Electric Picnic 2024 No Ticket Sales / Requests - Waiting in line, terrible time, over familiar

Peterd66 · 19-08-2024 02:50PM

Probably my last Picnic after 15/16 years or so. Positives were NAS, CMAT, Jalen Ngonda, SawDoctors, 2nd half of Waterboys. New campervan field as well is a huge upgrade in facilities etc. Atmosphere in general, very friendly across all age groups.

Negatives - Kylie, the fact that wolf tones were there at all (didn't go). Sunday line up in particular, huge gaps where there was nothing really worthwhile to see.

riddles · 19-08-2024 02:53PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122520165#Comment_122520165

It’s a point well made nothing against the Wolf Tones but more of a commentary on the line up that they can generate that crowd.

Wooderson · 19-08-2024 04:30PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122520172#Comment_122520172

Or that the 'Tones are emblematic of the people going now. Post pandemic GAA shirt years.

19-08-2024 04:42PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122520541#Comment_122520541

A few on this thread are also GAA fans, wearing the odd shirt, @rubick @desk tidy and myself for starters. EP has a pretty wide and varied demographic, not easily pigeon-holed.

As for the Tones surely that's it for them and no reappearances?

HarryTheSpider · 19-08-2024 04:52PM

Ah feck.

Typed up part 2 now that I eventually got home and somehow deleted it.

In short…

Today's traffic, more people/less facilities and Croi slowly losing its own Croi are bad.

No major trouble, Freetown etc getting better and the sheer variety of everything that goes on are good.

Overall, I had a good time. It's hard to single out act of the weekend. But CMAT is up there for stage presence, The Scratch for energy and The Wedding Band of The Damned for whatever that was (if anyone has a full set list, please pass it on)

Will I be there next year? On the basis of the recent (and future?) trajectory of capacity increases without services, I think not.

Mucker46 · 19-08-2024 05:09PM

Am I right in thinking loyalty tickets sales used to be before general so if not successful you could join general at the same time as others but this year as on sale together if not successful in loyalty will be way down the queue for general sale. Or do we think if not successful will automatically be offered general sale at that time?

Mucker46 · 19-08-2024 05:20PM

Anyone tried to submit a review on the ticketmaster link. Clearly don't like my constructive thoughts as won't let me submit

bodhrandude · 19-08-2024 05:25PM

I heard from someone in the know that the Picnic is going to be rebranded also, will put up small report later have to get it together for my session tonight.

Kepler21 · 19-08-2024 05:46PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122520716#Comment_122520716

That's my memory as well.

I think you'll either put in the loyalty code and be able to select a ticket type, or more likely if you get to the point of buying a ticket you can put in the code and get the discount.

19-08-2024 05:48PM

Overall a good weekend but the likes of Kylie Minogue, Noah Khan, Gerry Cinnamon, Raye should be no where near the main stage.

endainoz · 19-08-2024 05:53PM

This would make you absolutely sick, the absolute state of the place.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGe3NksJh/

endainoz · 19-08-2024 05:54PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122520775#Comment_122520775

Rebranded? Interesting, it sort of reminds me of when oxygen was rebranded, obviously both festivals are in much better places

foxybazz · 19-08-2024 06:00PM

New things(for me)....

Will do early entry again

Breakfast in stradbally was worth the walk

The big wheel(worth doing once in an EP career)

Plusses....

SUNday and the water-based dryness overall

More or less full days of music if i fit them all in

Still lots of bits and pieces to see, areas i hadnt poked into before, random chats and general good vibes.

Cons....

Piss-swamps

Croi music:pass-through for me now

The general swing to folk/trad rock. Just doesnt do it for me.

10 min queues to get in at terminus gate. 1 staffer patting down the men on sunday at 10. There must be some in between option between clampdown and freeflow that would work

Friday:Music-wise TCM great. SOPHIE EB knew how to win over the crowd and was really enjoyable. Then NAS(great) and Blessed Madonna, who was poor so i decamped to Faithless who were fantastic, and Im sorry i missed even the 10 mins i did

SAT:

Shark School (good to have a rock out) and TCM again

Jaden Ngonda next- amazing voice and songs to match

Highlight of weekend, Channel Tres. All backing tracks and dancers but he brought the energy.

After 5 mins of Calvin I was thinking this is good, the boardies were talking sh1te. 50 hard stops, repetitive songs/"mixes" later i was yawning my head off. Picked it up at the very end, but as a crowd pleaser given his (i think) good pop catalog he's very disappointing. Leave being a dj and play the full songs. Get in a couple of live singers. Mix away in between.

Sun:

Stranglers in the sun.Forgot the songs i knew and really enjoyed them. The energy and f@ck-off-ness was great.

