Ireland’s biggest arts and culture festival returned to Stradbally this weekend, and it was bigger than ever, with 75,000 people landing on the Co Laois estate for three days of music, culture and craic. Here’s our pick of some pluses and minuses of this year’s event.
HIGHS
Irish acts
There’s a huge appetite for Irish artists. The Main Stage arena was packed on Saturday afternoon for The Saw Doctors, Tuam’s favourite sons, who have tapped into a new generation of listeners over the past couple of years. A lot of that audience no doubt also went to see Kneecap, Lankum and CMAT – all excellent and all vastly different from one another.
Eclectic audience
When Electric Picnic began to expand its capacity, a decade or so ago, some feared it was about to turn into a soft reboot of Oxegen, the festival that had just flamed out after focusing heavily on teenage dance-music fans. But while the GAA-jersey-and-bucket-hat demographic was well represented around Stradbally over the weekend, the festival also continues to attract Picnic veterans and families – a mix that made for a laid-back atmosphere.
Calvin Harris
The Scottish DJ, producer and singer-songwriter showed why he has spent 15 years at the forefront of popular dance music. The Main Stage’s Saturday-night headline slot was made for him. Singalong summer anthems and a throbbing light show from start to finish.
The craic
The Inflatable Church, which holds a wedding every 30 minutes, is always a riot. The Father Ted caravan crew, at Trailer Park, were hilarious, too, cramming 40 people into their little caravan, then counting them out one by one, to cheers from the crowd. Four fans who’d come to Electric Picnic in inflatable dinosaurs were also great gas – especially when they bumped into the convent caravan nuns.
Phone signal
It was a novelty to be able to find people without the aid of totem poles or arranged meeting spots. Phone coverage across the festival site was generally great.
Sunday-morning chill
Great vibes, with yoga and hammocks to help soothe the body and mind after a full-on Saturday.
LOWS
Not much of a birthday party
It’s 20 years since the first Electric Picnic – and people might have strong views about whether the festival’s many changes since then have been for better or worse. Arriving at the Stradbally estate on Friday, however, there was little sense that this was a special year for the Picnic, which seemed happy to disconnect from its past.
Too many repeats
The Mary Wallopers on a Saturday afternoon are a festival treat – but one that fans at All Together Now will have already soaked up a fortnight ago, over the August bank holiday weekend. Ditto NewDad, who played more or less the same set at Electric Picnic on Friday as on the final day of All Together Now. Lankum, who played on Saturday, had even headlined their own festival, In the Meadows, in June. Booking festivals is harder than ever, and there are only so many good acts to go around, but Electric Picnic 2024 brought on a strong sense of deja vu.
[ NewDad at Electric Picnic 2024: A little bit of indie heaven comes to StradballyOpens in new window ]
Too many people Pt I
Huge crowds can be surreal and brilliant, but they cause issues too. Lots of people found the main arena uncomfortably full for Calvin Harris’s headline set on Saturday night, saying it was hard to move.
Too many people Pt II
It’s only natural to encounter crowds of people at Ireland’s biggest outdoor festival. But even some fans who arrived on Friday morning, when the campsites usually still have plenty of space, struggled to find spots to pitch their tents; they complained about being directed to overflow campsites some distance away. Later, once the main stages were in action, the Stradbally estate had its own rush hours: so many people were on the move that it could take an age to get from one venue to another between acts.
Plastic-cup missiles
Cups and bottles (among other things) being thrown on stage is not a new phenomenon (just ask Guns N’ Roses about playing Dublin in 2010) but the trend of plastic-cup missiles – fired vertically while still half-full – appear to be on the rise after being championed by English soccer fans. It’d be best to nip this one in the bud, not least because festival pints cost at least €7. Just think of the average cost per launch.
