There is a particular kind of magic to All Together Now, and most people who have been will tell you the same thing: it does not feel like a normal festival. Set across 3,000 acres of the Curraghmore Estate in County Waterford, it has spent the better part of a decade quietly becoming the festival that other festivals get measured against. Two years running it has been named Ireland's Festival of the Year, the lineups keep getting bolder, and the tickets keep vanishing faster. Here is why it has earned that reputation, what the 2026 edition is bringing, and how to make sure you are not the one left watching it all on someone else's Instagram story.
All Together Now made its debut in August 2018, dreamed up as a boutique weekender on one of Ireland's largest and most beautiful private estates. Curraghmore is not your usual muddy field. There are lakes, woodlands, fountains, stone circles, tiered lawns and King John's Bridge, often called the oldest bridge in Ireland, all wrapped around a grand house and the remains of an original castle tower. The idea from day one was to build something that married big music with art, food, comedy, spoken word and wellness, in a setting dramatic enough to make the whole thing feel like stepping into another world.
It worked. Now heading into its seventh chapter, All Together Now is Ireland's largest independent festival and the back to back winner of the IMRO Festival of the Year award for 2024 and 2025. Last summer it packed roughly 30,000 people into Curraghmore over the August bank holiday weekend, and the affection people have for it is the kind money cannot really buy.
This year's edition runs Thursday 30 July to Sunday 2 August, and the bill is genuinely stacked. Kneecap top it as a headliner, fresh off what was widely called the most talked-about Glastonbury set in twenty years, and 2026 marks both their first ever All Together Now show and their only Irish festival of the year. Pulp headline the Friday night, their first festival headline set in fifteen years, with Jarvis Cocker and a back catalogue of Britpop classics in tow. Electronic pioneers Underworld return for a third time, Disclosure plug in for a DJ set of their signature house and garage anthems, and The Avalanches make their ATN debut.
Around those big names is one of the deepest undercards in the country. Christy Moore plays his first Irish festival in fourteen years, a real landmark moment, while The Mary Wallopers bring folk-punk chaos to the main stage. Add Self Esteem, Mercury winners Ezra Collective, Mogwai, Maribou State, Floating Points, Kae Tempest, Annie Mac, a legend set from dancehall icon Barrington Levy, and dozens more across the bill. Close to half the lineup is Irish, spread from the biggest stages to the smallest, which is exactly the balance of homegrown and international talent that has become the festival's signature, all playing out across around eighteen stages.
What keeps people coming back is everything happening between the sets. All Together Now leans hard into being a full sensory weekend rather than a straight gig in a field. There is a craft market of local makers, the Curious Minds tent of talks and hands-on workshops, the Greencrafts area with eco-crafts and demonstrations, and food that runs well beyond the usual burger van, taking in wood-fired pizza, street tacos, vegan stews and artisan cheeses, with proper cocktails to match.
Then there is the look of the place after dark. Lantern-lit paths wind through the woodland, costumes get gloriously elaborate, and evenings tend to wind down with bonfires and fireworks over the lake. It is family-friendly too, with a dedicated family camping area, though worth noting the festival is otherwise strictly 21 and over, with the only exception being children aged twelve and under accompanied by a paying adult.
Here is the catch, and it is the reason a piece like this exists. All Together Now sells out, and it sells out fast. For 2026 the first three phases of tickets went in record time, leaving only a final phase, priced around €315 for the weekend with camping, before the whole thing was gone. The 2025 edition sold out too, with the festival pushing fans toward a waitlist once it did.
That is the pattern now. The lineup gets announced in stages, each phase is cheaper than the next, and the people who do best are the ones ready to move the moment tickets go live rather than scrambling once their friends start posting about it. If you have ever found yourself staring at a sold-out page wishing you had been quicker, this is the festival that teaches you the lesson.
If you are planning for next time, a few things help. Curraghmore sits in the sunny south east, roughly an hour and a half from Dublin and under two hours from Cork, with Irish Rail running to Waterford Plunkett Station and festival shuttle buses from there. The festival has partnered with Bus Éireann Expressway for direct coaches in past years, so keep an eye on the official channels closer to the date. On-site camping ranges from bringing your own tent to boutique options like tipis and pre-pitched setups, and if camping is not your thing, Waterford city and Dungarvan have hotels within a half-hour drive.
But the single biggest thing is timing. Tickets are the bottleneck, not transport or accommodation, and they disappear before most people have finished deciding whether to go.
All Together Now has spent seven years turning a Waterford estate into one of the best weekends on the Irish calendar, and the demand is only climbing. If you do not want to miss the next on-sale, or get caught out when a release sells through in minutes, sign up to Pyngo. Instead of refreshing the page and hoping, you tell us the festivals and artists you care about and we keep watch for you. The moment tickets drop, whether it is a new phase going live or a face-value resale appearing, you get pinged straight to your phone so you can check out in seconds while everyone else is still stuck in the queue. Stop refreshing. Start getting pinged.
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