Jen's European Adventure: Knockanstockan

Knockanstockan Tent Village

I've only got 21 minutes on one of the only computers in town after waiting an hour to get a ride into town. So this is one damn precious blog entry. For the last 10 days I've been camping in a field in Ballyknockan, about 1 hour south of Dublin. I've been part of a national volunteer group called VSI, who sets up work camps all over Ireland. This camp has been helping set up a music festival called Knockanstockan. It's basically a 3-day multi-stage fest where tons of independent bands from all over Ireland and the UK come to play to crowds of people in muddy fields. In the last 10 days, our group of 15 or so international volunteers plus an additional 50-100 independent volunteers have set up and run the festival. For the next 3 days we'll be breaking it down and cleaning up the giant mess that everyone left behind.

So that's the basic rundown. I've had an absolute blast meeting all the people in our volunteer group. There are people from Spain, Belgium, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany, Canada, the USA, and Italy. I think that's it... For my work, I've been helping out in the make-shift outdoor kitchen everyday around 730am-2:30pm. It's been pretty amazing cooking up real Irish food, but I've definitely had enough of the unsanitized work preparation to last me a lifetime. So for the most part during the morning I worked, I slept in the afternoon, and then stayed up very late having the 'craic' or fun as they say here, mostly just dancing around to live music.

Once the festival started on Friday, everything changed. Before we had been all hanging out in a small building that used to be a pig pen, and then hundreds of people came for the festival and just about everything got dirty and muddy. There were also bands playing all the time, and food to be bought and eaten, so we were all pretty busy. Although the bands were all awesome, and it was a serious treat to see so many good musicians in a short period of time, it was a bit hectic having so many people in our space all at once. Luckily they have all mostly left and we just have to leisurely clean up the place for the next few days, so it should be back to a bit more quiet by the time I get back to camp.

Here are a few pictures of the madness! I'll be back in Dublin on either Wed. night or Thur. so I'll write more then. Cheers!