Electric Picnic 2013 *Discussion only. NO ticket sales/requests*

Sir_Badshot

Hello to all the great people involved in Trenchtown, spent pretty much the whole gig there and missed everything else. Thank you:)

Got to see Bob Plant, brilliant. Missed David Byrne, fek it.

It has gotten about 10% of the knob element from Oxegen this year, I know FR are reading this, keep that worlds separate please! It nice to see kids , family's and an older crowed there , dont loose that.

wotswattage

I only really noticed the knob crowd on sunday, don't know if that was because of the bigger crowds, the sunday tickets, or because everyone was a bit strung out after 2 days of 'festivalling'?!?!

Looper007

Sir_Badshot wrote: »

Hello to all the great people involved in Trenchtown, spent pretty much the whole gig there and missed everything else. Thank you:)

Got to see Bob Plant, brilliant. Missed David Byrne, fek it.

It has gotten about 10% of the knob element from Oxegen this year, I know FR are reading this, keep that worlds separate please! It nice to see kids , family's and an older crowed there , dont loose that.

But that was always going to happen since Oxygen went all Dance/Pop (not every bad crowd follows one kind of music), I think it will gradually get worse cause I can see the EP line up shoving in more commercial indie acts. It's all about making money at the end of the day.

Still think they need to find a replacement Festival for Oxygen always felt EP was for a more artier and older crowd (just going by the reviews and having went to it a few times before). Not good news to hear of deaths and people's personal belongings been stolen but it happens at most festivals.

Sir_Badshot

Looper007 wrote: »

But that was always going to happen since Oxygen went all Dance/Pop (not every bad crowd follows one kind of music), I think it will gradually get worse cause I can see the EP line up shoving in more commercial indie acts. It's all about making money at the end of the day.

True, but promoters are not as dumb as you think. I hope.


Also maybe its to early to start berating a gig that aint quite gone bad yet and is still nice.

Looper007

Sir_Badshot wrote: »

True, but promoters are not as dumb as you think. I hope.


Also maybe its to early to start berating a gig that aint quite gone bad yet and is still nice.

Well going by some of the reviews on here I see a lot of mention of "rowdy crowds" been mentioned quite a bit. Not always great to read that. But I ain't stating it's gone down the toilet or anything.

Eroticplants

I really enjoyed The Knife.
I will never feel clean again.
The campervan area was pretty nice.
I'm going back to bed.

Queen-Mise

I'm a firm believer that you shouldn't necessarily have to be familiar with a band's repertoire to really enjoy them. And also for them to put on a great show.

With that in mind I found Arctic Monkeys & Two Door Cinema Club boring. I found them lack lustre.

Whereas I absolutely adored The Knife, & Bjork. I know practically nothing about either of them. But they put on an incredible show. Didn't have a clue what was going on at either, didn't recognise a song, but they were amazing.
Even with the 'supposed' sound problems with My Bloody Valentine, they also put on a great show.


For the bands I am somewhat familiar with: Robert Plant & SSS, Strypes, & Ocean Colour Scene.
Robert Plant is amazing. I'd watch fascinated if all he was doing was polishing a glass and humming - so I'm not exactly a objective reviewer:P

Strypes - were really good, I stumbled across them last year in the Trailer Park. They were just as tight this year as last, but couldn't get over at the quality of the playing of the lead guitarist. He has progressed so much in the last year.
Someone commented already on the thread that they were regurgitating their father's record collections - but they are so young, they have plenty of time to find their own niche & sound.
When we were going in Sunday - we were walking behind the singer and guitarist & I was listening to them chatting: they were talking about their Spanish & English teacher and subjects for the Leaving Cert. It is hard to believe that they are still so young.

Gotta bring kids to school - I have gotta comment on that review of Ocean Colour Scene.

SlipperyPeople

Jaysus I'm still in a bad way after 10 hours of sleep. Won't be back to normal for another day or two.

