A chara, – I attended the Oasis concert in Slane on Saturday. It was my third time going to Slane and as a concert and festival veteran, I foresaw no problems in getting home from the gig. My friend and I bought our tickets on Dublin’s O’Connell Street and headed down on the bus. The staff in the bus centre on O’Connell Street were very efficient and friendly so it was a great start to the day. The gig itself was absolutely brilliant, Oasis were back in form and I thoroughly enjoyed the day. As we filed to leave the concert arena, everyone was on a high and the atmosphere was great.
This was when things began to degenerate. The lack of organisation of the transport plans became apparent when we trudged uphill to try to get to our buses. Officials did not seem to know exactly where the buses were, vaguely pointing the way but giving no indication of how far away the departure area was. There was a general air of confusion around, as people were unsure whether they were going to make it on to the buses.
When we eventually made it to where the buses were parked, the situation became worse. Confusion turned to panic, when bus after bus was full, with drivers refusing to let any other passengers on board their vehicles.
We had to walk the length of at least 40 parked buses that showed no sign of leaving. In previous years, buses left when full, and a steady stream of buses was available to people leaving the concert. I have no idea why this did not seem to be the case this year.
The longer we had to walk, the smaller our chances seemed of getting onto any bus. People around us began trying to phone taxis – we even tried to see if we could get onto private buses, but the drivers – while sympathetic to our plight – couldn’t help us as they were all booked up in advance. At this point (three hours after we had left the concert), we were starting to worry about being stranded in the area.
The (very few) Dublin Bus officials either ignored us or told us to keep walking up the line of parked buses, saying that there were empty buses at the top. This was not the case.
Eventually, at 2.30am, a bus driver at the top of the cavalcade took pity on myself and my friend and let us on, although he was at full capacity. My friend and I ended up sitting inside the front door, on the floor with five other people. But at this point, we were so relieved to be on a bus we found it hard to care. We spoke to a girl who had got on the bus two hours previously – it had been sitting there, full, since the concert ended, without leaving to go back to Dublin.
This seems to be where the problem lay: the buses did not leave Slane when full, so there was no rotation of buses as in other years. The bus sat there for another 40 minutes after we boarded it – for no apparent reason. The bus driver also couldn’t understand the disorganisation – he said his bus was the third to leave the bus park after the concert ended and he was not sure why he was still sitting there nearly three hours later.
I wish to commend the concert organisers, and the bands themselves for a fantastic day out. I really think it is a pity, however, that the apparent lack of organisation on the part of Dublin Bus, and the unhelpfulness and sometimes downright rudeness of the very small number of officials present, marred the end of the night.
I hope that transport officials take this into account when organising buses to concerts later in the year and for Slane in future as this experience would definitely make me reconsider using Dublin Bus for concert transport in future. – Is mise,
EVELYN KEAVENEY,
School of Geography,
Archaeology and Palaeoecology
Queen’s University, Belfast.