Enjoyed Artemas more than I'd expected

Thee Sacred Souls- sublime. Close no.2 of the weekend, with the bonus of seeing the singer get in the crowd and then run out of the tent still singing. I felt a little for the chasing security...

Kylie did Kylie and that was ok with me. Enough dancy hits though the years and she pulls it off.

sphynx0 · 19-08-2024 06:00PM

Hi guys hoping to my first ep next year and planning to stay in the pink moon glamping but have seen some comments of massive queues online when they go on sale resulting in poor selection being left

does anyone here have any experience with booking these and how hard is it to get the one you want? I’m looking to book a 2 person tipi

Thanks

Penfailed · 19-08-2024 06:43PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122518825#Comment_122518825

Thursday: 5.8 miles

Friday: 15.6 miles

Saturday: 17.3 miles

Sunday: 14.2 miles

Monday: 6.5 miles

59.4 miles total!

darzog · 19-08-2024 07:01PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122521027#Comment_122521027

I’m guessing that at least three of those miles were used up jumping around to Melts at Jerry Fish. It was good bumping into you again over the weekend. Hope that boy got your Kinara order right last night…!

Penfailed · 19-08-2024 07:15PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122521082#Comment_122521082

Between Melts and The Bonnevilles, I definitely put a few miles on the clock! Great to see you again. The food from that place is amazing.

Fanirish · 19-08-2024 07:15PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122520865#Comment_122520865

going to be renamed “Heineken presents Melvin Fest”

Kepler21 · 19-08-2024 07:18PM

Some thoughts about the weekend.

Great to see some familiar faces in ECO. For once Thursday night felt worthwhile for more than just getting the tent up. The terminus arena entrance was open, maybe because of the EP banter Rock the Boat world record, but it made it easy to get into the woods area. Combination of Salty Dog and Survivor was great and a good start.

Last year in ECO you couldn't move, but this year there was a small number of spaces so its possible they got burned last year and didn't issue as many tickets as before. While ECO was great, they played music from about 5-8am Sat night, and possibly Sunday night resulting in lots of people making comments, and I think pi**ing them off a bit. i don't think they quite expected the response from so many people. Hopefully they will learn for next year.

Highlights were Friday: Sophie Ellis Bextor and Faithless (which was my gig of the weekend), with TCM in third.

Saturday: The Waterboys, The Saw Doctors, Jalen Ngonda. Lankum, White Horse Guitar Club also good.

Sunday: The Stranglers, Teddy Swims, The Teskey Brothers and Raye. Jarlath Regan was fun. Kylie was good and i enjoyed it, but didn't blow me away. i intended to do a bit of Peggy Gou before her, but didn't have the walk left in me by Sunday might so I just stuck with Kylie.

I did see a lot of acts and enjoyed them (close to 40 over the 3 and a half days). I felt the early parts of the days had gaps that I didn't really know who to see that I was interested in and other times the clashes caused me problems.

My feet felt pounded after Friday (too much walking, and lepping about to Faithless), so Sat. and Sunday i tried to manage to the distance and the sitting. Walking down to the EA to hear 15 minutes of someone before going back to the Salty Dog became hard to do. I sat down a lot more, and it definitely helped.

The area of Salty Dog, Trenchtown, Survivor, Fishtown, Terminus and Providencia are really becoming a popular place to hang out and getting a good vibe. Providencia was great for wandering around. There were at least twice in Salty Dog where it was dangerously overcrowded, as its the crossroads of everything in there.

Croi and Mindfield feel a little more integrated, and easier to get between them. While I listened to a lot in Croi, I agree with Harry that it feels less unique and less heart. The Tiny Tea Tent being gone feels like we lost more than just a stall.

I don't see how Melvin thinks he can get more people in. Thursday early entry is almost required for a reasonable camping spot. There isn't much room to expand the main arena or the woods area and they would do better to add more infrastructure to support the people that are there. more showers, more toilets that are cleaned more regularly. There were far too few bins around and they weren't emptied regularly enough. I couldn't find some when I went looking sometimes. There was some vague distinction between food waste and 'absolutely everything else' that was too confusing and essentially meaningless.

Hugely appreciated the chats with boardsies, in ECO and elsewhere. Thanks for being there for me this year.

Reading the reports today, I was very glad I packed up the tent yesterday morning and drove home last night.

I will buy a ticket on Wednesday if I can, but with less eagerness than before.

rockterrain · 19-08-2024 07:42PM

Excellent festival. Despite the poor headliners. They didn't really have the chops to carry the headliner tag (as flagged in advance). Other than that great, really is what you make of it.

Don't get all the bad blood towards The Wolf Tones. They're a legendary folk band with some great tracks who have amassed a whole new following. They played a blinder and could have headlined imo given the competition.

