Electric Picnic 2016 // **Discussion Only / NO Ticket Sales / Requests** //

Sounds more like someone from Louth. Or Navan.

Animals.

Just in portlaoise itself waiting on a lift back to reality haha...odd wkend. Mixed bag. Veteran of ep and yes as people have been saying there's def a shift in the crowd over the last few years but I wonder (sleep deprived and hungover so be kind) did the lana del Ray addition to the line up inevitably mean there's gonna be loads more of her demographic of fans at stradbally this year. Under 21s seemed to make up a bigger part of the crowd. I'll do a full review later on this evening but just some thoughts for now

First thing I think the crowds levels were too much for the site this became more apparent with the crap weather last night. Few more bits of wood chippings wouldn't have gone amiss as the wkend went on.

I agree with the poster complaining about the security. Most of them were unhelpful and or ignorant of directions.

I got pulled up by one of them late on the sat night around 3 am maybe as I was entering the Hendrix site-apparently 5 mins earlier there'd been a of a fight along there and they scarpered when security got over to them. So he seemed to think I was one of the trouble makers even tho I told him about 10 times I was literally just after arriving back to the camp site having had a most pleasant time chilling in body and soul. The security seemed abosutly stressed to the max, shouting in people's faces to move off, losing control of the situaion type of vibe. Pulling and pushing ppl. All abide much. Sense of anarchy almost.

Anyway a buddy of mine who was with me and a gang in body and soul followed over and vouched for me, they had the wrong "guy in the baseball hat" as they told me the description was wtf?!didnt need my body and soul buzz wrecked but there ya go.

Didn't need that kind of stress really on my sat night buzz at the picnic it was all ott but anyway that's just a small example of how the atmosphere has changed from the picnics of yore.

Also there was a def dofdgy element around by the very far end of the area designated for the main stage audience(hope that makes sense) heard of a girl pick pocketed when a crowd of them surrounded her, another lad was hit for no good reason, sh1t happens I guess but still ep should be about having a good aul time not the other stuff

Music highlights loved lcd , glass animals were a revelation, the accordion guy in body and soul, I think , wow, new order were very good, didn't watch lana. The rain def makes or breaks it, we just were on the short straw this weekend I think.

Agree for sure the choice of food offering was less this year. Prices for food and drink mental but that's always the way.

Would I go back-depends hugely on the line up. Friends said to me they wouldn't come back but roll around Feb March time and they prob will ! Friday evening getting the first can open after the tent up, hard to beat that feeling with the full wkend ahead of ya.

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

Friday evening getting the first can open after the tent up, hard to beat that feeling with the full wkend ahead of ya.

Get to Glastonbury. Those cans are opened on a Wednesday.

People giving out about people bringing kids - leave it out. Electric Picnic has always been a festival designed to be family friendly (hence the free entry for U-12s) and indeed, when I first started going in 2005, it was one of the biggest things that appealed to me about the festival - it was relaxed, friendly, and artistic enough to be a great place to bring some kids. Maybe you think kids only listen to ****ty pop music, or like to watch iPad cartoons? Well, good luck raising yours then, but that's not the way everyone wants to do it. Me and my wife brought our 10 week old, and he loved it - he was more relaxed than he ever has been at home, and the amount of new sights and sounds he had to experience will help his development greatly. He really enjoyed the campervan experience too! We brought little baby ear protectors to keep his hearing safe, and he was in a baby carrier which let him sleep all he wanted (and he did plenty even in the main arena) - when you have kids you'll understand that they'll sleep anywhere they want to, those little toddlers sleeping in the pull along carts are just as happy as if they were in a real bed. In short, some parents want their children to have broad horizons and EP in the past has been a perfect place to show them that. Seeing a few people mashed off their donkeys on whiz-whaps isn't going to break their brains, they'll ask you whats going on, and you'll explain, and maybe when they get a bit older, they'll not think of drugs as some rebellious act of teenagehood.

In short - the day EP becomes too unfriendly to bring kids along is the day that it has changed far too much for the worse.

Home now a few hours , showered , fed , car hovered out and the washing machine in full tilt .