This was my 5th EP and like alot of others have said have found that the scumbag element has creeped in alot more compared to other years.

had a huge crowd of 18 year olds staying beside us and if i wasnt with a huge group myself I wouldve had my head wrecked. (earplugs and a few benzos helps alot too)

was it just me or did any one else notice that alot of people were sh*tting out the ground outside tents?? disgusting. like why can't people go to the portaloo like a normal person. wasnt just where I Was camped either in Hendrix friends were in oscar wilde and noticed it aswell.


highlights were for me: Robert Plant, David Byrne, the beat, arctic monkeys, ben klock, warpaint, Everything in body and soul! and the food

def missing a good few acts i saw but not having a timetable (i refused to buy one as usually i print them off and laminate them) messed up my schedule combined with being drunk all the time.

Missed BRMC because I forgot when they were on and was dragged to bjork gutted about that one.

if the two girls that met me by the carousel i think on friday night to give me back my hammered friend his iphone 5 he dropped read this. Thanks a million again! ye wouldnt even let me buy ye a drink!

Now to stay in bed until lunch time and get a Boojum Burrito and pan out on the couch catching up with Breaking bad.

till next year!

maximoose

Cracking weekend, highlight for me was John Grant. I wasn't familiar with him at all before going in but my mate insisted I come in with him. It was BANGING. The 3rd song of the set, I think it was Black Belt, set the place off and I was loving it! Then Sinead O'Conner was a nice treat, even if she did mess up quite a lot :pac:

Rfrip

I'm no where near over the weekend yet
Hopefully tomorrow I will b 70% functioning normally

partay pooper

In Bed, feeling my age now, there did seem to be a bang of Oxegen off it. I enjoyed the Hurts, the strypes, The Knife were amazing. Jaguar Ma also. Delighted that the weather held out even if it was cold at night. That's what stands out for me at the moment.

threein99

hungoverbunny wrote: »

Jaysus I'm still in a bad way after 10 hours of sleep. Won't be back to normal for another day or two.

This was my 5th EP and like alot of others have said have found that the scumbag element has creeped in alot more compared to other years.

had a huge crowd of 18 year olds staying beside us and if i wasnt with a huge group myself I wouldve had my head wrecked. (earplugs and a few benzos helps alot too)

was it just me or did any one else notice that alot of people were sh*tting out the ground outside tents?? disgusting. like why can't people go to the portaloo like a normal person. wasnt just where I Was camped either in Hendrix friends were in oscar wilde and noticed it aswell.


highlights were for me: Robert Plant, David Byrne, the beat, arctic monkeys, ben klock, warpaint, Everything in body and soul! and the food

def missing a good few acts i saw but not having a timetable (i refused to buy one as usually i print them off and laminate them) messed up my schedule combined with being drunk all the time.

Missed BRMC because I forgot when they were on and was dragged to bjork gutted about that one.

if the two girls that met me by the carousel i think on friday night to give me back my hammered friend his iphone 5 he dropped read this. Thanks a million again! ye wouldnt even let me buy ye a drink!

Now to stay in bed until lunch time and get a Boojum Burrito and pan out on the couch catching up with Breaking bad.

till next year!

We had a dirty protest outside our tent as well, mind boggling as to why someone would do that.

Hoochiemama

For me, it was all about the bumper cars!!!! Best EP addition ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gaspode

My band Whistle played at Trailer Park on Saturday night and I want to give a big shout out to the boardsies who came up to me afterwards to say hello (I was wearing my boards T-shirt on stage) - cant remember all the usernames you told me, but good to meet you and thanks for dancing! Playing there was one of the most awesome things I've experienced in my life so far!

keith_d99

Small clip from the highlight of the weekend David Byrne! - crowd reaction and atmosphere was amazing!
http://youtu.be/KnFL-DWon6g

laois gael

Good weekend came home Saturday night because I live so close...Mistake took me too long to get out of the bed and was hungover all day sunday ..didnt make it back out till 4pm...Was a massive crowd out there on the sunday...we set up camp in the Hendrix and it was fine apart form Neighbours opening up our tents to get chairs and what ever else they needed...If they asked it would been ok...

Thought elle goulding was fantastic...Frnaz F was dissapointing ....

