All Together Now 2023

Leave your feedback: https://www.alltogethernow.ie/feedback

Your comment about considering Beyond the Pale ... I was at BTP this year, and have been to all 4 ATNs, and have to say BTP isn't in the same league as ATN and maybe it shouldn't try to compete with it. ATN now is very similar to when EP was around the 20-30k capacity. It definitely needs to sort out the issues mentioned by other posters, but it's improving dramatically each year. I probably wouldn't go to BTP again (a festival in Glendalough that somehow ignores its beautiful location and puts everything in one fairly ugly sunken field), but I will go to every ATN I can ... until it changes for the worse (looking at you EP!).

First and foremost, I had an amazing weekend. The most beautiful festival site for me, everywhere you look is just gorgeous. Great crowd as well, although I definitely noticed more undesirable looking heads floating around the place (some very young, some a bit scadly) then previous years. Line up was pretty stacked in terms of depth and every night there was a lot of really good stuff on. Less so during the day and it was definitely dance music heavy, not a huge amount of bands I was really excited for.

Highlights were Spray B2B Sally C, Clockworks, EMA, Dylan Fogarty, Overmono, Banríon, Robert Hood.

Last year was possibly my favourite festival ever, so there was a huge amount of hype for this amongst our group of friends. Now that the dust has settled, I can say with confidence that last year was better.

It was definitely too crowded at times. Almost claustrophobic at Arcadia and AVA, which you really can't have at a rave stage where you're meant to be dancing away and throwing shapes. Arcadia also seemed to be a lot smaller, last year it was pretty much perfect but this year it definitely suffered from the changes.

Obviously the weather and especially the mud wasn't ideal, and they could have definitely done with more wood chippings, but I'll let the organisers off the hook for that, because there are two much bigger issues which plagued the festival in my experience.

Firstly the sound was shocking at times on some of the bigger stages. At times there was major confusion as to what was going on. The main stage and SKOW tent in particular seemed to suffer from some of the worst sound issues I've witnessed at a festival of this size. Really poor and fairly inexcusable. Didn't bother me too much however as I was on a more DJ buzz this year, and the AVA stage in particular sounded amazing.

The worst thing in my opinion was the extremely heavy handed Garda presence. Compared to last year, which seemed to be very loose, the place was **** CRAWLING this year. Sniffer dogs, random searches at the entrance, and undercovers going around picking people at random and asking them if they had anything on them. Three of my friends now have to go to court, their weekend pretty much ruined. I know it'll just be a slap on the wrist, but it's a first time for them so they're paranoid. I've never heard of a Guard approaching someone and asking to search them for literally no reason, no cause for suspicion, just totally random. Don't know how this is legal, but it should absolutely not be tolerated by the festival organisers. This more then anything else would totally deter me from returning to ATN. As someone who enjoys a good old acid trip at a festival, the possibility of an unprovoked stop & search or a sniff over by a bleeding police dog hanging over my head isn't exactly compatible with a good time.

So for these reasons and possibly maybe more that I can't quite put my finger on, ATN 23 didn't quite have the same magic that was in the air in 2022. (Beyond the Pale however, totally did imo). An amazing time nonetheless, and I'll almost certainly be back next year, but there are some major issues that if unaddressed might prevent it from fulfilling it's potential as the most magical place in the country for a weekend!

It’s the making of eye contact with the guy standing opposite, less than 1m away, also pissing, that disturbs me.

Robert Hood's set in Arcadia on Saturday night really was something special. Obviously not for everyone and I know a couple of people who would normally have been into it but the mud and fatigue had ground them down a bit and it was a bit much, but a good gang of us who were in the mood for some storming fierce relentless techno had one of the most amazing nights of our lives. He really didn't hold back.

“ Search for drugs: Gardaí have specific powers to search individuals for drugs in certain circumstances, such as if they have reasonable suspicion that you are in possession of drugs”

means that Garda can essentially search anyone, the reasonable suspicion could be a “smell of weed” or whatever they want.

ATN has tolerate what’s in the law and what Garda do operationally on the ground if it’s within the law.

ATN is dependent of Garda signing off on the festival so it’s limited.

Thanks for the info. Although I'm talking about lads who weren't smoking, literally walking around the festival ground. Definitely not visibly high... I'm certain there would have been no reasonable cause for suspicion in two of the instances I'm aware of

Hard to know where to begin with a review. Definitely had an overwhelmingly positive weekend overall. The negatives have already been addressed here, the mud, guards, sound issues etc. But I got to see so many amazing acts over the weekend.

Huge amounts of folk and trad, opened up with Andy Irvine Friday evening, followed by mega trad and citizen ceili in the last city, which featured an impromptu ceili. Next up was Jesse Ware one the main stage, was an absolute party, though sadly Roisín Murphy didn't make a cameo with her as was predicted here. Caught a bit of kila in global roots and then finished the night with the trad rave in the last city, pure madness in the rain but we called it a night after that.

Saturday started with the Amazing Lisa O Neill at main stage, walked in to see her doing a cover of white rabbit that blew me away instantly. Stayed around the main stage for Sugababes, huge crowd, sound wasn't great but the crowd knew every word anyway so it didn't really matter. Caught a bit of the scratch after, the ear plugs were badly needed but it was good fun. A bit of a break to get back to the campervan area and then got back for Caribou who were amazing. The experience of seeing "Sun" live was probably my own highlight of the festival. The night ended in global roots with Jiggy followed by Bonny men, another epic day of music.

Sunday was a little bit more chilled but was lovely with the sun finally showing up a bit. Started off with bog Bodies at ealu le grà. A lovely area but agree with other posts in that its too far out of the way, something I'm sure they'll address in the future. The rest of the day/evening was spent around main stage/some kind of wonderful. Got to see Saint Sister doing a really cool cover of where are your friends tonight and mandinka. Max Richter was great fun but had to be close to hear properly. Biig piig is a big superstar in waiting, lorde had a great set and predictably Iggy blew us all away.

