Electric Picnic marks 20th year

Electric Picnic marks its 20th anniversary this summer in Stradbally with a new date and a festival which is far removed from that one-day event on a sunny September afternoon in 2004.

Last week the line-up dropped for the newest edition of the festival, which is now one of Europe’s largest. It has been sold out since last year but the delivery of the actual line-up was well overdue, causing much debate online recently.

Despite all that, it’s worth remembering that a lot has changed since John Reynolds and team first conceived the idea in the early 2000s, and there is no doubt Electric Picnic changed the game for festivals here.

Before we talk about 2024, let’s go back to their first festival in 2004. This was also the year that Oxygen came on board.

Oxygen was the Electric Picnic of its day and by the end of the 2000s it too had become a huge European festival. Rising out of the ashes of Witnness, which took place in the early 2000s, Oxygen became a massive music festival here and regularly booked huge pop and rock acts. Beyoncé, Coldplay, Eminem, Daft Punk and many more huge acts of the day came to play here. However, by the end of that era it had become a bit messy.

Electric Picnic had, meanwhile, taken a more laid-back approach. It was the first real music festival here to approach things from a more holistic approach, where art, food and the whole festival experience were as important as the music. The line-ups were never as commercial as Oxygen in those days, though obviously many of the big acts went on to big things and some became huge pop acts too.

The big names would have included 2ManyDJs, Beastie Boys, Grace Jones, My Bloody Valentine, Portishead, Outkast, A Tribe Called Quest, Kendrick Lamar, The Cure and many more. The Cure had also played Oxygen but it was a totally different festival. At their Electric Picnic show they were given three hours to perform and it was much more in keeping with its own modus operandi.

Ultimately, Oxygen disbanded and re-emerged not as a camping festival but in other formats, such as Longitude, which is a much more restrained but tightly run festival that runs in Marlay Park every year. Electric Picnic is still here but much bigger and much more commercial.

John Reynolds has now sadly passed but he had lost control of the festival by the start of the last decade and Festival Republic are now running things.

It’s fair to say if things hadn’t gotten more commercial during the last recession, we would unlikely still have the Picnic. It’s a credit to John Reynolds that this is the festival that changed the game here.

The biggest difference in the festival these days is that the very biggest names are more mainstream and safer bets. Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Niall Horan, Dermot Kennedy and many more have occupied the main stages recently. This year the main stage will welcome Noah Kahan, Kylie Minogue, Raye, Calvin Harris, Kodaline and others. Some of the more recent headliners have had some Picnic goers recoiling in horror but, as someone who goes every year, it’s never really bothered me. I largely just ignore the main stage anyway, though I will go and see Raye and maybe Kylie. In recent years I’ve seen Billie, Dua, Megan Thee Stallion, N.E.R.D, Kendrick and many other great acts on the main stage — though most of the best stuff happens on smaller stages for me.

The main arenas are far more commercial in other ways too and most real estate is taken up by various brands, in what can be a fairly full on intense crossover of stages and bars.

Body and Soul is one area where the vibe has changed and despite some decent efforts last year, the area still lacks the love that the original Body and Soul promoters put into the space over the years. They, like many others, went on to produce their own festival for many years. While they are on a hiatus in 2024, they will be back soon.

There have been Electric Picnic improvements though. Freetown is almost like a festival within a festival and proved to be the highlight for me in 2023 and a great place to find unknown DJs and acts.

This year’s 20th anniversary will prove very interesting.