Access preview: Harry Styles at Slane Castle
Everything you need to know as a disabled person at the gig of the year
WARNING: This is a bumper edition and available for free
For many of us, concerts of Slane are a rite of passage. My first concert ever was The Verve in 1998. They had Robbie Williams on as support, and when he returned the following year as the headline act, I saw God.
2003 was the coming-of-age year for me, with Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age on the bill. I sat my Junior Cert earlier on in the summer and the smell of Heineken and hay bales will always take me back to that sunny, sunny weekend where I roamed across Slane village with a pack of teen girls, hungry for our first taste of real teendom, but still had to be collected by our parents. I enjoyed myself so much that I snapped my crutch clean in half during QOTSA’s set.
There I am below, wearing too much fake tan on just my arms, a mesh top over a string top, a pair of O’Neill’s, a rugby jersey tied around my waist, and pigtails in my hair. Have you ever seen so many string tops, ponytails and cargo pants in one photo?
But that’s in the past, and as Alex Mountcharles (son of the castle owner Lord Henry), event controller Eamonn Fox and Supt Martina Noonan kept reminding us at the MCD and An Garda Síochána press conference this morning, the Harry Styles event this Saturday (June 10) is an entirely new audience for Slane Castle.
Roughly 90% female, approximately aged between 16 and 28, and - unlike my own teen years - largely sober and mostly compliant. Fox could not emphasise enough just how lovely Harry Styles fans are, and based on their behaviour at his gig at the Aviva Stadium last summer, Slane won’t have as many bars as it usually does, but
it will stock up on more soft drinks.
The thing about Slane Castle is that is one of the best live music venues in Ireland, but it takes a lot of work to get there. 80,000 people have bought tickets, with 40,000 of them are expected to travel by bus, and there will be up to 300 gardaí there to make sure that everyone stays safe. According to the gardaí I was chatting to at the press conference, there are more guards working this one-day, non-camping event than you would see across the three days of larger camping festivals.
The organisers cannot stress how much you need to plan your journey to and from Slane in advance, something you can research a little further on evntz.ie, but I am here to talk to you about access at Slane Castle so that no Harry stan gets left behind.
How to: get there, enjoy yourself and get home
Tickets
This entire event sold out when tickets went on sale last summer, including all accessible tickets. Resell tickets are cropping up on Ticketmaster, but in order to reserve accessible tickets for those that need them, the resell option is not available for accessible tickets on Ticketmaster. This is a little frustrating, but it’s a system put in place to prevent just anybody buying an accessible ticket in a last bid of desperation to see Harry.
If you bought an accessible ticket and can no longer go, it is advised that you contact Ticketmaster Customer Care or the Access Team at MCD so that they can refund and then re-enter your tickets to the accessible pool, giving other disabled fans the chance to buy them. Just like every other ticket for this gig, this is a waiting and refreshing game. You may get lucky and find a handful of accessible tickets online in the next day or two, but due to the size of this event, communication delays are to be expected.
The accessible viewing platform is currently at capacity, but I will go into more detail on the rest of the access facilities below.
And while I have you, it is worth registering your access needs on MyAccount → My profile → Accessibility Requirements, located on the top right of web page, not on the app, so that in future, booking tickets will become easier for disabled gig goers.
Transport
People are asked to schedule a 3-hour journey time, no matter where they are travelling from, and to avoid using SatNav around the Slane area, as there will be set diversions in place for all gig goers.
There are four routes out of Slane and they are all colour-coded:
Green takes you towards Dublin and the south of Ireland
Red takes you towards Navan and the west of Ireland
Pink takes you towards Drogheda (so important it gets its own route)
Blue route runs northbound, which is described as the Grasslands area
These colours are very important to take note of when you arrive so that you know where to exit at the end of the gig.
Bus: People are advised to get buses to the show to minimise traffic, as Slane is a village, not a sprawling car park. All bus details can be found on evntz.ie for all parts of the country, but most services are close to capacity at this point.
There are multiple bus companies being operated through Evntz, with 300 coaches running in the Navan direction, and 300 more going in the Grasslands direction, so it is impossible to say if every single bus is accessible. Once you choose your destination on Evntz, you will see the companies servicing those routes. Contact them directly to check if they can accommodate your access needs.
Car: General car parking is available and where you park is determined by where you are coming from. Choose your starting destination on Evntz.ie, and you will be presented with different arrival and time slot options. It will cost approximately €31.95 per car. Gig goers are to expect a 30-minute walk from all car parks, except for the accessible car park…
Accessible parking: Free accessible parking is located on the Red Route and close to the castle; 620 metres, to be precise. However, the accessible car park is at full capacity, so disabled gig goers are advised to book a spot in the Red Car Park, as they have cordoned off an accessible/priority area for disabled gig goers. When you are booking, choose your starting destination as Navan, or somewhere west of Slane so that you will be directed to the Red Car Park.
