All Together Now 2024

I live locally enough and recognised a lot of the kids, 16-19 age group but having grown up in the area they hear the music every year and see the lights in the sky it's hard not to want a piece of it at that age. I've no idea how they got in but with local knowledge and social media once one gap in a ditch is discovered/made it doesn't take much for word to get around.

I'm going to bring my 11 year old next year but he'll be annoyed then if he likes it and I can't bring him the following year

That chap in the Prodigy t-shirt (unless I'm mistaken) was non other than this parishes @rubick

Had the pleasure of bumping into himself and his partner at Optimo (who were excellent btw) and on Sun eve ahead of Prodigy (who I thought were fupping terrible) and he was indeed wearing a rather smart Prod Experience tee

Hello mate, that was me in the Experience t-shirt. I'd normally have a KLF long sleeve on in the evenings but thought I'd change it for the Sunday.

Great review, glad you enjoyed the festival!

Here goes:

Friday kicked off with Cardinals but it started raining and i wasn't really feeling it so i went to Hot Girl for some shelter, less enjoyable than the previous time i saw them. Points deducted for trying to get a singalong going on the last tune. Then it was Fizzy Orange, diverse selection of tunes, all light and breezy. Grand at that moment but wouldn't go see them on their own. Had the misfortune of seeing a few songs of Dave Lofts, never heard of him and i hope i never do again. Then Glass Beams, who were much better live than on record but really just put me in mind of an extremely lightweight instrumental Goat. Also, every time it sounded like a song was about to lift-off they'd stop. You can't put the Psych tag on your music if you possess that kind of attitude. Confidence Man was too packed and tbh they've gone far too slick for me. When i saw them at Beatyard years back they had some cosmicity about them, now it's just supermodels and champagne vibes. Finished the night with a bit of Will Softly.

Saturday was the day of f#ck all happening (both physically for me and from a musical perspective). Had intended Postpunk Podge but he hadn't started so i kept walking and ended up at the Kabin Krew kids as i needed a sit down and food. Bit of craic and fair play to them and the guys who put it together. Watched the first half of Chalk's set but it wasn't loud enough and i soon got bored and left. Saw bits of Future Islands and The National, never a fan of either and they both remain as appalling as i remember. Caught a bit of Floating Points which was better than i expected but was too packed. KKC and then bed.

Sunday I promised myself that i would give both John Francis Flynn and OXN half an hour each. I struggled to fulfill those 30 minutes for either act. Tedious, the two of them. The Wailers were nice vibes to accompany my nice curry. Watched a bit of Sprints but they just do nothing for me at this point. Interesting for a while but not any more it would seem. Small enough crowd at them too i thought. Just Mustard were really good. 8.30 PM on Sunday before i finally heard some music that genuinely moved me and excited my mind, body & soul. I think they played some new material. Very good anyway. They appear to be the only one of the Gilla Band acolytes that has maintained my interest over a prolonged period. Slowdive were very good but i was disappointed we didn't get any one of Avalyn, Slowdive or Golden Hair. Then the Prodigy; looked impressive but it was too stop-start and they kept playing bits of tunes instead of the whole thing; perfectly illustrated by their bizarre ending of just playing the intro to Out of Space and then walking off.

Thoughts overall? 2023 and '24 have been less enjoyable than '19 & '22. Definitely more youngsters the past couple of years but friendlier than the EP ones. Even engaged with a few of them over the weekend! Met a few fence hoppers myself but they seemed benign and not up to mischief. Food prices and no cash will always be an issue for me but that's unlikely to ever change, kinda held to ransom on that score. Arcadia needs to be bigger and that AVA stage is horrible. When we got our wristbands some fella approached me saying he'd just been stripsearched. Wasn't sure if he was genuine or an undercover trying to get me chatting! To the person mentioning damaged ankles; one of our group fell victim to that and she was carted off to hospital at 6 am Saturday. Another mate drove the six hour roundtrip to leave the injured party home and then rejoin us for the rest of the weekend. I must admit i didn't think he'd return. What a Hero!

Personally i feel like it might be coming to the end of the line for me and festivals. Obviously this is not something i want as i've spent every summer for over three decades attending them but i'm finding less to enjoy at them musically. I love the session, but if i want to spend a weekend getting out of it with friends and music i can do it far more cheaply in my garden! The idea of attending a non-niche music festival on my own does not appeal anymore. I'd just be bored out of my head for the most part.