At that point we finished up, he was an unreal act to finish things on. I can't wait to see what theve planned for next year. Yes there are issues and areas they need to address, but for me it's the best festival experience in the country as of right now. I think they should keep the attendance level as it is but inevitably, some increase will come, the grounds are big enough for it.

The dogs would be trained to smell all drugs, well the most popular ones anyway, but weed is definitely the easiest for them to find in small doses for obvious reasons.

And right on cue one of the first vids upped, I was in this crowd too endainoz. Sorry we didn't have a meet up was looking for you on my WhatsApp and your name has disappeared from my contacts so it must've been in my previous phone.

Andy Irvine - The Plains of Kildare.

Friday: Stayed in a Bell Tent in the Boutique area, and had decent access to main arena again. Started the evening off with Trinity orchestra on the main stage. The grass was still green and fluffy at this stage, unfortunately not for much longer. Caught half of Ailbhe Reddy, I’ve never gelled with her music. It’s grand but I wanted a bit of life. Later hung at the end of a tent while Basht were on, had never heard of them. Then to the main stage for Jessie Ware, she was fantastic. I’ve not listened to her too much before, she always seems to be the underdog musically, but she has the tunes to be bigger, and put on a great show. I rushed away from the end of the set to get to Lankum as I knew the tent would be wedged, and I’d risk not getting in. They were brilliant. I know others had sound problems with where they stood but it was grand for me. I capped the night off getting rained out of it at Warmduscher. I called it a night when they were done as I was soaked and barely managed to hang in there for their full set as it lashed down. 

Saturday: No queues for the men’s showers that morning, but massive queues for tea/coffee and the limited food stands in our camp. The wind battered the tents that morning and saw some bigger tents taken or knocked down around the place. I went to see Cruel Sister on a friend’s recommendation. Sat on the grass down by the house since it wasn’t turned to muck and was dry. Singalong Social for a bit of craic, then straight to Sugababes who were the highlight of the day. Stayed on for Villagers, always quality. Checked out half of Sprints set after, then went up on the big wheel during Caribou. Followed friends to Fight Like Apes, then capped the night at a friend’s DJ set in Rockshore area (such a sh!te beer, but tbf Five Lamps was worse in the first years).

Sunday: Lazy morning and day, had a cold shower, which was fixed to warm as soon as I was dried off. Brought some stuff back to car to save having more Monday morning, saw some cars already stuck in the car park. There was very little on early in the day to woo me, especially with main stage not having something nice and chill to wander in for. Caught a wee bit of Kojaque, Biig Piig, and then went up closer to stage for Lorde, thinking she’d put on a good show. I left a few songs in. She was quite boring, but her fans were loving it. Her Forbidden Fruit set looked like a cooler show from photos I saw. Checked out TV Girl then legged to Iggy Pop. Iggy was fantastic and ended the weekend on the right note. What a legend! I saw on the app a special tribute light show would be on for Sinead O’Connor at the house. I expected light show and some singing or playing of songs. We were all disappointed. Called it a night there.

Pros: Walk from Boutique Car Park to boutique site was much improved on last year (though they should have made it more obvious on the app that this was a thing). Couldn’t hack walking up that steep hill with all the booze and bags like they had us do last year. the vibes at the festival are still good, it hasn’t started to go the wrong way just yet. 

Cons: to me it was the weakest overall line up of all ATN’s, and as another poster mentioned it was mad they weren’t using main stage earlier for sets, like on the Sunday. 

I couldn’t understand why they weren’t proactively putting down wood chips or anything to help with the severely mucky areas. Granted, that is many of the areas, but there was bare minimum effort done here. It was dangerous. One friend fell, and by Saturday evening had to get his knee strapped on site to help with the strain.  My missus fell the same night going to the Circle stage, luckily didn’t get caked in mud, or hurt.

I had one run in with bar staff in the guest area during Biig Piig. I was getting a round which included ginger ale by itself, which I’d got an hour earlier at same bar. The server wouldn’t serve me ginger ale on its own without charging me for Jameson & Ginger. When I told her I’d got it earlier she wanted me to point out who did it. She wasn’t a manager, and she went on to say how she values her job, and they don’t have the ability to sell it by itself. Pure farce, so I just walked away.

I'll never get used to the stage names and know which applies to which.

The ****@ers would be a lot better off stationed up in the capital where you'd be lucky to walk a mile across the city without getting slashed by a knife or kicked to a pulp. I know you have to have some presence at these events. But security can take care of that. Going around looking for a bit of recreational substance use at a gig is pointless.

One of my highlights, oddly both my clips feature the same singer. They're definitely influenced by old school folk, was getting tingling's of early Pentangle, Steely Span, Clannad, Fairport Convention with Sandy Denney, Scandinavian folk music, Vikings soundtrack. Quite a diverse sound.

Lankum (two clips)

Exactly, they don’t exactly endear themselves to the public with this kind of thing.

Mercilessly beat an innocent tourist or rob a bike in broad daylight “yer grand”, have a bit of a joint in the sun while calmly listening to some music “Somebody stop this maniac!!”

I understand there are certain things they can’t overlook, but combing through the site with sniffer dogs and undercovers searching peoples tents? Piss off, joyless droids

For all those hating on the Garda presence, by all accounts they just gave cautions and if they weren't there you'd have yobs snorting coke in front of kids and there would be complaints about that! And on the woodchip, when the ground gets that muddy, can you imagine what would happen if you move heavy machinery onto it, plus the fact that it would take artic loads to make any difference. One thing that they could consider is laying down more aluminium trackways on high traffic areas for next year.