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‘It is a challenge. You are dealing with people who’ve paid money, good money to come away for the weekend. Festivals are all about reckless abandonment and that’s why I love going to festivals. I wanted to see things done a little better.’ – Clare Byrne, sustainability manager for Body & Soul
THIS WEEKEND, THE Nugent family’s back garden will be thronged with people.
10,000 people, to be exact. The owners of the 17th century Ballinlough Castle in Co Westmeath, they have handed over their lands to the music festival Body & Soul every year since 2010, entrusting Avril Stanley and her team with the task.
It’s not an insignificant one – along with the thousands of punters, Body & Soul brings stages to cram with artists and performers, hot tubs and a holistic area, music, food and more to the site.
To Alice Nugent, husband Nick and family, Ballinlough Castle is their home. To thousands of revellers this weekend, it’s a site to have a laugh for three days.
Where it all began
The partnership with Body & Soul came about after John Reynolds held a number of festivals on site. Avril Stanley had an area within the festivals, and got to know the Nugents. In 2010, she branched out on her own for Body & Soul.
“[We] knew we could trust her with the home and land,” said Alice Nugent.
Body and Soul’s sustainability manager is Clare Byrne, and it’s her fourth year in charge of the strategy to make sure the festival treads lightly on the Nugent family’s land, and the planet.
The draw of hosting a festival in the home, for the Nugents, was making the site work for its income.
“When you live in a big old house and you have to sustain it yourself, you have got to look at ways of doing that,” said Nugent.
“The place has to produce some money to ensure its survival for the next generation.”
Some of the land is a small farm, with horses, and the rest is a golf course.
Body & Soul has grown organically, which Nugent said makes it “easier to learn from things that go wrong, or haven’t worked, rather than doing serious damage”.
99% of the people who come here are great, and for us that’s been a really positive experience.
“From our point of view, it’s nice to have – we are very lucky, we live in a beautiful place, it’s nice to have people [visit],” said Nugent, recalling an anecdote where one punter just didn’t want to leave one of John Reynolds’ festivals.
“They said ‘why would we want to leave? It’s beautiful’. I get that. It’s nice for us to get to share.”
Challenges
Every year, there’s the worry about the weather – particularly after a savage downpour in 2012.
“If the weather is good it makes it very easy for everybody,” said Nugent, explaining how the festival crew are constantly checking forecasts and planning for rain.
This year, there are more indoor areas for if the heavens do open.
“We’re very conscious of the fact there are 10,000 people essentially landing in someone’s back garden,” added Byrne.
At Body & Soul, the sustainability aspect is part of its core ethos.
Stanley was inspired by Burning Man, which itself has a strong eco aspect. The Nugents “share the same value and vision” as Body & Soul, said Byrne.
The job means communication, and planning: lots and lots of planning. It includes looking at how you move people around the site, recycling, waste, vendors, artists, stages, campsite, performers and art.
Benefits beyond the stage
The festival doesn’t just benefit the family, said Nugent:
It’s been really good for the place and really good for the area. It’s bringing in different people, it brings in business - it’s good for the community to have something like this.
This year the festival teamed up with children from local primary schools to plant native trees on site.
It’s important to the Nugents to keep people in the local community happy. “We are always very adamant that people didn’t just come in, do their stuff and go out again without any care for the people we live beside.”
The family get to enjoy the “weird and wonderful stuff” that the festival offers. “We always have our Spotify playlist for the year. So it opens your mind. It’s been great for my kids as well, really opened their mind to a lot of creativity.”
It has also had a very personal impact on the family. The year the first Body & Soul was put on at Ballinlough Castle, their six-year-old daughter Katie died following an illness.
The family – who set up the Katie Nugent Fund in her honour – struck up a relationship with Christy Collard, who built the stage. That led to a project in Crumlin’s Children’s Hospital, with Collard helping them do up the garden for St John’s Ward.
“That’s been a special thing for us, and helped us through a very difficult time,” said Nugent.
Us & You
Body & Soul’s sustainability strategy is called “Us and You”, which includes an Us and You campsite that aims to have zero impact on the land (this has gone from 200 to 2,500 capacity), but also looks at minimising waste, engaging people through competitions, encouraging people to take the bus to the festival, green VIP competitions, encouraging car pooling, giving a ‘green trader’ award, and getting contributions from sponsors.
