It was a year for Irish acts at the Electric Picnic as home-grown talent drew huge crowds and responses from the festival’s audience in Stradbally, Co Laois.
This was underlined on Sunday afternoon as The Wolfe Tones performed on the main stage, building on an enduring image from last year’s edition when, as a surprise addition to the line-up, the rebel outfit more than packed out the Electric Arena.
This time around they made it to the main stage and drew arguably the biggest crowd of the whole weekend to listen to an hour long set of their greatest hits. Never fashionable enough to fall out of fashion, the republican balladeers have reached a younger audience with songs including Celtic Symphony and its chant of “oh ah up the RA”.
The song, left until last, has provoked a generational schism between those who remember the Troubles, and deem the chant to be entirely inappropriate, and those who have no memory, and for whom it is just a catchy refrain. Many Celtic football club jerseys and tricolours were in evidence during the performance, with green flares let off as they played the controversial number.
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“People are going to sing that chant anyway. It’s like Jackie’s Army song,” said Victor Williams from Swords, Dublin. “It’s a chant they know. I’m sure there are some who are going to sing it politically, but everybody here is just having a good time. I don’t think there is any badness about it.”
The Wolfe Tones introduced double-Olympic-gold-medal-winning boxer Kellie Harrington to the crowd and, unsurprisingly, she received a massive reception. Runners Sarah Lavin and Thomas Barr were among the other Olympians who attended the festival.
The health of the Irish music industry was apparent from Friday, when Jazzy drew a huge crowd to the main stage. The early bird all-Irish Saturday line-up on the main stage of Chasing Abbey, Somebody’s Child, The Mary Wallopers and The Saw Doctors drew steadily larger crowds. The Saw Doctors emigration anthem, N17, was sung by a new generation in the same way their parents did 35 years ago. The Waterboys also succeeded in reaching out to a younger audience.
Kneecap, arguably the Irish band de jour, filled out the Electric Arena and will probably follow the trajectory of the Wolfe Tones on to the main stage at future festivals. Ever political, their message before the concert was of solidarity with Palestine and to “get the US military out of Ireland”.
Mary Wallopers member Sean McKenna wore a “refugees welcome” T-shirt and criticised those from the Coolock says No group who, having demonstrated over plans for asylum seeker accommodation in north Dublin, found themselves drinking with loyalists after an anti-immigration protest in Belfast.
Ireland’s Eurovision contestant Bambie Thug drew a huge crowd to the Rankin’s Wood stage on Sunday, in what was their first Irish performance since finishing sixth in May.
Sunday’s headliner Kylie Minogue posted a photograph of herself on Instagram on Saturday with an umbrella. However, she need not have worried as the weather was dry throughout with long periods of warm sunshine on Sunday.
For Michael O’Reilly from Clondalkin and Olivia Gray from Co Mayo, it was Scottish DJ Calvin Harris who stole the show.
“I’d stay here another week,” said O’Reilly.
Triona Murphy, from Gorey, Co Wexford, who had attended the festival six times previously, said this year’s was “the best one yet”.
“It was great seeing everybody was so happy,” she said.
Looking ahead, festival promoter Melvin Benn said there may be room to expand the Electric Picnic beyond its current capacity of 75,000 people for next year.
Many festivalgoers complained on Friday evening about there being nowhere for them to pitch their tents and having to walk for prolonged period to find a space. However, Benn said it was normal practice for attendees to be directed to overflow camping sites when the designated ones are full. “You have to contingency plan for camping and we didn’t expect people to arrive as early on Friday as they did,” he said.
Benn intends to talk to Laois County Council about the possibility of expanding the numbers attending, but said he is “quite happy with where we are right now”.
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