HIGHS
The weather
Ireland has just come off a run of hot weather, and while that did not hold up for the entire August bank holiday, getting through a weekend of outdoor music in Waterford with only a handful of showers felt like a win.
Niall Valerio from Crossmolina and Niamh Howe from Cong, Co Mayo at All Together Now. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
Mayo winning the Sam Maguire the week before
Mayo’s historic win over Kerry in the All-Ireland football final the week before is hardly something the festival organisers can take credit for, but the jubilant mood rolled over from one weekend to the next and was celebrated by Mayo and non-Mayo fans alike.
Moving Glen Hansard tributes
Just a few days after the death of Glen Hansard, thousands of music lovers and Irish musicians gathered in their droves; so naturally there were tributes to the late Frames frontman. Among them were David Keenan’s emotional Thursday night performance at the fiery steampunk Arcadia stage and Christy Moore’s rousing Auld Triangle singalong.
Christy Moore pays tribute to Glen Hansard at All Together Now as fans sing The Auld Triangle
The number (and quality) of Irish artists
It’s great to see Irish artists take the world stage by storm, but it is even nicer to see them do so well domestically. From the top down, the All Together Now line-up featured a plethora of Irish talent. Among them were Saturday night headliners Kneecap; trad super group BIIRD; critical darlings Gilla Band; national treasure Christy Moore, Louth punk-trad group The Mary Wallopers and DJ Annie Mac.
Kneecap’s Irish Goodbye
Delivering one of only a handful of Irish dates this summer, the rap group showed they are more than tongue-in-cheek provocateurs but can also be deeply moving artists. Naoise Ó Cairealláin made a stunning tribute to his late mother Irish-language activist Aoife Ní Riain, which saw guest appearance from English performer Kae Tempest, BIIRD musicians Lisa Canny and Niamh Hinchy and sibling duo Caoimhe and Seamus Ó Flaharta.
Kate Nash’s tin whistle
The Foundations singer gave a nod to her Irish heritage with an excellent cover of Sinéad O’Connor’s Famine featuring a tin whistle solo.
Greta Thunberg’s appearance
The Swedish climate activist surprised attendees with an impromptu appearance on Saturday morning, delivering a sombre message: “Maybe because I’m autistic and I cannot pretend, I cannot pretend to be hopeful, to feel hope in this world, when I’m too heartbroken about the state of the world, everything is falling apart.” It was a heavy speech, but the opportunity to hear her in person was exceptional.
Return Baby return!
This year’s All Together Now marked a gold standard for all other festivals in terms of post-event clean up, with the main arena as good as new by 10am on Monday morning. This was due to a team of diligent cleaners who picked up rubbish each day, as well as a new initiative run by the Deposit Return Scheme which encourage can and bottle returns. Through the scheme, festival goers could return bottles to gather rewards such as iced coffees, meals, massages and saunas. A win, win.
LOWS
Delwyn Ledingham from Belfast at All Together Now. Photograph: Dara Mac Dónaill
Expensive food
Festival food is generally known as a byword for expensive grub, but some of the weekend’s prices were eye-watering. Earlier this year we were taken aback by €9 curry chips at Beyond the Pale, but All Together Now went further with €11 curry chips, and €12 cheese toasties.
Up to 35,000 people attended the festival at Curraghmore Estate in Co Waterford. Photograph: Enda O’Dowd
The rolling hills of Curraghmore
One of the glorious aspects of All Together Now is that the main stage sits at the bottom of a hill, which means no matter where you are in the crowd you are promised an eyeful of the headlining artist. The hilly site, however, was challenging for people of different fitness levels and abilities, and the camping was located on top of the hillside, which meant the evenings in the tent were chilly.
Sunday night techno billing
The schedulers generally did well keeping everyone happy and made sure that artists with similar fan bases didn’t clash. But it seems a shame – for those who needed to get away early Monday morning – that the biggest head-banging set of the weekend, electronic duo Disclosure, were billed for midnight on Sunday evening. Perhaps this is the complaint of an older person.
The strain on the facilities
The crowd increased from 30,000 to 35,000 at this year’s festival and there seemed to be never-ending queues for the portaloos.
Christy Moore not playing main stage
Whether by his own design or the festival organisers’ choosing, the Something Kind of Wonderful stage was dwarfed by the enormous crowd that piled in and spilt over to see the Kildare singer-songwriter perform. There is no question that he could have played the main stage and brought a substantial crowd while doing so.
Dry Cleaning front woman, Florence Shaw, at All Together Now. Photograph: Enda O’Dowd
Where were the women?
Of the festival’s top 14 billed artists, only two acts featured women (Self Esteem and Mary Wallopers). There was plenty of women further down the billing, but it would have been nice to see female talent celebrated at every stage of the line up.