“Ultimately what we’re trying to do is bring everyone on the sustainably journey as we can’t reach our goals if we can’t do that,” said Byrne.
We’re asking people to be responsible festival citizens, and behave as if they are having a party in their back yard.
It’s not an insignificant challenge: thousands of revellers out for a good time for three days in a place that they don’t own. It must be hard to encourage them to care about recycling that empty beer can, but Body & Soul believes it’s possible.
“Most people recycle at home,” said Byrne. “We’ve been reviewing our waste management to make sure we have the right things so that people can recognise the right colour coding.”
She acknowledges this “is really difficult when people are having fun and it’s late at night”, and says that campsite waste is probably “one of the most difficult things to deal with”.
She’s most proud of the fact they have increased their recycling by 22% over the last few years.
Byrne says every year is a learning experience: “You sit down and you look at what worked and what didn’t work and how you improve things going forward.”
We make sure that site is returned the way we found it. This year, we have more bins. And we are giving out a few thousand cigarette ashtrays – people don’t really understand how toxic cigarette butts are. It’s the little things like that that we are improving.
For the Nugents, the festival certainly has its high points. One of them was meeting Nick Cave, who was brought to the house for dinner.
“He was wowed by the house,” said Alice Nugent. “That was my most rock and roll moment.”
The family’s youngest child is three, and though the house is sometimes used for guests like Nick Cave, the Nugents emphasise that, grand and all as it is, it’s still their family abode.
If she’s screaming and she’s going to bed, that’s just the way it is. They have to accept that it’s our home.
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The Greens have reinvented Hedge schools…
@Phil O’ Meara: you obviously don’t know what you are talking about
@Éamonn O’Kane: I can just see it pouring rain temp 4 degrees everyone in their 350000 wood shelter freezing to death great idea
@John Reynolds: You don’t think it gets cold in Scandinavia?
@Brendan O’Brien: you clearly don’t have young kids if you think sticking children in a wooden shelter while it is raining and the wind blowing through them is a good idea. I for one do not need my children getting sick because of this
@Phil O’ Meara: to go along with their renewed plantation of the country by foreigners.
@John Reynolds: imagine trying to use your iPad in those conditions.
Still, on a positive note, it would legitimise all those large all-terrain SUVs that are used to drop the kids off at school.
Looking forward to five more years of the mighty FG :)
@Phil O’ Meara: I see the right wing snowflakes are like a blizzard today. Put down you devices turn off your TV and get your lard asses outside and open your minds
@Justin Mcnulty: What if you cannot get outside? Open minds is something you do not seem to understand. Fat shaming is also a low blow. Of course these “schools” will not be disabled friendly.
There is no coming back from this. It’s over for the Green Party. You will not be in this new government, and won’t be in one for many decades to come.
@Cole Palmer:
People said the same in 2011.
@Cole Palmer: they have lost the plot and really need to go. Lord help us if ppl vote for them on Friday
@Steve Martyn: they’re getting either my no 1 or , haven’t decided yet
@Cole Palmer: ur right ,but these dumb .walk away on big pension as u pay for it . Stop vote these into anything. EXCEPT INTO A BOTTLE WITH A BIG LID
@Cole Palmer: Hopefully you are right !!!!!!
@Cole Palmer: they won’t have a TD. They’re out dated, irrelevant and incompetent.
@Cole Palmer: snowflakes afraid of the outdoors, ye are just stuck to the screen imbibing negative thoughts
@Justin Mcnulty: How accessible is the outdoors to the largest minority in the country. Let me tell you. Not very accessible and has been made a lot worse by the greens. Not everybody can Active Travel aka ABLE Travel.
@Justin McFlurry: jackass
When the Greens were asked to board the ship in 2020 that’s when I said they became the GREEDY GREENS,
Look at the state of roads in cities and towns all narrowed down for a cycle lanes that aren’t even been used. They told us they had transportation ideas. Not one rail was laid on the Western Rail Corridor above Athenry in Galway or from Collooney in Sligo.
The Greens were brought into increase taxes and promote illegal emigration of single males into Ireland and that’s all they’ve done.
