Summer Picnic proves a winner
Electric Picnic 2024 at Stradbally Hall in Laois.
I attended on both Friday and Sunday, and I spent a lot of time going to the various stages in both the main arena and the woods. It’s impossible to review such a huge festival in depth, but here are some of my highlights.
Seeing Nas live had somehow eluded me throughout the years and he is one of the few hip-hop legends I had never managed to catch previously. I was so focused on my own EP show on Friday that I hadn’t really checked the rest of the line-up till that day and I was really excited when I saw Nas on the bill. He performed in the Electric Arena, traditionally one of the best arenas for atmosphere and sound quality, and he smashed it.
One of the best MCs ever sounded as good as he does on record, and he delivered a set packed full of his many rap hits to an appreciative crowd. Exactly 30 years ago I spent the summer in the States as a student, and while Ireland got busy in the World Cup, Nas released Illmatic. It became one of the main soundtracks to my own summer that year, and it remains rightly regarded as one of the best rap albums of all time. Nas is still dropping albums, and he’s still got the energy and charisma, too; this was a fine show.
I missed Saturday, but I was very excited for Sunday night’s main stage acts. Kylie’s headline slot late on was drawing a lot of attention and she was good, but the real reason I headed back up the motorway was to see Raye. Raye is quite simply one of the most exciting prospects in music and she has been steadily putting in the work for over 10 years.
It all culminated in her debut album proper, My 21st Century Blues, in 2023, which won a Brit award, but it’s been a career trajectory not without some tough moments. Raye had made decent progress as a well-respected songwriter, and her own artistic career was progressing, too, but she had lots of record company difficulties.
Raye eventually went independent and has enjoyed the most prolific part of her career since. This Picnic set was short, but iconic, and will be remembered for a long time. Raye performed some of her best hits and features alongside a wonderful band and the Dublin Gospel Choir, plus she memorably added a great cover of James Brown’s ‘It’s A Man’s World’.
Raye is probably one more album off the big league, but I have no doubt she is heading for that stratosphere very soon. She has an amazing voice and pen game, plus she is genuine and authentic and real in a way that girls and many guys like, too. This was a great show and a festival highlight for me!
Other highlights for me include seeing many great Irish acts again show that we can compete with the best of the rest on the festival circuit.
Kojaque, Jazzy, and many others played to packed-out stages, while many of the lesser-known DJs and acts smashed it too. My own show in the excellent Heineken House was great fun, and I was joined by Cork singer AbbieLee, who performed some of her recent singles.
Heineken was one of many stages that put great effort into the production and the new dance area behind the DJ added to an immersive experience that was great fun.
In truth, there were way too many highlights to acknowledge overall, but I had a great festival anyway!
Finally, this week, I’d like to acknowledge the passing of Eoin French, known to the world as Talos, who sadly died recently. At the time of writing last week, Eoin’s passing wasn’t public knowledge, and since then there have been many wonderful tributes paid to an artist who was just on the verge of something really big before his passing.
Thankfully, he had time before his death to help direct the shape of some future releases, and the world will experience more of his great music.
He was an incredibly talented artist, a lovely guy, and a friend to many in Cork and beyond. We will all miss him.
