the edges; when walking by even if you weren’t going in you could see the stag’s head on one side and the Arcadia Bug on the other; and you didn’t filter everyone through a tiny narrow dangerous path. Moving it to its own isolated area also - and this is purely a gut feeling based on experience of me and my mates - meant that some people just never bothered going there as it was so far from the main stages and there was a weird vibe there, especially later on. It was bumpy. Not nice festival vibes at times.

The frustrating: sound quality.

• This was the poorest sound quality at a big festival I can recall for some time, especially in the SKOW tent. Lankum and Max Richter really, really suffered. I was near/at the front for both and even up close the sound from chatter was just phenomenally loud. If they are going to book such artists they need to do their homework better.

The weird: did the bookers forget about early Sunday afternoon?

• There was very little on Sunday afternoon on the main stages. The Max Richter/Orchestra bit was more understandable as they needed to do a complete sound check for over an hour beforehand but why on earth was the main stage completely unused until 4pm? Sunday is always THE BEST DAY for chilling out, nursing your hangover, lying/sitting on the grass, and letting some gospel/reggae/otherwise gentle sounds wash over you as you gird your loins for another final run at hedonism of a Sunday. This was just weird.

The missing: the helter skelter.

• I don’t care if you don’t let anyone slide on it. Just bring it back as a giant festival ornament. That whole bandstand area seemed unfinished without our lovely striped helter skelter.

The “you need to change this back to the old way and you were lucky nothing bad happened”.

• I’m not sure of the value of having a sign for a tent to get your campervan wristbands when there are no camper wristbands. A good few people weren’t happy about this. And I can understand why. There’s some very expensive stuff up on that hill.

The surprising: good pint of plain.

• While I bring many, many cans with me to a festival there are times where you just fancy a pint. Fair play to Guinness because that was a darn good pint in the middle of the countryside even in a plastic cup.

The dangerous: walking.

• Walking should not be that dangerous. Friday night was lethal getting home. On Saturday getting from the main arena to Arcadia, funnelled through that path, was utterly stupid.

The amazing: free wine tasting.

• On paper, Bacchus and the Big Beats should not have been this good. But when you had some of the best wine importers in the country bringing out wine after wine, pouring it into your actual glass tasting glass made of real glass, with sommeliers doing blind tasting, and then you realise that you’re five wines in *and they haven’t yet got to the reds* you know you’re at something special. “Dance if you liked it”? Yes please. This was extraordinary, and good fun too. Oh, and they served snacks from Frank’s.

The “I remember you fondly, please return”: Road To Nowhere.

• I have very good memories of this tent. A lovely size of a thing and slightly out of the way, I’ve seen bands and seen DJs and it has always been good. Also it was a tent. With a roof. In a country where we get lots of rain even in summer. The Lovely Days stage is fine. But I’m not sure it’s an improvement.

The “I’m sure we’ll see you again but it was nice that we had a break from ye”: The wasps.

• They tried to make a brave comeback on Sunday but I think we will talk of ATN2023 as The Mud Year Without The Wasps.

They did have a path leading from Ealú to Arcadia open on Friday. For some reason they closed it off for the rest of the weekend so you had to go through the campsite.

I don't know, when I go to a fest quality sound is the main thing that grinds my gears.

Was thinking of atn in 2024, now not so sure.

Didn't go this year btw as have EP tickets

Another great year done and dusted. Agreed with others that the campervan area was a bit of a trek. Only went to arcadia once pretty early on Saturday night before the masses arrived. Some areas were dodgy with the mud after the deluge on Friday but weather rest of the weekend was grand. Caught a good few acts and had some fun dancing in Schweppes and rockshore tent

Great craic being woken up by our kids this morning at 5am 😁 anyway, such is life, See you in 2024!

As everybody said mud was an unnecessary pain in the hoop. its not like it hadn't been raining for the whole of July. it was a pretty good bet that you were going to need something to put down particularly in the heavy traffic areas.

We were in Bass camp. it was grand but no Pink Moon but then it was not pink moon prices so....

Highlights for me Iggy, Villagers, JamieXX, Sugababes (sound was rubbish), Dublin Gospel Choir, again sound was rubbish but G&Ts in the Sunday sunshine at the bandstand, cant beat it. Dipped in and out of Rockshore bar several times, great fun. Annie Mac in the rain. My discovery of the weekend was The Burma on Friday night. small crowd but they were great.

