All Together Now promoters 'truly sorry' for traffic chaos at festival

The promoters of All Together Now have apologised for the traffic chaos that dogged the music festival in Waterford earlier this month.

The festival, held in Curraghmore Estate near Portlaw over the August Bank Holiday Weekend, was headlined by The National, Hot Chip, and Orbital and featured dozens of acts spread across a number of stages over three days.

However, the event hit headlines on day-one when attendees were caught in lengthy and static traffic delays - adding hours to their commute to the festival.

Pod, the promoters behind the festival, have announced that tickets for next year’s festival are now on sale - and have used the opportunity to apologise again for the issues experienced by attendees this year.

“As the dust settles we look back on and take stock of our second chapter,” a message on the festival’s social media page read.

“Firstly, the All Together Now team would like to say we are absolutely and fully committed to making sure that the issues that arose this year’s festival are not repeated,” the festival promoters said.

“We have taken in every comment, every email and are carefully taking stock of where we need to improve. We have met and are working closely with An Garda Siochana and our other partner agencies to ensure that the traffic experienced travelling to this year’s festival does not happen again.

“We aim for the highest standards and plan to deliver the best festival experience possible. We are deeply disappointed that some areas of this years All Together Now fell short of expectations, and for this, we are truly sorry,” it said.

While this year’s festival had a capacity of 22,500 - up 50% from its inaugural outing in 2018, the promoters said it will not increase the capacity again next year “as we endeavour to improve the overall experience for our loyal audience”.

The festival also thanked "all the residents of Portlaw and Carrick-On-Suir for their continued hospitality and kindness".

Many festival-goers trapped in traffic on the approaches to the event had reported how locals brought them water and made their bathrooms available to motorists as they waited to get into the grounds.