Fireworks were magic ..Security were good altho the Guy on gate 6 Sunday was a little over the top even the Gardi were in bits laughing at him seen were my Rennies all sealed! ha ha...

Defo a little bit of a younger crowd out there hope thats not going to be the case and a Trend that starts....

All in all for 150 it was good value for money!

denisstack

threein99 wrote: »

We had a dirty protest outside our tent as well, mind boggling as to why someone would do that.

Same here, disgusting.

eire_lad

Le Galaxie, Body and Soul, Sunday nite at 12....Unreal.


Hope they get main tent next year

HowAreWe

Just remembered talking to a guy who told me he robbed jaffa cakes and rice cakes from peoples tents but he would leave ipods or phones

Furious-Red

Jim Carroll

First, the music and the highlight of all highlights from a weekend in a field in Co Laois. I spent a good 30 minutes yesterday rummaging around in the office trying to find the David Byrne and St Vincent album in order to try to relive the night before. But, in fairness, “Love This Giant” on a stereo in the shine of a sunny autumn afternoon was no match for what happened live in fron of my eyes and ears on the stage of the Electric Arena at the Electric Picnic on Sunday night.

When people go on about Picnic moments, point them towards this funky, brassy, magnificent show which took off within minutes of the singers and musicians hitting the stage and didn’t stop until “Road to Nowhere” had blown the roof off the tent. Every song, be it “Lazy”, “Burning Down the House” or a giddy, frantic, magnificent theremin face-off during “The One Who Broke Your Heart”, was pitch-perfect. Every person on the stage swung and swaggered their hearts out. Everyone who was fortune enough to have been there – I owe one to my Ticket colleague Lauren Murphy who took the Franz Ferdinand review off my hands, which meant I could skedaddle across the site to catch the Byrne & Vincent show – knew they were at something very special. It was truly one of those “I was there” moments.

“I was there” is what festivals are all about. It’s about the experiential, the fact that you and your social network were there to see that moment, share that joy, take it all. If a festival has enough “I was there” moments to relive after the fact, it’s doing its job right.

So did Electric Picnic 2013 do its job in this regard? Well, as the man said, that depends on you and who you are and what you wanted. You can read all the reviews in the world (read a bunch of them here) and all the opinion pieces in the world (read a bunch of those beasts here) and all the colour pieces in the world (read this instead), but it all comes down to what you thought, what you wanted and what you got from the Electric Picnic. You were born with a mind of your own, after all.

It was definitely the year of the big change, something which astute observers were signalling well in advance. Chalk this down to a number of things: a very specific bill, a surplus of Oxegen fans looking for the crack, emigration scooping out many of the potential mid-to-late twentysomething demographic, a cheaper ticket price than in previous years to square off the recessionary worries. Whatever, Picnic 2013 was a much different beast in claw and tooth to any of the previous Picnics which the oddly pitched “10″ celebrations were celebrating (the Picnic won’t turn 10 in the birthday or anniversary sense until next year).

There is no such thing as a typical Picnic goer, but few would argue that this year’s model was a far younger, more energetic and more mainstream man or woman.You could see it in the numbers (or lack of numbers) which many acts attracted. Many of the usual sideshows at the Picnic were just not as busy as they used to be, while some acts struggled for attention.

By contrast, the bigger acts made out like gangbusters. Be it the Arctic Monkeys or Disclosure, the field was full and the vibes were lusty. If you were a sideshow with a well-known celebrity like Aidan Gillen, Amy Huberman or Pauline McLynn, all of whom featured on the Arts Council Literary Stage, you were also busy. Many in this audience seemed to gravitate towards who and what they already knew rather than go for something new. Many in this audience also seemed happier to stay on the campsites for hours on end rather than come and explore the shows, hence the big queues to get into the arena from 7pm onwards.

