{"id":609625,"date":"2026-08-30T22:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T22:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/609625\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T22:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T22:46:12","slug":"electric-picnic-2026-biblical-rain-bopping-families-surprise-acts-and-popular-covers-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/609625\/","title":{"rendered":"Electric Picnic 2026: Biblical rain, bopping families, surprise acts and popular covers \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a moment that comes during any Irish music festival where you question your life choices. For some attending Electric Picnic<\/a> this year, that moment came early. <\/p>\n

At around 4.30pm on Friday in a canvas-covered, open-fronted pizzeria shack, two friends attempted to take shelter as rain torrented down. Huddled together closer than commuters on the London Underground at rush hour, they tried to stay positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pizzeria and a … spa?\u201d said one of the plastic-poncho-wearing women, as the rain coursed down, spurting at an angle through a break in the canvas. <\/p>\n

\u201cFeck Carlow Weather man anyway,\u201d retorted her friend. <\/p>\n

To be fair to Carlow Weather \u2013 which provided Stradbally weather forecasts via Instagram<\/a>, it did predict heavy showers. But there\u2019s rain and there\u2019s rain. This was biblical.<\/p>\n

\"ElectricElectric Picnic: Festivalgoers brave the rain in Stradbally on Saturday. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Maybe in another year it would have qualified as an unmitigated disaster. But the months of sun and hot weather lent a novelty element to the downpours. The boots were soaked through, the faces slicked wet and the good blow-drys utterly wasted, but Electric Picnic was here for three days (four for early birds who arrived on Thursday) and the 80,000-strong crowd was up for it.<\/p>\n

As Kyla Cobbler \u2013 who played the Electric Arena on Saturday \u2013 put it admiringly on her Instagram: \u201cThat\u2019s what life\u2019s about. Just being uncomfortable and not giving a f**k because you want to have a good time. I\u2019m weirdly proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the home crowd sipping tea in their kitchen \u2013 positively glowing with festival Schadenfreude (yes it\u2019s a thing) \u2013 Electric Picnickers would have the time of their lives just to spite them.<\/p>\n

Zara Larsson<\/a> was intent on delivering some sunshine herself. Looking for all the world like a Barbie come to life, in an electric blue half-size jacket and tiny skirt, she sang happy birthday to young fan Lucy Mae and her sister and cousin and inked a blue dolphin on to her T-shirt. <\/p>\n

\"ElectricElectric Picnic: CMAT performs on the Main Stage on Saturday. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Lola Young jetted in to perform a surprise set. Sombr and CMAT<\/a> added cover songs to their repertoire with rich returns, the latter paying tribute to the late Dolly Parton with a rendition of Jolene. Sombr provided a genuinely surprising moment with his take on Zombie by The Cranberries, flanked by band members Noel and Mike Hogan. <\/p>\n

On Sunday, to an enormous crowd, The Saw Doctors delivered the All-Ireland winning Mayo footballers<\/a> on stage for The Green and Red of Mayo. <\/p>\n

\"ElectricElectric Picnic: The Saw Doctors with the Mayo All-Ireland-winning team. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

Around the site, you could see families bopping, friends hugging, couples holding hands. <\/p>\n

Christina and her daughter Grace (8), from Dublin, wandered through the main stage area on Sunday as the doors opened. Grace, wearing a Nirvana T-shirt, had told all her friends at school she was coming. <\/p>\n

\"GraceGrace and Christina from Dublin at Electric Picnic <\/p>\n

\u201cOur highlight was Zara Larsson,\u201d Christina said. <\/p>\n

She and her partner were staying at the festival in a camper van with their two other children. \u201cThey all want to come back next year. It\u2019s like a camping trip with really good entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pat O\u2019Toole (76), a retired farmer and enthusiastic set-dancer from Co Offaly, was also enjoying the festival vibe at the Main Stage for the Kilfenora C\u00e9il\u00ed Band on Sunday. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unreal,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople say 80,000, it feels like more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crowd control at some of the tented areas \u2013 specifically for Duke Dumont on Saturday and Armand Van Helden on Friday \u2013 proved a concern for some, which Melvin Benn, managing director of Festival Republic and main director of Electric Picnic, addressed on Sunday afternoon. <\/p>\n

Several people who arrived to see Van Helden on the Smirnoff Stage expressed concern at how full the tent was, with one woman telling The Irish Times \u201cthe crowd just shoved everyone, and we all fell like dominoes\u201d. <\/p>\n

The American DJ\u2019s set ultimately did not go ahead, with Benn putting the decision down to misstaging and saying the organisers were \u201cnot willing\u201d to risk injuries or people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cArmand van Helden was clearly on a stage that he was too big for,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Festivalgoers received alerts on their phones on Saturday warning them that Duke Dumont\u2019s set at the Electric Arena was at capacity and asking them not to go to the stage. Benn described the handling of that situation as \u201cthe perfect operation\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"MelvinMelvin Benn of Festival Republic. Photograph: Colin Keegan\/Collins <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no real drama at all, so the thought that you might be suggesting that it needs to be improved, quite frankly, is bonkers because it couldn\u2019t have gone better.\u201d <\/p>\n

Looking ahead to next year, he said there would be \u201cno increase in capacity, no increase in ticket prices\u201d.<\/p>\n

Electric Picnic has had stronger headliners in years past -Lewis Capaldi, CMAT and Gorillaz have all played Irish gigs in recent months. This year was missing the uniqueness brought by Chappell Roan last year or Billie Eilish in 2019. <\/p>\n

The sense of a festival unicorn \u2013 one act around whom everyone coalesced \u2013 was absent, and you could feel it in the lack of footfall around the Main Stage at times. However, the late decision to add Van Morrison, Mick Flannery and Damien Dempsey added heft and substance to the line-up. <\/p>\n

Leaving, as ever, felt sad, spelling the end of the summer. Electric Picnic is a beast of a festival, sprawling and unpredictable, but also incredible fun. Roll on next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is a moment that comes during any Irish music festival where you question your life choices. For…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[893,45133,12421,14772,42,250164,8285,37892,35514,4185,256433,43,240820,40,38,41,39,6495,32197],"class_list":["post-609625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-cmat","tag-dolly-parton","tag-electric-picnic","tag-gorillaz","tag-headlines","tag-kyla-cobbler","tag-laois","tag-lewis-capaldi","tag-lola-young","tag-mayo-gaa","tag-melvin-benn","tag-news","tag-the-saw-doctors","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-van-morrison","tag-zara-larsson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}