Had a great weekend , I will admit I was one of the cry baby's on here few months back saying the lineup was **** but after some serious research and recommendations from people on here we saw lots of acts each day .

Music wise - on Friday I saw Nas , Jenny Greene , chemical brothers and daft as punk , Nas being the highlight .

Saturday saw Lemaitre , catfish and the bottlemen , Joey bada$$ , mura masa , Noel Gallagher , DBFC, LCD soundsystem and tony kaar , all very good , highlight for me though was mura masa and LCD , Toby kaar deadly too .

Yesterday we saw editors , bit of wild beasts , Kano , **** robot and Adam beyer. Kano was the highlight for me , editors also very good .

Defo notice the increased capacity, are they going to up it again next year i wonder.
On the issue of kids at festivals , I don't have any and I don't particularly like children in general but I don't mind them being there at all, not doing any harm

Me and my friends are all in around 32 years old , we gave up on camping 3 years ago when our tent was flattened on the first night by some tosser(s) , we sleep In our vans in the green carpark now since the 2013 one . Suits us great , dont have to deal with scrotes wrecking our heads with the general mayhem that goes on in parts of the camping areas. The rain yesterday was really annoying , ended up going to bed lot earlier than I would've normally , was fast Asleep by 1am

On the drink n drugs debate , people get ****ed drunk before going in each day (some of my group included) because drink is so dear , temple bar prices for a pint is cat . An awful lot of drugs consumed by lots of people but these days u get that at every concert / festival going , I don't mind someone taking a banger and having a little boogie but ud swear lads were trying to kill themselves the amount of pills , ketamine , Coke etc they take in one night

Anyway , Definitely buying an early bird ticket Friday for next year to be safe n see in 11 months time if I'll go again but I more than likely will .

And for anyone that was worrying about my piles over the weekend , thankfully they didn't give me much grief .

Just home, camper cleaned and awning dryed off.

Think this was my 10th year. Wasn't overly excited by line up in advance and I was right.

Acts I enjoyed were mostly main stream - New Order, Super Furries, LCD.
Also really enjoyed Dr Dog, Nat Ratcliff in other voices. Russango family in Little big tent and NAS. And John Conneely Inc on Sat afternoon in B&S.

May be my last - crowd size has lost the magic that used to be at EP. Have been at b&S for last two years and enjoyed that much more despite the lower budget on acts.

Re Kids I would not bring them to EP - too messy and adult. I have brought the kids at 12+ to body and soul last year and would highly recommend it as an experience for them.

Camper van field held up to the weather extremely well, I don't know how but no muck and very easy in and out

Post event comments here very interesting re experience.

It's was pretty packed all weekend, but the Sunday crowd really fúcked us over.... lightweights.

Button_y wrote: »

I really enjoyed this years festival but it is very different from the electric picnics of the past. It has very much moved to the commercial side and away from its routes of a music and arts festival. It seemed years ago you would stumble on amazing art work, great acts in smaller stages. Now you have to go out of your way to find them. The tacky amusements really over shadowed the green crafts area this year and unless you knew it was there it was easily missed.

It feels like there is an attempt to phase out the art side and family elements and get the commercial vendors on site and cater more for the late teens early twenties.
The family camping was alot smaller with only one campsites, tents closer together. Parking and trek to the campsite was awful and that trek around the lake was so ridiculous! What should have been a couple minutes walk from soul kids to the town ended up a trek around a dark muddy lake and back through the campsite. It made no sense whatsoever.

I had kids with me for parts of the weekend. My kids have always went and they enjoyed it but as they get older I am less inclined to bring them. I actually don't believe in shielding them from all the "bad behaviour". They see it recognise its wrong and hopefully when it comes to their turn they will know they don't have to be in the center of it. I think when its marketed as a "family friendly" event lots of parents naively allow their 15-18 year olds buy a ticket and go. These same parents wouldn't allow their kids in a bar drinking and its often the first time these kids are let loose!

Someone mentioned a while back that it is a festival with an identity crisis I think this sums it up completely. Its trying to be everything and as a result is loosing the uniqueness

*That really sums up my thoughts too. There's a sense of the trying halfheartedly to keep the old elec pic type of offering but each year that goes by its being watered down*