Beyond The Pale Festival - 10th-12th June - Glendalough

A lovely 3 days was had again. The crowd are the best thing about the fest. Bunch of lovely people. Gilla band, the redneck manifesto and The scratch were bands of the weekend for me. The scratch was some buzz. Crowd went nuts. Found Orbitals set a bit of a let down compared to previous sets I've seen by them.

Food options were good. Only bad points were that they needed more toilets and the beer selection. Five lamps is rank and no stout option. No stout at an irish fest. Not on. Now for the drive home.

I could see how a lot of people would have loved that, but it'll be the last for us, short of a breath taking line-up next year.

Weather worked out well. It never felt like a festival on the decline. I didn't see any cost-cutting, beyond the missing block of toilets that was on the map beside the Selective Memory tent. If they've survived this year, I can see it on the inevitable path of going bigger and more mainstream that all Irish festivals follow, which is why it's dead to me.

The corporate beer and searches that came with it are always the first sign. The creep of commercialism tainted it too. Kids playing in the Bulmers bubble area (how is this allowed?), Loreal's tone deaf sponsorship, that car thing. The Beyond the Plate area was previously a focal point, but now almost tucked away, with little other reason for people to be there. We were treated like children in some other regards too, with a sudden ban on chairs in the arena on Sunday. The vibe is changing ever so slightly to be more party boy and less seasoned festival goers. Maybe that was just Grace Jones that brought the older crowd out last year.

Musically, there wasn't enough for us after all the clashes. We'd gotten early bird tickets last year so that was on us for not waiting on the line-up. I had hoped this was Ireland's equivalent to End of the Road, but its on the path to yet another identikit Irish Festival beholden to their corporate overlords.

1 opened 500ml (at least officially) hardly free flow? Some security were more thorough than others from what I saw.

Without getting into a debate about O'Hara's commercial/ independence, any of their line up is better than 5 lamps!

I'm reluctant to annoy the beer gods, but while I had no issues, there was others being pulled for more than 1. No idea whether they had put any effort into it though!

honestly find that rationale odd as you can bring whatever beer you want to the festival.
The choice of draught beer being a make or break it thing about a festival.

1 can is not free flow. Some of the security were right jobsworths. And the beer offering inside was abysmal. Still had a great time. But a stout and a nice craft beer is not too much to ask for.

The Scratch, Courtney Barnett, Marc Rebillet, and Folamour were some of my personal highlights. A couple of improvements could definitely be made here and there (E.g the beer selection, and the showers debacle on Sunday) but overall a very enjoyable weekend and I hope the festival continues on!

God I'm dying. Toilets and big queues for beer seemed to be an issue this year and weren't in the last two iterations.

Kruger and Dorfmeister were a highlight for me in the sun yesterday. Crowd at festival were great, lots of older folk.

Time for some xanax methinks.

Such a brilliant weekend. Highlights were Jungle, Folamour, Kruder & Dorfmeister and Thievery Corporation. Special shout out to the moon on Friday, the sun on Sunday and the trees the whole weekend. They must have blown the toilet and shower budget on those 😂 Word in the woods is that only 9,000 tickets were sold, so maybe that’s why there were a few cutbacks in here and there?

It’s my 3rd BTP and it’s really kept its laid back vibe, even with the increased sponsorship. The size is ideal. We glamped for the first time at BTP. Stages and campsites are a close enough for just nipping back to the tent for refills / toilets. The showers/ beer / free flow never bothered me. Where there’s a will there’s a way 😃 Came home last night so hopefully that’ll help with the recovery. Roll on BTP 2025 🔊🔊🔊

There's something life affirming about seeing a happy couple in their 60s sharing a pill on a sunny Sunday afternoon DJ set

Anyone have any photos of the bubble bike dj?? Who was it? He was absolutely cracking on sat night...I'm having trouble explaining his set up here.

B & S are asking people to save a 2025 date, and BTP are asking people to sign up for early bird access for 2025.

There are videos on the official btp Instagram, I think everyone who was there on Sunday would have come across him.

I mean by that logic, who cares about the music lineup. You could just listen to whatever you want on Spotify.

I was looking forward to listening to some bands while drinking some nice tasting cold beers and soaking in the atmoshphere. And a big USP for this festival in previous years was that it was the only festival that had craft beers at it. But not this year.

Yea it's inevitable I guess with thousands of people you're always going to get the odd eejit who'd taken too much of whatever or maybe just happens to be an aggro a-hole.

Luckily I didn't meet anyone like that - I found the crowd to be one of the best features of the event, I met hundreds of people at the stand and not one d1ckhead, and several of whom (when I manage to get the time) I had good oul chats with. One guy I was talking to for about 20 minutes and at the end of the convo it turned out I saw him perform at Witnness 2000!

Really nice atmosphere in the campsite as well, where I spent almost the entire weekend, save an hour here or there when I got in to see an act. Sunday night in particular in the campsite was a lovely ambience after the music ended and the moon was rising, nobody being obnoxious or antisocial, nobody totally wasted, people just hanging out and enjoying themselves.

And then on Monday people cleaning up after themselves and dropping their bags of rubbish down to the skip... when I compare it to the last night I ever spent at Oxegen and some dude tried to set fire to my tent with me still inside it (thankfully) awake and reasonably sober.

Many thanks to anyone who cooled their cans. We'll see yiz in the next cartoon.