I'll probably buy an early bird for 2025 though!

i am crippled…those bloody hills

So my first ATN…it’s up there with one of the best festival weekends I’ve had.
Saw loads….way more that any other festival I’ve been to I’d say.
highlights…sing along social was just pure joy on Saturday…they really are made for the main stage. I’m a national fan and have seen them many times but I don’t what was wrong with me but Saturday night I felt they were sucking the life out of me!
Confidence man,Kiasmos and nils hoffman and Paul kalkbrenner were all amazing. Really loved Barry can’t swim…camera man picking out someone with their phone which has Daniel wiffen can swim gave me a right chuckle! Kelly Ann bryne did a great set at the Schweppes bar! I did feel Sunday, there wasn’t much to see until later on in the evening and it did take me a while to get going…left the prodigy after ten minutes…just couldn’t be listening to it! Wanted to see nils Hoffman so was happy we didn’t like the prodigy!! I can’t go next year due to holidays but will hope to return in 2026.
This weekend made me realise il always be going to festivals, and they will always evolve and there will be new ones that suit what we want!

ATN 2024 – Bucolic Frolic

The good bits:

Access between the areas has improved year on year

The new location / bigger choice of the food areas in the campsite & the newly sited Londis worked well

In my experience, all of the areas in ‘the woods’ are improving year-on-year with regards to use of space, increase in places to sit, low waiting time at bars and access

I would add that across the whole site, I never had a problem finding a place to sit all weekend and that wasn’t the case before. Could be the effect of the event not selling out or more creative use of space? (logs in The Circle, Global Roots, Last City etc.) Probably somewhere in the middle. Maybe I’m just getting old and looking for more sitting opportunities!?!

Toilets were much improved. Cleaned often and lots of loo rolls available. It’s amazing what a difference decent and (relatively) clean facilities make in one’s overall enjoyment of the weekend

Pre-emptive chippings had been laid at traditionally tricky areas from the get-go, and straw was added on Sunday at strategic points. Lesson learned from last year

The Guinness Bar by The Well is a very convivial spot, and the craic was always great there. Cool, creamy pints. Although @rubick & @desk tidy are very, very naughty people forcing me to drink all of those pints on Thursday night!!

Loved Last City, always something completely mad going on there. Also, Global Roots was my bolthole. Always a very chilled, sound crowd at this stage

No pat-downs on the way in and minimal checking of bags. No punter seemed to be taking the p with their allotted allocation anyway

The Greek food van facing SKW tent served a mighty gyros & halloumi feed that filled me for most of the day. LaLa Poutine always delivers

Freeflow works. Still plenty of pints and cocktails being bought in the various bars by revellers. I fear that the clock is ticking on freeflow though. The pre-festival announcement of ‘one open can only’ being dismissed as a miscommunication…hmmm, I’m not so sure. I think they may have been testing the waters. Watch out for this being introduced next year or the year after

The plethora of alt / indie / post-punk / shoegaze etc. etc. bands (all of whom had sizeable crowds) clearly demonstrates that there is an appetite for these acts on Arena stages at Irish festivals rather than being pushed to the margins / not booked at all…I’m talking about you EP

That big wide road out of the site took some diggin’!! Very impressive

The not so good bits (some of which are generic and, to be fair, not confined to ATN):

I stayed in A Hard Day’s Night campsite above the treeline, at the periphery. It had traditionally been a quieter spot than ‘down below’ although to be fair nowhere at ATN is like Hendrix at EP. However…this year, I don’t know if I was unlucky or if these people are strategically dotted throughout the campsites in general, but every night I had a crowd staying close-by my tent returning to their messy circle for a full-scale party between 4am & 7am every morning. I realise that “Vitamin C tablets” & “Proplus” might have been consumed earlier in the evening and that there is still some ‘excess energy’ to be expended…but please God, not a soundbar in the campsite at that time of the morning. As for the mindless whooping…it went on all f’ing weekend. I know that we all curate our weekends in different ways, but it made me realise that this 53 year-old cannot be in gen pop camping any more with that level of selfish noise going on. Just wipes me out the next day, making the whole thing feel like a slog, rather than a joy. Just going to have to be Eco (at EP) or posh (at ATN) or nothing from now on. Maybe someone who stayed over in the ‘One For The Road’ site close to the family camping / campervan sites can convince me to return if it is a lot quieter over there…

The rocks on the hill from the bridge leading down to The Well tent were a rolled ankle waiting to happen in the dark. Same with the ruts in the same area. I know we’re in the countryside and that, but it wouldn’t take a lot to sort that particular short stretch. On the way out, one of my sack truck wheels bit the dust as it was shredded by the brutal terrain