+

The Wolfe Tones

Faithless

The Teskey Brothers (wow)

Survivor stage

Kinara

-

Headliners. With the exception of Calvin Harris the others seemed out of their depth and delivered lack lustre performances (and Calvin was basically turning a few nobs and sampling other people's songs, but it was great fun no denying)

Festival clearly over capacity. Don't know how they got away with it. First year I noticed there were several times I couldn't get near the back of the main stage arena.

No toilets in the outside arena stages

Forgot to edit my fantasy football team

Hopefully changes are made for next year to improve lineup and no further increase in capacity without better planning first on site and artist choice.

Other than that bring it on.

stephenjmcd · 19-08-2024 07:47PM

Good weekend, saw acts I wanted to see, the comedy tent had some fantastic acts.

At times felt like I was trying to find something to just keep going as the schedule was a little bare at times. At other times it was straight from one area to another.

The vast majority of toilets seemed to be pretty well kept most of the weekend until Sunday night really, the stench after Sunday afternoon was awful

More toilets and more showers for the numbers there though. Sat morning queued for about 45 mins for a shower which wasn't too bad but when I came out the queue was 3 times the size. Definitely something that needs to be addressed

Really don't see how they can fit many more in and Sunday seemed to be extremely crowded

Fatfrog · 19-08-2024 08:10PM

Let’s talk piss!

Not a nice topic but essential to get right! The festival capacity increased to 75k this year, but the toilet capacity seemed unchanged or even less!

To the right of the main stage for example there were 6-7 of those circular urinals, (Which is essentially a 400 litre tank with urinals on top) when these tanks fill they just spill over at the corners! It’s a vicious circle because nobody wants to stand in a piss puddle, so the fence becomes the preferred option further adding to the soggy ground! Often seeping beyond the confines of the toilets and onto main thoroughfares!

The festival felt absolutely packed at peak times, to a level of uncomfortable I’ve not experienced before, almost danger. Wolfe Tones being the busiest I ever seen!! To me an increase in capacity in current form isn’t possible, when there’s a fully attended main stage act finishing up, punters can only go in two directions!

I think they’d need to remodel the entire main arena, I’d imagine moonlight meadows/ pink moon would be relocated, was Cosmic avenue and Silver a trial for that side of the site?

Mucker46 · 19-08-2024 08:16PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122521356#Comment_122521356

Fully agree, urinals have hardly changed over the years while the capacity has significantly expanded. The areas are a disaster now

CZ 453 · 19-08-2024 08:23PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122521356#Comment_122521356

Noticed the overflow alright. It's not nice. Why are these not monitored or even pumped out every so often?

It seems daft or even dangerous to be talking about increasing capacity when there are issues like these. Was a quarter of the way down from the stands for Noah Kahan and it seemed like escaping was near impossible. Moving side ways along the lines leads you to packed queues for the bars or toilets. I was by the big wheel for the Tones and it was packed out at all the entrances. Never seen a crowd like what they had.

Fatfrog · 19-08-2024 08:39PM

Anyone see one of Kylies dancers at the rave in the woods😂 Looked like he was ‘Off his chops’

blueberrypie · 19-08-2024 09:09PM

Hi I don’t post very often but here are my thoughts on the weekend.
Was looking forward to Calvin Harris so much, he was boring and could just about see the top of the side screens such was the crowd. Left that pretty quick.
Kylie, Sophie, were brilliant (don’t judge I love a bit of cheesy pop).
Tim grennan I enjoyed and chasing Abbey got the crowd going.
Saw end of Dasha- crowd was hopping for the banger of a tune, she got so emotional 😭 then I was emotional.!

Loreen was so disappointing, euphoria sounded so different to the radio mix.
Spent more time than ever at trailer park.
Luna boys were brilliant - thanks for the recommendation.Code of behaviour who I have seen before did not disappoint and my husband loved the white house guitar club.

Caught Odhran Murphy in the 3 tent. And David Kitt ( love his chat between songs, you just don’t know what he will come out with).
Clare Sands was in Craoi as well, I felt she had less energy than she usually brings.
Enjoyed the villagers, 1st time getting to see them live.

2 artists getting annoyed with the crowd surprised me. Myk pyro felt crowd weren’t getting involved (first night but I think there might have been technical issues) left after that & Jerry fish was pissed off with a fella on his phone.

Agree with many on hear Gerry Cinnamon and Noah Kahan were pretty boring. I don’t get Gerry’s random laughing and odd sounds every now and then.

