Festival Day 1 review: After three years away music fans delight in being All Together Now
The first All Together Now festival since 2019 kicked off at Curraghmore Estate, Co Waterford. Picture: Aron Cahill
"Pull like a dog," says one of the punters rowing into the All Together Now site on Friday afternoon, lugging along a trailer of essentials for the bank holiday weekend.
It's the first ATN since 2019, when Friday traffic chaos marred the experience for many. Thankfully the organisers have solved the problems in the interim, as some 22,500 sail in with ease to the venue at Curraghmore Estate, Co Waterford.
Friday is the time for reacquainting yourself with the festival camping experience - finding the right spot to pitch your tent, picking the first can to open to celebrate finally getting set up, and sharing timetables with each other.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, CMAT, and Underworld are all to come later in a weekend that's brimming with brilliant up and coming Irish acts.
That's evident on Friday evening as Altered Hours play the second stage, called Something Kind of Wonderful. The five-piece have been going for more than a decade and their experience, having toured with Fontaines DC, is evident.
Their set is built around a slew of new songs that echo the best bits of Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop, and - dare we say it - Oasis. It's thrilling, as dual frontpersons Elaine Howley and Cathal Mac Gabhann demand adulation. They're going into the studio in autumn - the results could be very special indeed.
Gilla Band (fka Girl Band), headlining the same stage five hours later, start off with new song 'Eight Fivers', a raucous search in the shops for some decent clothes, before familiar favourites like 'Pears for Lunch' have people crowdsurfing and the cover of Blawan's 'Why They Hide Their Bodies Under My Garage?' sends people back to their tents delirious.
Self Esteem is the undoubted highlight of day one, however (sorry Jungle). Rebecca Lucy Taylor, once of the twee indie duo Slow Club has crafted an empowering pop slant of singalongs. They're fun, funny even - but she's deadly serious in her sentiment.
Will there be a better moment this weekend than during opener 'I'm Fine' when the backing track declares "there is nothing that terrifies a man more than a woman that appears completely deranged" followed by Taylor's co-ordinated backing dancers devolving into co-ordinated barking like a dog?
That it's followed by joyous singalongs and a sensational 'I Do This All The Time' marks Self Esteem as the act you want to share with all your friends.