As @dingbat said the Bacchus wine tasting was great fun (Dance if you like it). An unexpected delight.

Guinness drinkers in our group said the pint was surprisingly decent for festival fare.

I wasn't overly interested in the line up this year but cant remember all the fab little places we wandered into catching a small group having a great time. The atmosphere was so chilled and friendly and you found yourself chatting to the friendliest randomers and having the absolute craic.

As a survivor of 2019, Getting in and out was easy peesey. The traffic management was superb. Well signposted from way out on the route. Big thumbs up for that.

In summary, it was a fantastic weekend, roll on next year. Don't regret one iota the decision to ditch EP for ATN. I'm leaving EP to the youngsters from now on. I hope they look after it!

The sound was an issue with some acts, but the majority I went to were fine. In particular the sound at lovely days for the likes of warmduscher and kojaque was superb. I thought even main stage was great for villagers, lorde (totally disagree with commenter above, thought she was great but each to their own) biig piig and Iggy. Bigger problems at SKOW throughout for sure, and Pilow Queens had trouble at the Circle. I would like a bit more variety after midnight, loved Daphni and James Murphy was good, but todd terje and the arcadia acts i caught were only ok. Anyway, for me the mud of friday night/saturday was a bigger prob than the sound and while last year was better, this was still a great festival weekend with an interesting and, at times, inspired line up. Don't be put off for next year.

Last shout to the sprints who were bloody brilliant at the circle on saturday.

Great weekend, but you'd be wrecked trekking through the mud all day. I'll invest in something more comfortable than wellies the next time.

I think the only thing worse than the mud, was having Rockshore as the only lager available.

Had a great time but thought it lost a bit of the magic & atmosphere that was there last year and in 2019 and has become a lot more corporate.

The selection of drinks was ridiculously poor. The fact you can't get a decent pint of beer on site is a disgrace really. Rockshore only serves around 1% of the crowd who have crap taste in beer.

Thought the food was poor too. €20 for a **** burger, chips and a drink in most places? C'mon, absolute piss-take having pretty much no decent meal options for much less than this.. Queues were crazy at stages... then some vendors looking to be paid by cash or revolut only after you queued 20 minutes to get to the top. A fiver for a coffee in a lot of places, absolute boll*cks. The only nice food I got was from Bish Bosh & the Dumplings place.

As mentioned, trudging around the site was a slog for the most part bar Sunday. That ping pong area just seemed like a ghost-town any time I went up there & poorly positioned.

Needs a really strong line-up up and at least hop house on tap next year to get me back. Will be keeping a close eye on Beyond The Pale as an alternative.

Agree that the bus drop off was way too far away this year. It was a slog getting in and getting back. If they had nice beer on site we wouldn't have had to carry so much!

Some outstanding sets by Iggy, Kelly Lee Owens, Lankum, Daniel Avery, Overmono, Warmduscher, Kojaque, Khakikid, Post Punk Podge, Ezra Collective, Bricknasty, EMA & Skatbard.

My highs: Warmduscher(the atmosphere in the rain was brilliant) Lankum, Caribou and Iggy....4 brilliant gigs to be at, the cameraman loved Iggy's female guitarist 😁 Shoutouts for Staples jr singers, Max Richter( the violinist especially) which also should have been main stage, Thee UFO, Claire beck, Daphni, Cruel Sister and Jamie xx

The atmosphere of the place is just great, didn't see one ounce of trouble, and just the general setup of the place was great walking from stage to stage.

The something to give out abouts: The mud obviously and the lack of urgency to do anything about with, the trek to Arcadia was insane on Saturday night because of it.

Reading that people in Wheelchairs had to give up and go home. Watching parents try and haul their kids around in carts in the mud.

My first time glamping ,while the tent was great for the rain and the guest bar the whole thing is just massively overpriced shyte. The shower block is a pistake. 700euro for an absolute basic setup, never again! I'd be staggered if it's that basic at other festivals around Europe, someone told us the Electric picnic has an actual boutique setup for glamping and is far better.