The ground inside the Some Kind of Wonderful tent was very spongy from day one with massive ruts seemingly caused by lorry tyres. I’ve never seen that before in any tent at any music festival I have attended

Noisy people during quieter sets. Old man shouting at clouds stuff I know, but it irks me every time. Not unique to ATN of course, it occurs at the overwhelming majority of sets at all festivals, but at some of the stages where the artists were playing acoustic/quieter sets, some folk think it appropriate to launch into a full-scale, often vapid (sorry, not sorry), top of the voice discussion and many times have positioned themselves in the middle or close to the front of the stage, not way at the back out of harm’s way. At Rachael Lavelle it forced me to leave entirely whilst massively biting my tongue. A beardy auld lad giving a bunch of be-glittered girls in their early 20s a finger-wagging ticking off for poor gig etiquette is really not a terribly good look. See Muireann Bradley / Oxn also…

There was a fair bit of messiness on the Sunday from a seemingly very young crowd (certainly not under-12, and definitely not over-21). Not sure if these were the fence-hoppers mentioned elsewhere. If so, that is very poor from the organisers / security team. Hadn’t really been a thing before this year

Speaking of security. On Saturday night, I saw a younger lad being chased into Global Roots by two older guys and then taken down. I mentioned to the nearby (very young looking) security guard that he might want to take a look, and possibly get back up as it wasn’t clear what was going on at that point. He had a quick look, clearly felt that it was way above his pay grade and promptly turned on his heels. Not blaming him at all for that and it later transpired that the 2 guys were undercover Garda officers who identified themselves after other people started to get involved and were told to back off. Did make me wonder though, what is the actual role of the security team dotted throughout, other than making sure no-one got run over by a vehicle on the service roads

Not confined (again) to ATN, but the carry on of throwing beer around during acts’ sets is a massive bugbear. During The Scratch, clearly half-full tins of beer were getting lobbed. Ye’d get brained if one of those came down on your nut…

The acts:

Friday: Shark School > Cardinals (decent) > Glass Beams (sublime) > Confidence Man (huge crowd, but not my thing at all as it turned out) > The Murder Capital (rammed)

Saturday: Breakfast cocktails & posh sausages at The Grub Circus > Comedy all afternoon > Overhead, The Albatross (superb) > Rachael Lavelle (spoiled by chatty chat chat people) > Chalk > Royal Inity (feel-good, laid back reggae) > Fair bit of wandering about

Sunday: A Bloody Mary at Ringo Bingo @ Last City (good fun) > more comedy > The Scratch (pulled a big old crowd) > Muireann Bradley (lovely but hard to hear at the start due to noise bleed) > Mary in the Junkyard > Wailers (a drop of sunshine on a miserable afternoon weather-wise) > OXN > Sprints > NewDad > Slowdive > The Prodigy

Overall: Getting better with regard to layout, stages, infrastructure, access, traffic etc. year on year. A little sloppiness / messiness creeping in at the corners which is concerning. Weaker line-up this year than the previous 3 iterations I attended, but I thoroughly enjoyed what I did see, and the esoteric, self-curated stages are a joy

Love ATN, but no return for me unless I find a few quid down the back of the sofa to upgrade to the posho tents for a (kind of) proper night’s sleep…which, because I am a solo traveller makes no sense, as a posh tent for someone flying solo costs more than an actual weekend ticket. I might feel differently if the bill knocks my socks off, but as it has been a case of the law of diminishing returns as far as Irish festivals go for this past few years, I am doubtful (but ever hopeful)

Just remembered the group of young fellas beside me at Just Mustard; "This is Shoegaze. This is? Yeah. THIS is Shoegaze?" A phone gets whipped out and shown "See? Shoegaze". Guy turns to his other mate "This is Shoegaze. Yeah,Shoegaze". 😀Bless 'em.

I was tempted to give them a history of the term and genre but thought better of it! Tbf they were really into it even if they looked like Arcadia for the whole weekend would be more their cuppa.

Do u need a camper van ticket (extra €100)?? Would a hertz rental be acceptable in there? I had a van rented and needed to sleep in it sunday night. I was effected by loud music all night long Sat and some female getting buried out of it for hours near enough to me in the campsite, your man had some engine 😂

You are but a child, compared to me!

Fan of The KLF, too!

Some of the scheduling was a little strange.

Confidence Man, Does anyone really stick on a confidence man album at home or in the car?, they’re more of a live show and good fun. But you need to see them to feed off their energy, so for me would have been better placed on a stage with cameras and TV screens. Tried to watch them for a bit, but was miles back.