@Tommy: The Greens must be devastated that their coalition partners would not sign off on a pathway to two new taxes that they wanted to bring in with their last dying breath, pretty much says it all about the Green party really.
@Tommy: well I’m in Dublin and my local cycle tracks (such as the Clontarf to City one) are extremely busy and getting busier by the day.
So the old Field of Dreams adage- build it and they will come- holds
@Mickey Maus: yeah, the entitled from Clontarf.
The rest of the city & suburbs nobody uses the cycle lanes: they use the road & the footpath.
Also that is not an “adage” as you put it. That is a quote from a movie & it’s wrong. Goes to show the intellect of you lefties
@Tommy: western rail corridor would be an expensive white elephant. And you sir are an economical illiterate racist
@Mickey Maus: Strange that as cycling in Dublin dropped 4% that is the official figures too.
In reality they have proven successful for the cycling lobby and nobody else!
@Jim: They do in Clontarf as well, a lot of it by dangerous design by DCC. Who know this but ignore the reality of the situation!
@Justin Mcnulty: The western rail corridor is still being researched. As a freight line it shows that it could work out as an economically sound project. The real problem is train sets. the cost and the time to make them.
330k per shelter
Thanks to the inability of the greens our forested area is still the lowest in Europe. They shouldn’t be drawing attention to the fact their green policies are a joke.
@Freda Peeple: I’m not sure how the Greens are responsible for our lack woodland.
@Me Me: it’s a bit like blaming a dog shelter for the amount of abandoned dogs
@Freda Peeple: I’d say you’re a bit backward lol
@Freda Peeple: about sums it up introduction of fire blight to our hedgerows planting of new forestry virtually non existent yes pipa the green goblins has certainly done a fantastic job
@Me Me: pipa hacket introduced a plan for forestry which is a complete disaster
@Me Me:
In fairness the greens are directly responsible for tree planting in Ireland through the Green party minister of state with responsibility for forestry Pippa Hackett.
During her tenure planting has gone from 7,500 hectares per year to less than 800 hectares in the first 6 months of this year.
Hardly a roaring success.
@Freda Peeple: her pal pippa Hackett has destroyed the forest industry. Worst forestry minister in the history of the state
@Me Me: they have collapsed the entire forest base by removing 95% of land that could be planted.
@Freda Peeple: I can see a lot of devastation cutting trees during these years. they make tons of money, but never replace the trees. who is to blame ?
@Me Me:
People moving over to burning coal caused an increase in areas covered by forests in Northern Europe
Tree hugging nonsense
@Paul M Doe: your knowledge of forest schools ?
@Éamonn O’Kane: woke nonsense
@Paul M Doe: Explain what the term woke means to you please?
@Sun Rise: Woke ideology is equivalent to the Emperor’s clothes in H C Anderson’s ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’, go read!
@Sun Rise:
Children of the celtic tiger who never heard the word No from their perants who needed their little brats co-operation so mummy can pursue her career, so they grow up intitled. They are now out in the big bad world with out a adult to run to when told to F.. K off by others
Fairy Pixie school invented by the Green Party. No surprise there, they just keep giving,,, from their unicorn world where the sky is pink.
Meanwhile back in the real world there are real issues.
They should take a few courses themselves first..
then a few on how herds of wild Datacentres rampaging through the countryside are good for the environment.
Everyone else needs courses to undo the damage these have done.
The only party worth voting for next Friday is Fianna Fail, vote for Fianna Fail
@Fintan Pox: Nobody takes life advice from unemployed virgins Paulie. Better yourself, and might start listening :)
@Fintan Pox: People should be aware that ‘Fintan’ is a trolling ID.
@Fintan Pox: What a statesman you are not.
@Freda Peeple: typical ungrateful waster, we led you through the pandemic, don’t forget
@Brendan O’Brien:
Kettle calling the pot black there Brendan.
To be fair, you have plenty of company on here at the moment, from parts of the political spectrum.
Really looking forward to five more years of the mighty FG :)
@Brendan O’Brien: And you’re not a troll ? Lol…
@Brendan O’Brien: And you’d be an expert on that!