Everything changes in the end and a festival in a field in Co Laois is no different. There will be more changes because such things are inevitable. Over the weekend, Melvin Benn spoke about his hopes to expand the capacity for next year, which will truly turn the boutique into a big shop. But he also knows that there’s still the ongoing court-case with Picnic co-owner John Reynolds to deal with. Both Benn and Reynolds have different ideas about managing and operating the event – they wouldn’t be up before the beak and spending a small fortune on legal fees otherwise – and the outcome of the dispute over parenthood and guardianship of the Picnic will dictate what will happen next. That outcome, by all accounts, is still months away and could even drag out into next year.

A Picnic will definitely go ahead in Stradbally next year for sure – deals were already in place with the landowner for rental of the field from some time ago and this year’s sellout means there’s more more money in the kitty for the shareholders to play with. But it remains to be seen what it will look like: a Festival Republic-led event with a 40k capacity or a POD-helmed fest which seeks to put the genie back in the bottle?

For some reason, Michael McDowell comes to mind at this juncture and his adage about gaps in the market and markets in the gap. Should a super-sized Electric Picnic become a reality next year and should the billing, pricing and pitch mean it’s Oxegen without the EDM, does this mean that there’s a space in the Irish festival landscape for an old-school Picnic to come along? For someone like Reynolds to dream it all up again? Because, let’s face it, there would be no Picnic in the first place, no Picnic for MCD and Live Nation to buy into when they couldn’t come up with their own event (hello HiFi!), without that crazy Longfordman. Then again, it’s worth remembering that Reynolds is the one who brought in Festival Republic to the Picnic in the first place.

You might argue that alternative Picnics already exist in the shape of such bijou gatherings as Castleplaooza or Body & Soul or Longitude or Forbidden Fruit, but none of them quite have the scale and ambition and sheer lunacy of the Picnic as was. Because I really don’t think there’s any going back in Stradbally to what the Picnic was. Those days are over, those memories are golden and those times can’t be replicated. It’s not that the Picnic is now on a road to nowhere, to link it all back to where we came in, but rather that it’s now on a different route. Many will choose to go along, just as many will decide to get off at this stop. What will be interesting to see is if something else comes along to sweep up all those who’ve got off or getting off the bus. Watch this space.

Thundercats Ho

Still shattered.
Just milled about on Friday. MBV were good and the fireworks were cool too. Topped off with the Jerry Fish party!
The Beat / Plant / DB & SV / Booka brass band? (on trailer stage), and a split of Billy Bragg and John Grant were all excellent on Saturday.
Johnny Marr / Tradside of the moon / Johnny cash band were good on the sunday too.


The food selection was brilliant as usual, but the alcohol selection was terrible.
3 different types of lager but no stout or cider. Heineken own beamish or Murphys (or both), and i think i've seen cider at their events before too. They really need to remedy this. €6 / €6.50 is a bit much too in fairness. It shouldn't matter what the going rate for a beer in a normal city pub is. this is a field in Laois!
I didn't buy any of the bacardi drinks (€8 / €8.50 i think), and the prosecco bars were €7.50 per glass or €15 for a plastic bottle (seemed like the size of a half bottle). I don't drink wine or spirits generally so this didn't bother me.

EP really need to sort out the ladies toilets. It was grand for us lads, cos we'll just píss anywhere (and generally did), but queues for the ladies were awful. 2 girls in our group didn't bother drinking on saturday or sunday because of the queues.

Cake and fireworks were a nice touch, and it would have been great to get one of those 10 year passes! There were free granola bars in mindfield, and free hot chocolate at the B&S entrance, and were all very welcome. The seats at the main stage were a brilliant idea and really helped when the legs got tired.

B&S / Greencraft were great as usual too, and the Trailer park was very good. Dancergy tent was good for a laugh aswell.

There was a much younger crowd this year (18-21), who seemed to just run about all weekend. I didn't get any sort of negative / agro vibe of them though, so it was all good.

Main stage acts seemed a bit weak, and Silent disco was beyond pathetic this year too.

Giglocker were brilliant and so handy for getting jackets and beer when 11pm came.

The security were much more strict on the pat downs, so i didn't bother trying to sneak cans in, and just took it easy.