When you arrive at the Red Car Park, ask the parking attendants to direct you to the accessible/priority area, showing either your Blue Badge or explaining your access requirements.
Parking in the Red Car Park will bring you closer to the accessible route into the venue, so if you need a shorter and clearer path to walk/roll/stroll, you can ask to be directed to that entrance. It is a gravelled path, but the shortest route in and out.
There will be a buggy/cart service also available for those who need it.
Arrival time
The car parks are open from roughly 11am, but the festival site itself does not open until 2pm. Advanced queuing at the main gates is not permitted.
A very, very, very important thing to take note of is that all roads will be shut down at 8.30pm by the guards. A total road closure, there will be no way in or out of the concert site of car parks, unless you’re in a garda car, an ambulance or you’re Harry Styles. Don’t get any big ideas with that one.
So if you are dropping someone to the concert and parking in the car park, you don’t have to sit in the car park all day, you simply have to be back in there before 8.30pm. Load up on some podcasts if listening to Harry Styles from a distance isn’t your thing.
Entrance
At each entrance, there will be Customer Care Superstars in pink hi-vis vests to help and direct everyone in and out. They will be able to answer any access needs, but one thing to keep in mind that the Green Entrance (aka the Dublin route) comes through a wooded area, so it is advised for anyone with mobility issues to enter via the Blue or Red routes.
Bag searches
All bags will be searched, and people are advised to pack small bags, but because this is an all-day, potentially all-weather event, bag sizes can vary slightly.
Terrain
The reason why Slane Castle is such a good site for a concert is that it is a natural amphitheatre. Access translation: it’s hilly as fuck. It’s also a field, and while the organisers have said that this is one of the driest stretches of weather they’ve ever had for a Slane Concert - remember the rain at Oasis in 2009? Grim - it is “no place for stilettos”, meaning it’s also not a great place for crutches, as 2003 Louise can tell you.
Disabled guests are not restricted to just the viewing platform, but the entire concert site is a sloping, grassy field, so bear that deeply in mind.
Viewing platform
The viewing platform has a prime vantage point, located right beside the VIP and Castle Compound areas.
In the first photo below, you can see a woman in a purple blazer standing with her back to the accessible viewing platform.
The second photo shows the gap in between the viewing platform and the main stage, marked by two yellow cranes.
In the final two photos, you can see a STUNNING woman demonstrating the good view from the accessible platform to the main stage, which was in the process of being built at the time.
I was bloody delighted when BeReal popped up at this time, because I had the excellent caption of “Almost Harry’s House”. It’s captions like that that make you a happy subscriber, right?
The point of those photos is to prove that the view is bloody great from the accessible viewing platform, but it is unfortunately at capacity. A number of people with access requirements but not wheelchair users have booked seats in the Castle Compound area, so if you like would to take a seat during the gig, keep an eye out for that as an option on Ticketmaster.
An important thing to note is that even if you do not have a space booked in the viewing platform, accessible bathrooms are available across the concert site.
Accessible toilets
As I was driving into Slane this morning, I was behind a convoy of trucks carrying portaloos, so I can confirm that the toilets are there. There will be larger portaloos available at every toilet site in Slane Castle, but they will be guarded so that only those who need them can use them.
All disabled guests that have registered a space in the accessible area will be given a wristband that will let them use these toilets, but people with invisible disabilities and other access requirements can speak to the Customer Care Superstars or the security at the toilets to request a wristband.
Nobody’s bladder will be gatekept, so if you explain your circumstances, without going into your full medical history, you will get a wristband and won’t be questioned about it again.
This is simply a means of preventing drunken crowds hijacking the larger loos.
Drink and food stalls
The official bars all have an accessible counter, allowing people with access needs to avoid the larger queues. If the bars are particularly busy, the stewards may guide you to another bar area.
Making your exit
The gig is expected to end sometime between 10.15 and 10.45pm, and pedestrian exits will be given top priority. As a result, this means that the car parks will be emptied on rotation, one the footfall has cleared. Schedule some waiting time into your exit, and remember that this is a very rural area, so the mass exodus needs to be heavily controlled by organisers.
Phone signal/ticket downloads
Slane is a wonderfully hilly place, so coverage on an average day dips depending on your location. Additional phone masts have been erected in the area, but with over 80,000 people trying to text and call their mates, signal will wane.
Download your tickets in advance to the wallet on your phone and take note of which route you need to take as you leave. Decide on a meeting point early on in the day so that you don’t have to rely on dodgy data in your moment of need.
Anything else?
I’m no weather expert, but the likelihood of rain keeps on decreasing every time I look at the forecast. So, here’s hoping it’s blue skies, warm but not sweltering, and that Harry might stare you right in the eye as he sings Adore You.
Is that it?
Hmm. Please subscribe? A girl needs to buy all of the Harry merch that money can buy.