@Fintan Pox: Yeah, Donnely, the clown health minister, was nowhere to be seen. It was handed over to tony! Now, coming up to Christmas and an election, the pox is still nowhere to be seen. The pox will probably pretend to be santa claus to make a few bob! I suppose it’s a pox thing. Oh wait, it’s a fianna fail thing you useless pox. Vote anyone but them poxes. Go play with your mickey fintan pox.
@Fintan Pox: what nonsense are ya spouting. No one lead us anywhere during the scamdemic.
It’s crazier they’re getting
The Greens have been at the grass again. First the return scheme, then cap tethering, to make our lives difficult, and now this, at a time of higher priorities. They can’t be surprised when they don’t get a single seat
@Ian McDonald: More like the magic mushrooms
@Ian McDonald: cap tethering makes your life more difficult? That’s all you have to give out about? It’s well for ya.
It’s going to be an indoctrination camp imho
@Des Daly: To indoctrinate children with a love and respect for the natural world? Sounds terrible: they should be on their smartphones 24/7.
@Brendan O’Brien: …….. and don’t forget about brainwashing the kids into their green socialist agenda
@Des Daly: Seriously?
‘At Forest School we aim to provide dynamic play environments in the woods. We facilitate children learning to use adult tools safely (including saws, drills, peelers and knives) and acquire new skills when desired by the child. Children at a young age need manageable risk, often explored through play, so they can independently assess and handle more extreme risk later in life as teenagers and adults. We aim to promote self-awareness through connective communication so that individuals can increase their ability to make and act on responsible choices through their own self-awareness.’
@Des Daly: Done properly, and for the right reasons, forest kindergartens are a good idea. Somehow I think such a forest institution will have enormous difficulties getting insurance in this country though.
@Brendan O’Brien: Written no doubt by the same people who write restaurant menus.
Where frozen fish and chips with mushy peas is made sound spectacular! Wild Atlantic Cod is beer batter with Irish grown potatoes fried in eco friendly oil severed with a naturally grown peas!
the HSE are the best at the “Putting Lipstick on a Pig” type of stuff!
But when they reintroduced the wolves wont they eat the teachers. All for nature, so can they not just teach that instead of religion.
Love the idea, couldn’t agree more that kids do not have enough outdoor time anymore. Can’t say there’ll be enough areas in around cities plus forest areas countrywide are still less than 4% of the island.
@wwvCLOuF: how much concrete do you have to dig up in the city or densely poplulated areas to create a forest? Mental masturbation yet again from the Green party. Some day I hope they join the real world.Absolute knobs and knobettes.
@Mr “JonnieBoy” Johnson: who said anything about digging up concrete, did you even read the article? I’m sure it’s not for everyone, but I think it sounds like a great idea
@Ma Beavis: u would butthead
They already have these. They’re called prefabs. Very popular around my area.
The Greens just continually show how they don’t live in the real world and have no policies which are not pure nonsense, a waste of time, not costed properly or involve more heavy taxation on the masses. Honestly, any person who thinks that it’s a good decision to vote for the Green Party ought to serious get their head checked to see if they are not suffering from some sort of haemorrhaging.
The Greens, have already started on this with a school in Wicklow, where the rain is coming through the roof in bucket loads, they are exposing the children to the elements, other schools have it as well under the Greens in Govt, with the elements blowing through their Prefabs, they just don’t know how lucky they are. Next week the Greens will launch the new under wear line of Hemp underpants for all students. Don’t worry yourself about the price of Fuel or Heating Oil, or your Grocery bill or insuring your car or house, the Greens will ensure you are fleeced again with increases, the real world is a world away for the out of touch Greens.
Not opposed to kids being exposed to nature – something majority of humanity has lost connection with, sadly.
But I am opposed to it being spearheaded by elitists with ulterior motives.
I will genuinely celebrate when the Greens are hopefully obliterated this coming Friday. They deserve to be.
And again: look at Scandinavian countries, Germany, UK: forest kindergarten and -schools are a normal and long well acknowledged part of the education system. In Ireland almost impossible to establish because of health and safety issues. Insurance costs are not payable.
General George Custer had better Advisors than the Green Party .
@Jim Ryan: Just not as many!
These lads are a joke
No need to publish anything more about the Greens .. they’ll be a forgotten party after the next election, just as the forgotten PDs….