It may look like i'm being a moany old B@stard, but i still had a great time.
I'd say most of the shortcomings were down to the legal wranglings and doubt on whether the event would even go ahead at all. Things like the stripped back Friday - poorer line up generally - silent disco. Im sure these can be easily rectified, but the alcohol selection and toilet situation is something that needs sorting asap. Luckily i didn't need to go to an atm, but surely they could have had a few more points around the site as the queues were just mental.

trick

My first ever EP, I had a brilliant weekend. Lots of fun, really chilled out, some very cool bands & tasty tasty food!!
Festihut was well worth every cent!!

Would love to see this changing to over 25s only though.. The 18-20ish year olds were painful

Loved Hurts, Bjork, Attention Bébé, Eels, rave in the woods Sunday night

Now sleepy sleeps until 12hour shift at 8pm :-(

threein99

Did anyone else mistakenly try and eat the candle off their free cake ?

SmokeyEyes

This was our second year going down and for us personally, it didn't have quite the same magic as last year.

The slighter younger Oxygen vibe and less families seemed to tip things differently from last year where it had a really inviting, laid back vibe.

For us personally, after tickets and then boutique camping, plus food & drink, the weekend costs a small fortune and with the lack of bands playing that we really loved, I don't think we could justify it next year unless there was a really cracking line up. We love checking out the smaller bands and comedy but overall it felt kind of lacking in some ways. Body & Soul is as always, a brilliant little spot, and if more of the festival was like that I think we'd be down again next year much quicker, but for us, we're going to have a big think before we buy for next year as it just didn't have the same magic for us personally. We had a great laugh, but it just didn't match last year at all!

Also agree with people saying boutique camping toilets were shocking, we used Pink Moon last year and found the facilities much better so if we did go again we'd go through Pink Moon!

Bobby Baccala

Did anybody catch miles kane on the Friday? I'd never listened to him before but one of the girls in my group convinced me to go down and I was dead impressed, great live act, he interacted with the crowd surprisingly well given there wasn't too many there

Oasis_Dublin

Had a great weekend. Johnny Marr was absolutely excellent. AM were good, Miles Kane was much better than I expected. I enjoyed FBS, even if he didn't include much of his own stuff. The Silent Disco was great, and we also got to some plays in Mindfield, and plenty of tea in the Tiny Tea Tent.

There were loads of other acts who were great, but that'll come later on.

One slightly annoying thing, and it was literally only one person. A youngish (late 20s) Scottish woman working the gates beside the Silent Disco (Cosby?) tent took drink from us way after 11 on Saturday night. It states on the website that we are allowed bring drink in, so there was absolutely no justification for it. We didn't let it annoy us however, and just continued on and enjoyed Saturday night.

On Sunday morning we came in the same entrance to get some breakfast and the exact same person took cups from us that belonged to the Tiny Tea Tent. She told us that they were a weapon (!). When we informed her that they were owned by a stall in the arena, and that there were probably a hundred similar "weapons" available inside, she firmly told us to move on. I'm not sure what her issue was, but I really similarly slightly inconvenient things happen to her!

seachto7

First one for me last year, didn't go this year, and based on feedback here with reports of an Oxegen type crowd, I'd think twice about next year. A festival abroad methinks. (Spain)

martybike

P4DDY2K11 wrote: »

Did anybody catch miles kane on the Friday? I'd never listened to him before but one of the girls in my group convinced me to go down and I was dead impressed, great live act, he interacted with the crowd surprisingly well given there wasn't too many there

Yeah, he was terrific! Great entertainer and deadly songs. Just hope he never gets too big and starts playing in the likes of the O2. He'd be deadly in the Olympia

ghostdancer

Mr.S wrote: »

I wonder if they'll re-do the "loyalty" scheme, €150 for the weekend was a steal

Benn said that people who didn't get a ticket should be ready for the early bird tickets this week, so definitely some sort of discount any way...

melekalikimaka

ep no. 10 for me and i have a feeling my last. some excellent bands playing but sadly the direction its gone crowd wise is a shame, awful stories from car parks and campsites this year. I guess its the young element coming in, theres a market for an over 23's festival me thinks over here