Did you go to The Samhain Festival in Loughcrew, Co Meath on Sunday?
Get home OK?
Sean writes:
You might want to check out the responses [link below] from those who went to Sunday’s Samhain festival (click the ‘Posts to Page’ on the left hand side and down a bit):
I was there myself and it’s no lie that at 3am, when the festival ended, thousands of people were crammed into a badly organised queue to pass through ONE gate not 5 feet wide in order to get on the buses home. When we got to the gate ourselves we met some seriously pissed off and nervous looking Gardai who told us they had not been informed or consulted about how to deal with this situation. For three hours people queued, drunk, tired and whatever else in the rain and cold of late October. Thank Christ things didn’t get out of hand.
Other aspects of the festival were seriously shambolic. There was no water on tap, you had to pay. They ran out of mixers at 8pm and beer at 11pm. They ran out of water at some stage too. Myself and my girlfriend found a girl passing out on the dance floor and we brought her to some security, who promptly grabbed her and literally dragged her through the stones and mud, disappearing into some tent. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Anyone?
Crusties+drugs+Celtic mysticism+a field in Meath = a fun day out for all the family!
too expensive for the crustie crowd, mostly south Dubliners and middle class boggers to be fair.
lol
Yeah to be fair, if theres one thing crusties can do really well its organise a party in a field
Crusties+drugs+Celtic mysticism+a field of Meth?
field of meh!
+1 :)
It was the same last year, not helpful, but clearly the promoters don’t care or are incapable of learning from their mistakes.
It was exactly like this last year – why I didn’t go again.
Surprised they didn’t make a better effort to improve it..
I went, and experienced what I could only describe as abject disappointment and frustration at the whole setup.
Went there with our costumes on in the best of spirits, came home within about 4 hours due to the complete clusterf*ck of incompetence at the bar and pretty much all over the site.
People literally moshing and being crushed up against one another for 10/15 minutes, before they were allowed to tough queue again at the bar for overpriced, shit beer and if you wanted to get anything with spirits in it, guess what? You’re in the wrong queue, please go back 6 spaces and collect a shove from a surly bouncer on your way.
Myself and the missus actually just legged it at around 12:30am because I could tell that there was going to be some serious misery awaiting is if we had to queue with the several thousand other people for buses at the end of the night.
The icing on the retard cake, was that the sound in a couple of the tents was pretty sh*t at best, and we were able to talk over the music without raising our voices. There was also no visible BBQ or craft beet tent as advertised.
I’ve emailed them asking for a refund, gonna contact my bank about reversing the charge to my card for the tickets.
Last Irish festival I’m ever going to.
Whist this was clearly a poorly organised mess it is hardly indicative of all Irish Festivals, there are hundreds of festivals across the country every year and very few have the problems suffered at Samhain.
Yeah, your bank’s not gonna do that. Like not a chance.
#notallirishfestivals
don’t let it put you off lad. treat yourself to a vantastival ticket next may – a properly run family event – great craic altogether.
+10 vantastival is one of the best going
Can’t recommend this enough. Great festival.
sorry
Em.. drinking water was on tap, near the portaloos at the main entrance. I thought it was pretty good but I left early so didn’t experience the horrible queues for buses…
“drinking water was on tap, near the portaloos”
ye wha….?
Craft beets eh?
you’re class craic man, dont ever change!
lol
he meant craft beats. on tap. some people!
Jesus christ, I got offered tickets but couldn’t go and was really envious of those who did – not any more….
“They ran out of mixers at 8pm”
Ah ha ha ha ha. Mixers. Ha ha ha ha. Ahhhhhh ha ha ha ha.
Gwan ourra dah. I would be hammered on a few pints of beer but I’m well able to stay standing after a welly-load of vodka with diet coke.
I got a good laugh out of that.
same shambles as last year. avoid these ‘promoters’ in future.
I was there. It was terribly organised. There was craft beer, a tiny trailer with one bloke in it selling small cans of Sierra Nevada for 6 quid each. It closed around ten after presumably running out.
The bus down was a special kind of hell, but that was mainly due to teenagers mad ouavit at the back chanting, which was kind of to be expected to be fair. The bar ran out completely around eleven, not that you could get to it anyway. There was no water available, which was just irresponsible when you consider the type of music they were playing, not that they are obliged to accommodate pill heads, but if they ‘care’ they would have had some available.
The sound wasn’t great, and it was too bright in the tents, there was also a lack of any creativity about the place at all. You didn’t feel like you were attending something that people put thought into. We were cattle basically, being bled of money from the start until the end. The most insulting thing is their statement on their Facebook page, citing circumstance ‘beyond their control’, trying to absolve themselves of responsibility. It’s like an apology from a brow beaten adolescent, I feel like replying “now, say it like you meant it..”. Crowd control, sound, the amount of alcohol available and the number of bars and the busses are all within their control. They should take responsibility for themselves and try to retain some dignity and good will. The least that should be offered is a discount on tickets for the next event the group organise, or to put on a free event somewhere (preferably in a city, so they’re not in charge of transport) and offer attendees free tickets. You can’t just walk away saying “ok, we’ve learned our lesson, we’re sorry” and take everyone’s money. They’ve basically used people’s love of certain music to line their pockets, luring people in and running away afterward, wealthier and offering nothing but a half arsed, insulting apology.
Jon Hopkins set was nearly good enough to save the day, but unfortunately, even that couldn’t absolve that shambles. For shame.
Well they can’t say they learnt their lesson as they used that excuse for the shambles they created last year.