New Dad and Just Mustard, two bands for me on a similar trajectory, (JM maybe a little less appealing) New Dad in something kind of wonderful (5K capacity) got a good crowd partially helped by the rain.

JM playing the circle, 100-200 capacity and was absolutely rammed despite the driving rain at the time.

Can someone tell me where big bodies played???!!

Nice surprise was Barry can’t swim, two weeks new to me, really loved his gig as someone mentioned lovely crowd added to the experience. Lovely smooth ambient electronic Jazz, I think the pumping bass line in his track ‘Kimbara’ is my 2024 ATN anthem.

My second ATN, my wife’s first must certainly won’t be our last.

All the big hitters that I had planned to see and were recommended really all put on top top displays. The WhatApp group really

Friday, we mostly just mooched around. Didn’t really see two much bar Kingfishr and Confidence Man. Both were amazing.

Saturday was another great day. Spent the afternoon down by the house and checked out a bit of comedy. NB put on some show. She has some live voice. Mary Wallopers and Kojaque killed it. Am a massive KKC fan and haven’t seen them in years and was chuff when I heard they were replacing Roisin M. Great “home town” gig. I think that’s why they were booked.

The scratch were my main act for the weekend. Smashed it but have seen them put on better shows.

Herself napped about for must of Sunday afternoon so I just wondered about. As is the joy of these festivals I stumbled about the SKOW stage just before the start of ØXN’s set. Reeeeeeallly not my cup of tea (I’d be a very casual Lankum fan) but I was blown away. The red Doomy backdrop and the sound was turned up to eleven. The whole gig just oozed epicness. So happy I got to experience it live. Listening on Spotify on the way home doesn’t do the music justice.

Glad everyone had a ball.

5th time attendee. A few thoughts on the weekend.

Friday - got down late enough, camped in the usual spot in One for the Road. Even at that stage seemed way busier than previous years.

In for Ben UFO to get things started. Disappointed with the AvA stage, was in a much better location for the last couple of years. Confidence Man and kiasmos kept things ticking over before Kolsch finished the night off with a belting set.

Saturday felt like a bit of a lull on the music front. Spent a bit of time at the Natasha and Wallpapers both really not my scene but the crowd was really enjoying them so hard to not get swept along! Joy Anonymous put in a solid performance and Floating Points in SKOW was better than expected. Finished off with Gorgon City which would have been much better in the tent, not sure why it wasn't on there as ALD really isn't the best setting for a DJ set.

Sunday was always going to be the highlight from a music point of view for me. Really enjoyed the RTE orchestra despite the drizzle and Mano put on a great set in Ava before heading up to Barry can't swim on the main stage. I see a few people not happy with the Prodigy's set but I thought the lights and sound really made it quite spectacular.

The highlight of the weekend for me was always going to be Paul Kalkbrennar and he really delivered. Really surprised there was such a sparse crowd in the tent for it, was expecting it be packed out the door with not much else on at that time. Maybe people had enough of it by 1am on Sunday which is a shame as it was a great show. A quick sprint off to Arcadia to finish off the night.

Pros -

Really well organised weekend I thought. Easy getting in on Friday evening

Line up was right up my street so may be biased but I thought the music was brilliant

The site itself is spectacular, still very easy to get around

The vast majority of the crowd are very sound. It's great to get chatting to random people who are very much into the same vibe as I am

Cons-

As had been said earlier, there was a definite shift in the crowd towards a much younger demographic. Initially thought it was just me but most people I spoke to said the same

One for the road is usually a quieter spot but my tent was surrounded by lads playing music each night til after 7. And these were lads in their 30s. I get wanting to keep the party going but having a bit of respect for the other people camping wouldn't go astray

Most of the stewards are completely clueless where anything is, both inside and trying to get out afterwards. Only a small complaint but would help if they were somewhat of assistance

Overall i had a brilliant weekend. Thought beforehand this could have been my last one - mid 30s - but my friends and I had such a great time j think we'll crack a few more years out of it yet!

Aw goodness, love your post.

Re The Prodigy, I very much relate. What an honour to meet Flinty. He seemed like such a legend. I adored him as a teen. The set was good alright but I agree, Jilted was the album I discovered them on and still love the most and experience, being their first.

I also saw better prodge gigs back in the 90s, but I think they put on a good show, despite ending rather abruptly.

I love that your son was so excited after the weekend ☺️

First timer here too, I defo noticed a fair few 'heads' around roaring and being louty but thankfully didn't have any bad experiences. The walk from the bus drop off though was almost unbearable, I just need to get a lift next time 😆