Your frequently asked questions answered
Hi Forest Fest fans. Here’s lots of info based on all your recently asked questions.
Forest Fest is a boutique festival which will be staged in the quaint County Laois village of Emo from Friday July 21st to Sunday July 23. Numbers will be limited and subject to licence. Following last year’s successful event, this is the second year of Forest Fest, already regarded as one of the best summertime Irish Music Festivals.
Forest Fest was awarded the accolade for Best Festival at the Midlands Hospitality Awards in 2022.
Emo village is about ten minutes off Exit 15 on the M7, about one hour from Dublin and 10 minutes away from the county town of Portlaoise.
There is a combination of ticket options available for Forest Fest including for each day, weekend, weekend camping/glamping. The day tickets cost €85 and the weekend tickets €190 plus booking fees. The day tickets are flexible and can be transferred online to any day of your choice prior to the festival. Our glamping partners are the vastly experienced Pitched Perfect.
There are over 85 acts and artists confirmed to play Forest Fest over the weekend across four stages. The headliners include James (Friday), BellX1 (Saturday) and Suede (Sunday). There is a new stage at this year’s event to host the Forest Fleadh, a virtual festival within a festival featuring the very best of Irish folk and trad. (See Forest Fleadh poster for full details).
The full line-up including running order and stage times will be published nearer to the event. Forest Fest tickets are sold subject to licence. Meanwhile all festival news, updates, line-up, poster, and tickets are available from our website www.forestfest.ie
There are four stages at Forest Fest, all within convenient and easy walking distance of each other at our festival arena campus. These are the Forest Stage, Village Stage, Finnegan’s Wake and The Forest Fleadh. Full stage times and running order will be published in the weeks prior to the event.
Camping is a weekend option only with limited space for tents, campervans, and caravans, with a glamping upgrade option also available via our partners Pitched Perfect. Everyone over 18 intending to camp requires a weekend camping or weekend campervan ticket.
The camping numbers will be limited. There will be basic services in the camping areas but there will not be electrical hook up (EHU). There will be freshwater points, toilets, hot showers and waste disposal. All those accessing the camping areas require a weekend camping/campervan ticket. The campsites are all family friendly and fully supervised by event staff 24/7. Light refreshments from coffee docks are available in the camping zones.
Forest Fest is family friendly. The best way we could achieve this was to make it easy for families, so all children under 12 go entirely free of charge for camping and the festival. All children must be accompanied and supervised at all times. Families intending to bring children 12 and under to the festival must specify so and the number of children when they are purchasing their tickets at the online checkout.
Unfortunately, we cannot cater for young teenagers at Forest Fest and all ticket holders must be over 18.
Forest Fest is an inclusive event. It is accessible and wheelchair accessible. There will be priority set-down, parking, camping, and priority viewing areas for wheelchair users and provision for verified carers.
Strictly no barbecues of any sort or type, including disposable BBQs allowed in the campsites or camping areas. We don’t want to be killjoys; this is a health and safety requirement.
Sorry, no dogs allowed at the festival or in the campsite. This is a health and safety requirement and unfortunately, we cannot make exceptions.
We have a great security team for everyone’s safety at Forest Fest. They are there to help and support you, to advise, guide and ensure your safety.
There will be a full food court service, including vegetarian and vegan options available at the festival, along with an interesting selection of diverse artisan and street food stalls. Yum, yum! There were really good reviews to the standard, quality, and price point of our Food Court at last summer’s Forest Fest. We intend to improve and enhance it even further for this year.
There is also dedicated children’s entertainment each day brought to you by forest Fest in partnership with the immensely talented Port’ Art Collective. There are also fairground attractions, carnival rides and face painting for children, as well as an African Drum Circle with Jabba Jabba Jembe for children of all ages.
There will be a full bar facility available on the festival site all weekend, including craft beers and gluten free beers.
Along with a full bar we will also have a Wine & Prosecco and Cocktails service.
It is not permitted to bring alcohol into the festival arena.
We will publish a festival site map with all the details you require, well in advance of the festival, to make it easy for you to find your way around. At Forest Fest all facilities, stages, campsites, parking etc are within a convenient and comfortable walking distance.
Car parking is free at Forest Fest.
There will be a shuttle bus service (for a small charge) serving Forest Fest from all adjacent towns, (including Portlaoise, Mountmellick and Portarlington) as well as local hotels to make it easy for you to get to the festival and get home safely. This service is provided in conjunction with the vastly experienced Martleys of Portlaoise and was very well received last year.
We will be publishing all stage times and running order well in advance of the festival.
Provisionally (subject to licence) gates will open at about 5pm on Friday evening and the festival runs until midnight. Live concerts from 12 noon to 12 midnight on both Saturday & Sunday.
The festival site is located at the pitches and grounds in the middle of the village, surrounded by the forest canopy backing onto the Emo Court estate. (The festival is not taking place at Emo Court. They are our next-door neighbours). Emo Court is managed by the OPW and is open to the public. Feel free to enjoy a lovely walk on the grounds. It’s fabulous.
We would like all our fans and friends to respect our environment, the Emo village community, Emo Court and all our neighbours over the course of the weekend by being respectful and leave no trace, rubbish, litter, tents, sleeping bags or other such belongings.