Here here.
I was in Cork.
In a cosy bar.
When all this sh*te was going on.
Hah !
Whose fault is that now!
loser :)
I agree with Dan entirely! Saving grace was Jon Hopkins- but they are lucky people remained calm in that queue.
Not sure why everyone is saying there wasn’t any water, there was at least 2 of those big tap/trough things around the place, the same that they have at every other festival in country. Kept me going
But yeah the buses organisation was a bit of a nightmare, an hour and a half standing in a fence jungle queue, then nearly 2 hours on the bus back to Dublin because the bus we got didn’t seem to be capable of going faster than 60kpm.
In spite of that and the woeful bar situation, I had a moderately good night. Crowd was good, acts were good, wide variety of drugs going around. But I could have done that in a club in dublin and spent much less.
Actually now that I think about it, all the things about the night that were good were things that were out of the organiser’s hands, which says everything really.
who ran this event?
Hidden Agenda, they do nights in the Button Factory and Opium Rooms.
No I think they just provided one of the stages. The actual event was organised by life people. Archetype I think they go by
Absolute shambles of a festival, can’t believe I wasted 90 euro. Could have had a better time sat in bed listening to a Maya Jane Coles set!
First I heard of it tbh
Bookashade was the saving grace at this, bar that two hours in a cue like a bunch of cattle while others skipped those who had queued long before them, then to get on a half broken down bus, which treated us with a large ‘Bang, THUD!” , just outside Kells, we then drove all the way back to Dublin with a flat tyre as the bus driver clearly did not care.
Don’t ever ask crusty type to organise anything
Group effort- Bodytonic, Hidden Agenda, Bedlam etc.
Bodytonic only hosted a stage, as did hidden agenda. Archetype ran the event from what i can gather. Same crowd as life festival.
Truly awful experience. The website mentioned Craft Beer and BBQs and it seemed to be marketed as a festival dedicated to curating a pleasant atmosphere a la Vantastival/Body and Soul. Instead it was a couple of tents in a field with woefully inadequate facilities. Queueing for 2 hours for a bus in a poorly regulated queue at the end was just the cherry on top of an already awful experience.
and the bodytonic forum is down. woopsadaisys.
Bodytonic, Hidden Agenda and Bedlam all had peripheral roles and wouldn’t have been responsible for buses or bars. Main organisers were Archetype (formerly Emergence).
Posted this to their Facebook ‘apology’ comment after they claimed the circumstances were out of their control, let’s see if they reply.
An absolute disgrace. Which of the issues were out of your control?
The over-zealous security following people around the place all night – but that disappeared at the end of the night when they were needed?
The Complete lack of any effort whatsoever to decorate the arena into something resembling a ‘Samhain’ festival – as advertised?
The Shite sound in each of the tents?
John Talabot only doing a DJ set, not advertised.
The hour-long wait in the lashing rain to get a shuttle bus five minutes to the entrance? – and the 5euro pp charge of course.
The 1 and only bar – the riots trying to get to it, and then running out of the over-priced drink with over 2 and a half hours to go?
The lack of awareness of everybody working there about anything that was happening?
And of course the end of the night – when your complete ignorance and disdain for the people who paid for your ‘festival’ led to the debacle by the ONE exit. No info as to where to go, no separation or barriers for the different bus tickets, NO security on the way, no tanoy or manager to announce what was happening, hardly any buses ready, about 4 cops who hadn’t a clue what was happening and were shitting it from the scumbags that were jumping the wall, the lack of anybody attempting to control the crush that could have been more serious?
Your statement above is a joke – from what I’ve heard the same thing happened last year, and either you have learned nothing from it, or you just don’t care. I would assume it is the latter – so I will be urging everybody to avoid any and all events organised by your group in the future.
And I want my money back.
its the desecration of innocence that i personally deplore!
Yep, Archetype (formerly Emergence) they have been a part of organising Life festival for the last year or two and low and behold that’s gone to shit also, a lot of the original Life festival crew are not involved now.. as that used to be one brilliant festival.. Samhain was a disaster in every way, last year they had problems with buses and stuff but at least when you walked in to the tents you felt the music and got the vibe straight away, this year the sound systems were atrocious and it just all felt overall like a yellow pack event, never again, oh yea and they definitely are not crusties organising it, at least when they do parties its done right!
Arrived at 6pm. Left at 1.45am. No queues for the bus. Didn’t bother queuing for drink and you need your head examined if you did get in that drink queue! Craft cans for 6e each was a bit much but sure it’s a field in Meath like.
Enjoyed the acts and the atmosphere. Defo wasn’t loud enough but I’m old and have years of playing in bands to thanks for my deafness. I’m sure all the teens thought it was plenty loud.
Would defo go again but only if it’s byob. They clearly can’t be trusted to run the bars adequately. Shit buzz about the bus queues at the end of the night. Hope they sort that next time. A venue closer to the pale would be better too.
@Tom its not about loudness although the speakers were quite low but the actual quality of the sound was pants :( sad reflection on people that are passionate about parties when they cant even organise a decent PA :( not to mention the crap bar, crap transport and general lack of positive atomosphere :( never ever again, and that goes for Life festival also, this year was horrible, no soul and vibe from years past.. shocking.
The whole thing sounds like a right clusterf**k…
The night before the vantastival crew held their halloween party in dundalk where a couple of hundred people had a whopper night .. 15 quid in and byob…fair play to the organisers an a great gig..brilliant vibe all night… should have gone to specksavers folks..