Chappell Roan
Main stage
Within two years of the release of her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, Chappell Roan has jumped from cult artist to mainstream star, with billions of streams. That’s due in no small part to her earworms Pink Pony Club, Hot to Go!, Femininomenon and – her first Irish number one – Good Luck, Babe! Her Electric Picnic set is likely to include all of those, plus other songs from her first LP, plus her new songs The Giver and Subway, from her forthcoming second album (provisionally entitled Visions of Damsels & Other Dangerous Things). We can’t see anyone walking away from her Friday-night set without a Roan song rattling around their head.
Noel and Mike Hogan with the RTÉ Orchestra
Main stage
The Cranberries mainstays Noel and Mike Hogan are a late addition to this year’s Electric Picnic line-up – and a surprise, as we’d all believed the group had been shuttered after the death of Dolores O’Riordan, the band’s singer, in 2018, and the release of their final album, In the End, the following year. Not that this show has been announced as an official reunion. Instead it’s the Hogan brothers delivering a series of elegant arrangements of songs such as Linger, Dreams, Zombie, Ode to My Family and Ridiculous Thought, accompanied by a guest singer (or singers) whose identity has yet to be announced.
Dara Ó Briain
Comedy arena
One of this year’s best comedy tours is Dara Ó Briain’s Re:Creation, for which he digs into his personal history to talk about his adoption and subsequent search for his birth father. As Electric Picnic audiences tend to dip in and out of events, for him to focus on a single topic, no matter how absorbing, might not be the safest bet here. So, pro that he is, expect Ó Briain to knock punters for six with his rapid-fire gag rate and talent for hilarious off-the-cuff interactions with members of the audience. (Also, in Mindfield, a perhaps more serious Ó Briain participates with the podcaster Blindboy and Ruth Freeman, of Research Ireland, in a Science Week conversation with the theme of Then, Today, Tomorrow.)
I Dreamed I Dream
Salty Dog
I Dreamed I Dream – possibly the best live act in Ireland, according to Paste magazine – blend the kind of music you might expect (shoegazey pop and nervy postpunk) with things you might not (1960s girl pop and sean-nós). The four-piece – Julie Landers, Elle O’Leary Kelleher, Claire Aherne and Niamh Hayes – describe their recent EP Boyopoisoning as “a coming-of-age story, if coming of age means realising you have zero tolerance for bullshit”.
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Theatre of Food
Now in its 17th year at Electric Picnic, Theatre of Food is one of the festival’s most popular non-music areas. It’s now of a size where it’s almost easier to name which chefs, restaurants, foodie movers and cocktail shakers won’t be there. Biggies include the Michelin-starred Galway-based chef JP McMahon; the TV chef (and DJ) Neven Maguire; the DJ and chef Marcus O’Laoire; and Liam Finnegan of Ashford Castle. Other highlights include Drinks Theatre, which is curated and presented by the wine and food writer Aoife Carrighy; Punched and Cups Cocktail Show, presented by the fifth-generation publicans and sisters Judith and Susan Boyle; the mixologist Ariel Sanecki; and the chefs Kwanghi Chan, Lily Ramirez and Sham Hanifa.
As Gaeilge: Ceol agus Caint
Firmly addressing people’s eagerness to converse as Gaeilge, Electric Picnic has two main hubs for everyone who wants to say níos mó ná cúpla focal. The first is the Hazelwood/Chollchoill area (“where fairytales dance, fires crackle and music never sleeps”), which is curated by Conradh na Gaeilge and Raidió Rí-Rá (with support from Festival Republic, which stages Electric Picnic). Acts include Éire agus Chulainn, Imlé, John Spillane, Jessie and the Veil, and Bláithín Mhic Chana. Over in Mindfield, An Puball Gaeilge (“creativity meets rebellion”) presents a broad range of music, discussions and craic-oriented karaoke. There’s also an official Gaeltacht campsite, which this year is larger and better serviced, according to the festival.
Henry Normal
Mindfield
The comedy writer and producer Henry Normal is beloved by fans of classic British 1990s and 2000s fare such as The Mrs Merton Show, Caroline Aherne’s spoof chatshow, which he cowrote and script-edited, and The Royle Family, which he created with Aherne and Craig Cash. Since retiring, about 10 years ago, he has published a series of poetry books, the latest of which is An Alphabet of Storms.
Mango
Anachronica
Electric Picnic’s self-styled rave in the woods offers an adventure in how to keep adrenaline flowing after a full day of absorbing whatever the festival throws at you. After the regretful dissolution two years ago of Mango + Mathman, one of Ireland’s best hip-hop outfits, Karl Mangan had thought he was finished with music (and vice-versa), but last year an invitation to collaborate with musicians provided an opportunity he “couldn’t say no to”. Taking a short break from working on new music, Mango will be at the festival’s unique Anachronica site across the weekend, as well as on the Smirnoff Sound Nation Stage.
William Orbit, Rosie O’Donnell and Dan Mulhall
Mindfield
There’s amost as much conversation as music at Electric Picnic, with Mindfield providing a wide-ranging choice of events. In the Leviathan tent the renowned record producer William Orbit will be in conversation with the Welsh broadcaster (and former Catatonia singer) Cerys Matthews. Topics will include Orbit’s collaborations with Madonna and U2 and what it’s like to deejay at Buckingham Palace. Two other must-see events include Róisín Ingle, of The Irish Times, talking with the comedian (and freshly minted Irish citizen) Rosie O’Donnell (Manifesto tent) and Making Sense of Trump’s America, with the former Irish ambassador to the United States Daniel Mulhall (Leviathan tent).
David Holmes
Croí
In 2023 the Belfast DJ and producer David Holmes released Blind on a Galloping Horse, his best album so far. Since then he has busied himself writing film scores for and reuniting with the director Steven Soderbergh (for this year’s Black Bag, and The Christophers, which premieres at Toronto International Film Festival in September). When he isn’t writing for film, Holmes takes it down a notch and DJs in compact spaces (one of which is his Dublin home from home, Hang Dai restaurant). Electric Picnic’s Croí area is probably as intimate as it gets on the 250-hectare site, so make sure you know where it is and what time Holmes plans to drop the needle.
Podcasts
Ah, Hear
We know people who have spent the entire weekend at the Ah, Hear tent – and with good reason. Some of the most interesting face-to-face encounters include Donal Fallon, of Three Castles Burning, talking with the former Ireland soccer manager Brian Kerr; Nicola Tallant’s true-crime podcast Cocaine Cowboys; the news podcast A Few Scoops, hosted by the journalist Aoife Moore and the comedian Colm O’Regan; and – is this a theme or a coincidence? – the podcasts Young Hot Guys (with Shane Daniel Byrne, Tony Cantwell and Killian Sunderman), Keep It Tight (with Deirdre O’Kane and Emma Doran) and Orgasm (with Jenny Keane).
The Sleeveens
Fish Town
Stefan Murphy has had his fingers in quite a few musical pies over the years, but none has been as tasty as The Sleeveens. Given the name, you might think the Dubliner’s latest group are some kind of bandwagon-hopping Celtic-punk outfit, but they couldn’t be further from that. Think instead of a gritty mix of Buzzcocks, The Ramones, Protex, The Undertones, The Only Ones and Wire. The band’s new single, Downtown, is a fine calling card, and by the time they play Electric Picnic they will have completed a support tour across Ireland with The Lemonheads.
The Irish Times will reveal Electric Picnic stage times at 11am on Monday, August 25th, before they’re announced anywhere else. Read reviews and reports on irishtimes.com over festival weekend
