Electric Picnic is uprooting its tent poles and seeking greener pastures next year, with the festival abandoning its traditional start of September weekend slot and moving to the middle of August.
In a surprise social media post by the festival last week, it was revealed that Electric Picnic will take place on August 16th-18th next year, two weeks earlier than the festival’s usual end of summer slot.
While picnic organiser Festival Republic has said little about the reason behind the move, many have speculated that the change is to avoid a clash with Coldplay’s bumper four-night stint in Croke Park next year, on August 29th-September 1st.
Managing director of Festival Republic, Melvin Benn, has denied this is the case. However, with close to 330,000 tickets purchased for the sold-out Coldplay gigs in Dublin, and some fans forking out hundreds of euro to see Chris Martin & co in the flesh, the date clash must have crossed the minds of organisers aiming to sell out the 70,000 capacity Stradbally site next summer.
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The calendar change may also be a move by Ireland’s largest music festival to muscle in on growing rivals. Like the campsites in Stradbally this weekend, August 2024 is set to be a crowded market.
Electric Picnic 2024 is scheduled just two weeks after Waterford based All Together Now, a 27,000 capacity festival. The Waterford festival was the brainchild of Electric Picnic founder John Reynolds and has gone from strength to strength since it was established in 2018.
The new dates are also within weeks of the Cork festival Indiependence, which attracts about 15,000 people each year.
Or perhaps the call is to better capitalise on talent passing through for big ticket UK festivals, with next year’s dates sandwiching Electric Picnic between the Glastonbury, Isle of Wight and Latitude festivals in June and July, and Reading and Leeds festivals later in August.
While festival goers can hope that the earlier August date will reduce the chances of bad weather raining on their parade, for the Electric Picnic organiser, however, it is too early to forecast if the move will pay off.
