THE real secret of the Electric Picnic's success? It's all about good drainage, as any Co Laois farmer will tell you. Persistent August and September rains didn't turn Thomas Cosby's Stradbally Hall estate into a mudbath.
This fact has as much to do with the Picnic's feel-good factor as triumphant sets from New Order, Massive Attack and Basement Jaxx, the return of the Pieminister, Body & Soul's utopian alternatives, or the many freak scenes which abounded on the site.
The Electric Picnic takes the Irish festival honours for yet another season, leaving its domestic competition trailing behind. It's also racing up the world rankings. The view from abroad, as articulated by various Australian, American and European punters and pundits over the weekend, is that here is a festival with the right ingredients.
While it certainly has musical muscle (Jape, Gang of Four, Richard Hawley, the Archie Bronson Outfit and Duke Special all played stormers), the Picnic also houses a plethora of side- shows, carnivals, happenings and events which really set it apart from everything else on the homefront. This is a festival in the new-school sense, not just an extra-large gig.
What the Picnic also demonstrates is the schism changing the face of the music industry. The old music industry? That's gone, finished, dead as a duck. What we have now are two quite distinct sectors taking shape. There's a record industry in critical need of reinvention (which is not going to happen, no matter what anyone thinks, with a reptile like Spiralfrog) and there's a live music industry which is booming. There's still a Venn diagram relationship between the two, but the dynamic has changed.
Do the maths from last week- end. Start with the 30,000 folk who happily paid €175 each for the privilege of camping out in an Irish field in September. Add in the money spent on pies and beer, the sponsorship cash from brands desperate for association with the event, and sundry other revenue streams, and you have a very large pot of cash.
Once upon a time, it was the record industry which had that kind of largesse to splash around. While the record men still have the money under the mattress in the form of gigantic back- catalogues, the live industry is where this kind of money is currently sloshing around.
It's not just a summertime thing. In last week's Ticket, we listed the rock/pop highlights for the coming season. While it was a long list, many shows have since been confirmed (Scissor Sisters, Primal Scream, Pussycat Dolls, Tenacious D, James Brown and the Green Synergy festival, for instance) and more are yet to be announced.
Between now and the end of the year, at least 100 top-ranking live rock/pop shows and tours will take place in Ireland. Of course, it's a gamble for the various promoters, but they clearly believe that there is an audience willing to pay to see these bands live. They have also, we assume, figured that a couple of more European Central Bank interest rate rises or growing utility bills won't stop the new mainstream from taking in a few shows.
You have to wonder, though,
if the live industry will be as forthcoming in nurturing and encouraging new talent as the record industry once was. Like all businesses, the live industry needs a constant supply of fresh talent, but it has never had to make the same front-loaded commitment to new bands as record labels.
It's one thing to put on dozens of new acts at a festival or hand out support slots; it's quite another to invest in and support an act until it reaches a profitable level. This will be the real test of the music industry's new world order. By the time next year's Picnicers are stuck in traffic on the M80, we may be a little nearer to knowing how this one will play out.
