TIDELINE — Three days on the Beara Peninsula

Four thousand people, three stages and a working farm above Ardgroom harbour, at the far end of the Beara Peninsula.

TIDELINE is a coastal festival that is deliberately hard to get to. Three days of music that runs from sean-nós in a stone church to a sound system in a boathouse at 3am, on a headland where the Atlantic is on three sides of you and the phone signal gave up years ago.

It is 4,000 people. It has been 4,000 people every year and it will stay 4,000 people.

The stages

• The Harbour — the main stage, built into the slope above the slip, facing west. Everything finishes by 23:00 because the licence says so and because the neighbours have been very good to us.
• The Sea Church — a deconsecrated church up the hill, 180 people, no amplification. Sean-nós, string quartets and whoever asks nicely. Queue early, it fills.
• The Boathouse — where it goes until 03:00. Low ceiling, concrete floor, and the only part of the site with a proper rig.

Getting here, and it matters

The site is two and a quarter hours from Cork city on a road that is single lane for the last eleven kilometres. There is no parking without a pass, no taxis after 22:00, and the nearest town is a forty minute walk.

Take the shuttle. It leaves Parnell Place at 09:00 on the Friday, comes back Monday at 11:00, and costs less than the diesel. Everyone who drove last year said they would take it this year.

Staying

1,200 pitches on site, split between the main field, a quiet campsite over the hill with a midnight sound curfew, hardstanding for campervans, and seventy pre-pitched bell tents for people who have decided they are too old for this. Camping is booked separately from your ticket and it always sells out first.

Day tickets do not include camping. Day ticket holders leave the site by 01:00.

Bringing children

Under 12s come free but still need a ticket so we know how many are on site, and they need to be with a named adult the whole time. There is a supervised craft tent by the Long Table from 11:00 to 16:00, free ear defenders at welfare while they last, and the quiet campsite exists largely for families.

Access

A viewing platform at the Harbour stage, accessible toilets and showers at both campsites, a flat gravel route from the accessible camping area to every stage, and a powered-chair charging point at welfare. Personal assistants come free — put it in the access box at checkout and we will send a separate ticket. Parts of the site are a steep field, and we would rather tell you that now than have you find out on the Friday.

The unglamorous part

It is a farm. The ground is uneven, there is no lighting off the main paths, there is livestock in the next field, and there is a working slipway with deep water at the bottom of the campsite. Swimming is lifeguarded between 08:00 and 11:00 and at no other time — please do not test this.

Ardgroom Harbour Farm, Beara Peninsula, Co. Cork. Bring boots. Bring a warm layer for the evenings, even in July. Leave the site the way you found it.