No more pink moon for us…
Campervan set up was class this year. 6 minute walk for us from field b to the outside of the arena and maybe add on 3 minutes of paths to get into the arena. Toilet disposal & 6 showers and approx. 20 toilets. I’m assuming each field had these facilities. Lots use their own toilet & shower which lessens the q for the others. Field d was empty. So not sure if they were no shows or it was an over flow.
Left last night just before midnight, 1 guard breathalysing causing 10 minute delays, 10 others just standing around not doing anything. 😫 home at 3 am due to family commitments aka kids.
Food; camile (fab) q was too long for kinara.

Caught 3 comedians, and a few talks in Minefield. Love just taking a break from the crowds and just chilling.
Didn’t walk half as much many of ye on here but I got my steps in.

Had a great dance Saturday night at the animal rescue to get away from the disappointment of Calvin. It was full again last night when I passed.

My 5th EP& every year I come home loving it. Didn’t feel as old this year either, felt there was a good mix of young and old.
Got a bit messy at the main stage with young fellas bumping into us, firing empty pint glasses at others. That would be something that would turn me off going forward but thankfully it doesn’t seem to be an issue at the other stages.

I’m musically different to many on here and musically wise I think there was still something for everyone the past weekend.

Computers at the ready for Wednesday.

scruff monkey · 19-08-2024 09:13PM

Thoughts on the weekend now that I've had a shower, kip and hot dinner by way of visiting the mammy.

Positives

Dare I say the line up, it was grim and it stayed grim but there was actually enough to keep me busy for the entire weekend which i was seriously worried would be a problem. Stand outs were CMAT, Jaden Ngonda (will be iTunesing that little gem), TCM on Friday I thought were more than decent, not a great start but just picked up steam and kept going, Nas (was not expecting to enjoy but did) and Faithless were supreme, Jack L in Fishtown (don't get why his sets are always ignored, they're never bad), Stranglers (well well, necrophelia can be an enjoyable group activity!) and Tesky Bros. Kylie was ok, confide in me was perfect and SEB in a similar vein was ok, more fun and a good one to check off the list. Also enjoyed Mary Wallopers.
Weather, good god the weather was fantastic! Makes everything better.
De people #1, you really do meet some of the nicest people there.
Some of the layout, I know Salty Dog gets crowded but it's still light years ahead of what it used to be with the crowd and thru traffic intermingling, it does need more improvement but it's still part of what's left of the beating heart of the fest.

Negatives

Piss, I've been banging on about this for years now (and it's been in the FAQ post for the last two years), it's fuc.king disgusting and getting worse, it's the smell when it's warm, half the site is infected by the acrid stench of it wafting and there's no escape. Belvin Menn needs to seriously re-look at how they handle this, the setup is now no longer fit for animals so the scrotes attending start acting like them. It's a blessing that only half the population can point percy into the air and let loose, if the girls could too then we'd be rightly fuc.ked, those sodden muddy piss puddle fields would turn into lakes and frankly I'm not a golden shower adherernt. update : apparently I'm wrong, it's not just the lads

De people #2, despite the lovely people you meet, there's too many fuc.kheads with main character syndrome barging through crowds.
Rubbish, we are a nasty dirty little nation, to get to the car this morning, I had to do a tour of the refugee camps to get from Pink Moon (now fuc.king moonlight meadows (sweet felching jesus)) to Yellow carpark. Take off nuke the site from orbit, only way to be sure to clean it.
Crowd control, that main arena and also EA in the dark are bloody dangerous, Belvin is pushing it to the point that if there is a stampede (and with the right act, it's going to happen) in the dark, then you're going to have dead on your hands. I'm not small and carry a large mass and can move if i need to but would not fancy my chances at all if something happened in that situation. If he's seriously thinking of expanding then they're going to need to move some of the larger tents into elsewhere and eliminate the choke points.
Cost, gouging pricks, nuff said.
Food areas are disgusting, they need to change that whole approach of the two rows back to back, that was fine 30,000 people ago, it's not working now.
Parking, not sure there's much point in expanding on that.

I will get a ticket on Wednesday just in case (not like i'l lose money) but I think in it's current format, it's done for me, the kids, rubbish, overpowering smell of piss and the gouging are just too much.

If the poster previously saying they were looking at re-branding was serious, can i remind belvin that the name Oxygen is available.

scruff monkey · 19-08-2024 09:26PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122521027#Comment_122521027

miles? are you some sort of protesdant?

riddles · 19-08-2024 09:44PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122521619#Comment_122521619

It really is amazing there hasn’t been a serious issue regarding the lack of crowd control.

Dreamweapon · 19-08-2024 09:45PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122521685#Comment_122521685

I'm with @Penfailed here. Miles, feet, inches and stones for me.

Electric Picnic 2024 **No Ticket Sales / Requests** - Waiting in line, terrible time, over familiar

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Electric Picnic 2024 No Ticket Sales / Requests - Waiting in line, terrible time, over familiar