Being outdoors is so important for mental and physical well-being. Even our eyes become healthier when we’re outdoors, not staring at a phone, being able to see as far as the horizon, scan our surroundings etc. There’s a big push on well being in schools since covid. Schools, at the moment, are terrible places for fostering well being. Box ticking factories, driven by a bureaucratic Dept of Education. Getting outdoors would relieve stress on both staff and pupils. Win-win.
@Fiona: take off your clothes while you’re at it. Apparently its good for you.
Then see how long you last in the Irish weather.
@Hunt Ley: What a snowflake. Afraid of a bit of wind and rain. Oh you’ll be cold and scared.
@Fiona: Great idea, all the children wearing Hi Vi’s wandering around the local park! How will they get there safely?
Nutter alert
Steiner Schools. There might be 2 or 3 in the country?
@Me Me: Just checked. There are 7!
Is there no end to the lunacy of the Greens? First, sending kids out in the goddamned rain and wind is child abuse. Next, isn’t O’Reilly the wagon who tried to muzzle people with her Hate Speech law? She’s also responsible for repeatedly blocking the building of a much needed ring road in Galway
This unelected ideologue knows what is best for us.
Here’s hoping she and her fellow lunatics are consigned to the dustbin of Irish political life.
@Hunt Ley: When will there be an end to id!ots commenting on the journal. “Sending kids out in wind and rain is child abuse”. Where do you come up with such nonsense?
@Sal Paradise: schooling kids outside as she implies is nonsense in Ireland. This is not some sunny dry paradise.
@Hunt Ley: Sweden or Norway ain’t no sunny dry paradise. It’s an option that people might want to avail of and if they do then brilliant. Some people just wouldn’t be able for it and that’s ok as well.
Maybe if they did something to fix the *actual* problems in schools first? Lack of SEN, substandard accommodation etc etc. Smacks of Eamonns Covid speech “get out and paint your houses”….the Greens are utterly divorced from reality.
But but we don’t know this, that’s new, we’ve never done anything like that. The Green Party should know better. Ireland is way to backwards to consider anything that resembles a new approach or outside the box thinking.
Comparing Sitka farms to natural endless forests in Scandinavia that bit to much
@Mickstawowy: sitka farms as you call them are needed for lumber production and are massive carbon sinks. Native woodland cannot compete. Though we should have 30% native cover.
It’s about common sense and compromise.
@Hunt Ley: in long therm native woodlands are way better for biodiversity now every Sitka plantation at like dessert for birds and small animals and don’t be worried trees growing here are shipped to China and other countries they not used here. Same as powder milk most gone abroad
Time to put the greens out to pasture…
Insurance premiums for primary schools will increase dramatically if this policy were allowed.
We already have them, there called Steiner schools
I could care less for the greens but saying that Forest schools or Stiener schools are amazing … there is at least two in Limerick already … Both of my kids went to them in preschool(one is currently there) and it’s amazing they come home filthy and happy and they learn skills that cant be learned indoors … And it improves there immune system on the whole .. just because the greens mention doesn’t make it bad.. I’m just here to stick up for forest schools … Also if your worried about the kids getting wet in the rain throw a jacket on em they will be fine ….. Hup the Banner
@R:
Forest schools aren’t a bad idea, anything for kids run by green party is though.
@Regular John: when you say regular John you mean as in slang for customer of prostitute yes?
Why don’t they lead by example then? I’m sure nobody would complain to a load of greens sitting in a field talking shite once it’s far enough away so we don’t have to hear them.
Those whom the Gods would destroy, They first make mad!
So if the greens want greener schools why do they use. White boards in stead of black boards why is hime work being set online instead of the .school journals which ny child’s school dropped in favour of check on the app so they online in school for work and home.work?
Flook off greens you won’t be in government believe me
Roderic 0′ Negro
Isn’t there a forestry school already for those who want to become foresters,for both sexes or is that a dating facility for outdoorsy types !!!!!!
Another one of there “but it works in…..” ideas. They really do that the vegan biscuit with this idea!
Actually for the birds….!!!!!!
Forests should be cut down for firewood
” you can lead a horse to water ,but you can’t make him drink.” SEAN FEOCÁL GAÉLACH ” !!!!!!
They are going to carve school classes in trees.
have your say