{"id":499774,"date":"2026-06-14T21:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T21:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/499774\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T21:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T21:08:09","slug":"beyond-the-pale-2026-glorious-weather-costly-chips-and-propulsive-mosh-pits-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/499774\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the Pale 2026: Glorious weather, costly chips and propulsive mosh pits \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some 12,500 music lovers landed on Glendalough estate in Co Wicklow on Friday for a weekend of live bands, DJ sets, camping and craic at Beyond the Pale<\/a>. The first of the big summer camping music festivals in the packed Irish music calendar got plenty right this year, but wasn\u2019t without lows. <\/p>\n

HIGHSWeather<\/p>\n

Festivalgoers were blessed with sunny weather all weekend \u2013 kicking off with 19 degrees and bright sky on Friday and ending with 17 degrees and scattered clouds on Sunday. Not a single shower rained on fans \u2013 a fact that kept everyone in good spirits.<\/p>\n

Princess Nokia\u2019s bewitching set<\/p>\n

The Puerto-Rican rapper delighted fans by performing her hits Spit and I Like Him in a set that coincided with her birthday. She also unexpectedly closed out her slot by playing B*witched\u2019s C\u2019est La Vie, much to the delight of her Irish fans.<\/p>\n

Kojaque\u2019s mosh pit<\/p>\n

The Cabra\u2019s man\u2019s commanding energy and physical rapping style was a Saturday-night highlight, leading to a propulsive mosh pit in which each man was out for himself in headbanging glory. <\/p>\n

Sisterly Love<\/p>\n

Disco group Sister Sledge\u2019s feel-good set had the crowd feeling the sisterly love. <\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople relax near the main stage on the last day of the 2026 Beyond the Pale festival in Co Wicklow. Photograph: Alan Betson<\/p>\n

The age profile of festivalgoers<\/p>\n

Beyond the Pale\u2019s over-21s age policy means under 17s are permitted to attend with guardians over 25, but those aged between 18-21 cannot. The result was a relaxed, alcohol-experienced crowd, with far less messiness than at other festivals. <\/p>\n

Beyond the plate<\/p>\n

Festival food offerings often consist of a sad tray of chips and an overcooked burger, but at Beyond the Pale, a full sit-down restaurant service was available with menus from Host in Ranelagh, Reggie\u2019s in Rathmines and pop-up west African restaurant Ibile. <\/p>\n

No phones filming concerts <\/p>\n

Perhaps due to the age profile of the weekend cohort, and possibly because of the dodgy phone reception, screens were refreshingly absent all weekend.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Face it, the casual mob cares not if phones impinge on the audience experience of othersOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

LOWSLand of no deposit return <\/p>\n

A frustrating aspect of the festival was that in spite of charging the additional 15 cent for cans under the Deposit Return Scheme, there was no way to recycle cans on site. A recycling facility where returns are donated to local initiatives could be a welcome solution. <\/p>\n

Lack of phone reception<\/p>\n

Phone reception for data and internet roaming was patchy at best \u2013 blackout when at its worst. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/culture\/music\/2026\/06\/14\/beyond-the-pale-2026-in-pictures-from-revellers-to-alpacas-and-rope-darts\/Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Windy campsites<\/p>\n

While the weather was glorious, the concert arena was in the base of Glendalough estate\u2019s valley and the campsite was on top of a hill, meaning that at night things got chilly for campers. <\/p>\n

\"DaireDaire Canavan, Ciaran Fitzgerald and Tom Higgins from Galway at Beyond the Pale.
\nPhotograph: Alan Betson
\n \u20ac9 euro curry chips and \u20ac8 pints<\/p>\n

Unfortunately it is to be expected when people are bringing you the wonders of hot food and cold drinks in the middle of a field but some of the food and drink prices stung, such as a \u20ac17.50 burrito, \u20ac9 curry chips and \u20ac8 pints. <\/p>\n

Sunburn<\/p>\n

The biggest caution from the medical tents at this year\u2019s festival was to wear sunscreen and drink plenty of water after there were sightings of a few big Irish sunburned heads going around. <\/p>\n

Arena access<\/p>\n

Technical issues meant fans could not enter the main arena until 2pm on Saturday \u2013 delaying some of the craic. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some 12,500 music lovers landed on Glendalough estate in Co Wicklow on Friday for a weekend of live…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[122707,42,7731,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-499774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-beyond-the-pale","tag-headlines","tag-listicles","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}