It's a great festival overall though, I'll definitely look at going back next year although I'd like to see a stronger lineup, Sunday afternoon had a big lull.

Also the private access to the bar and it's toilets, and the closeness of the car park, made it well worth the money for me.

Yeah where it was situated was great as well tbf, ducking back for more cans was very handy and my Wife found the guest toilets great. It's my first time doing it so I expected a more boutique side to it but it was a massive letdown there.

The ones at the top of the hill beside the Schweppes bar were absolutely atrocious. Same thing, overflowing down the hill.

I had a wicked week and weekend, working Gate G on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday highlights Andy Irvine in Global Roots, Lankum in the tent, the vibe in the Global Roots area being like earlier versions of EP's Trenchtown. Got a lift back with my coordinator in the buggy to the campsite when the rain turned crap, so no fudged out electronica for the early hours of Saturday.

Saturday highlights The Scratch, metal with Irish traditional overtones and Dublin humour and mosh pits. Caribou: Fecking brilliant and spending last four hours at Arcadia, some top shelf funky house and storming techno followed (was it Robert Hood who closed) met Rubick, my only Boardsie meet up here. Discovered on the way back to camp that the volunteer staff route was the hill of death. It took me an hour and a half to get up this fecking hill with 25 breaks, 15 of them for emptying the bladder, what a sh1te way to the end the night. When finally up at my tent and snug it was 6.30 am.

Sunday woke up at 9.30 3 hours later because the heat in the tent was mental, the only nutrients I had in the tent was Guinness, so started drinking Guinness woo hoo. Today a much happier sunny day, tried to organise a way to bypass this staff route for the night, as I do have mobility issues and my bosses were trying to facilitate something. caught Junior Brother for the first time who were pretty good, a bit of Lorde, who was alright and Iggy Pop done a phenomenal set as per usual my main highlight. After his gig I decided to split for the camp and tried to get the short cut through the boutique area to crew camp with the help of one of my volunteer coordinators but security wasn't having it, so we went to welfare tent to see if we could get medics to give me lift in the buggy to crew camp, it was because I was panicked a little and wheezy, the doc checked me out and said I could get a lift but he recommended I go for a check at Waterford hospital just to be on the safe side. Had the banter with others in medical tent and enjoyed the sounds of James Murphy coming from the big tent. Was checked out at Waterford hospital and results were grand.

My mate packed up my gear on Monday and collected me in the camper at the hospital so all good. I'm gonna make a point in blog review though that festivals need to take account of volunteers who might have mobility issues and make exceptions for them to go alternate routes back to camp, I suffer from emphysema and have to use inhalers, there's a few other volunteers on DA who found it in the muck at times extremely hard to move and Saturday was a trying experience that particular day, especially moving up the hill going around Something Kind of Wonderful.

my 4th ATN and ranks as number 2 on the list after the first year. Yes, the weather was a balls on Friday night but we knew it was coming, so just dressed appropriately. ATN could possibly have done more too, but it was very tricky conditions.

Friday night - started with Barry can’t swim, which was the perfect opener. Then a quick wander through the lost city and and into the campsite to drag our mates to Warmduscher. I’m afraid I was outvoted by our crew after the 3rd/4th song and we left to seek shelter at Overmono, who were brilliant! Can anyone confirm that they came out to ‘feelings plain’, as that’s what’s in my head? Stayed for Todd Terje before another wander through the mud to Lost city before returning through the empty main arena to Podpads.

Saturday - missed Cruel Sister due to a slow start, but made it for the end of Clare Beck to get us moving. Black Country new road then, which was awesome despite the technical difficulties. Turbines/Pigs was just insane…but there was a lot of chatter through the quieter parts. Over to coy haste moving still who were really pumping out the tunes, but we didn’t stay long as I wanted to get back for the start of the scratch. Those boys are pure energy!! Took a stroll to the house and got food etc. before heading back to Schweppes bar to meet mates before caribou (and also meeting the legend that is @El Director). Caribou knocked our socks off, possibly the highlight of the weekend. We attempted some fight like apes after that, but lovely days was a quagmire and we were nearly done. Home via Jamie XX (heavier than expected).

100% will return again! Thanks to all on the WhatsApp group, you were gas craic through the weekend.