Campervan parking sold out at Laois music festival

Campervan camping at a Laois music festival this summer has completely sold out, the organisers have announced.

Forest Fest in Emo village returns for its second year this July with a star studded huge line-up of acts, including James, BellX1, Suede, Paul Brady and The Proclaimers. 

Promoter Philip Meagher has confirmed that its popular campervan and caravan parking areas have sold out.

There are still a limited number of general camping and glamping upgrades for the weekend available.

“Forest Fest is a boutique festival, and we pride ourselves on our ethos of Leave no Trace and everything being cosy, convenient, and comfortable and therefore we added glamping with our partners Pitched Perfect to this year’s offering.

“Due to the fantastic feedback and the popularity of last year’s campervan and caravan camping we secured some additional space without compromising our overall approach but even all our campervan and caravan pitches have sold-out during the Easter holidays and the festival is still over three months away,” Philip Meagher said.

Below: Waterboys on stage at Forest Fest in 2022.

The festival is scaling up but still keeping that easily accessible vibe that made year one such a success, with the festival based in the GAA grounds right in the village centre close to carparks and facilities.

“Because of the glowing reviews from our first Forest Fest last year, going on to win the Best Festival award in the midlands and the step up in our line-up for July there is considerably more demand overall for tickets and we want to manage that so we remain family-friendly and our discerning music fans have a thoroughly enjoyable Forest Fest experience,” he said.

“So we are scaling up our fantastic food court, our refreshments and bars will be more extensive, of course we’ve added a fourth stage for the Forest Fleadh and to try keep our event accessible and affordable children 12 and under go free of charge for the entire weekend, and our car parking is also free.”

Forest Fest advise that anyone planning on immersing in the full festival experience and camping for the weekend to secure their weekend camping or glamping upgrades without delay, as these will soon sell out.

Busing it to the festival will be even easier this year.

A shuttle bus service by Martley’s Coaches will run again across the weekend of July 21 to 23, serving the local hinterland, Portlaoise, Mountmellick and Portarlington as well as all nearby hotels.

Forest Fest is also planning to partner with CIE/Bus Eireann to provide more extensive transport links, special bus services and connections from Portlaoise/Portarlington train stations for more convenient access to the event from Dublin and other major centres. Timetables, ticketing links and other details will be announced by the end of the month.

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Also being finalised are the children’s entertainment programme, the day-by-day line-up, food court and refreshments, and site map which will all be published on the Forest Fest website in the coming weeks www.forestfest.ie