Electric Picnic 2015

St. Lupulin

Julio Bashmore and Jon Hopkins setlists please...

There was a tune 3 or 4 tracks into the Bashmore set that blew my mind. I need that tune.

Jonotti

KaTEA wrote: »

My
Great craic was had by all, but a friends relationship with the boyfriend is down the drain to say the least. A!

What did she do?

Jonotti

Right Turn Clyde wrote: »

I think some people, myself included, were complaining about the amount of poor quality dance music, particularly superficial deep house.

Have you ever been to Bloc or Dimensions? I have and each time I was treated to world class dance/electronic line-ups. I want more of that at Electric Picnic, not less. The majority of dance artists at this year's Picnic are simply not good enough to play the festivals you mention, especially Bloc, so you're barking up the wrong tree with that line of argument.

Try reading and understanding each post before you waste your time writing a reply.

Fair enough, I'm on the defensive from 90s guitar music soft cocks.

Sofiztikated

Jonotti wrote: »

What did she do?

Probably the usual festival mank, gave someone a muddy handy beside the jacks.

Toulouse

That was my 5th EP and despite the extra capacity I think, for me, it was probably the best one yet.

I didn't really notice the extra crowd until Sunday afternoon and getting around that evening was pretty challenging. The shower facilities and toilets were perfect for the weekend. I only queued for the loo once and everytime I went they were clean and well attended to. The guys seemed to get a bit of a raw deal with less toilets and bigger queues than previous years.

Camped in Joplin and it was fine, no major hassle and welcomed the addition of a food and coffee truck. The oxygen recharge party tent wasn't really in keeping with that campsite though.

Highlights for me were Jon Hopkins, Jurrasic 5, Django Django, Battles, My Morning Jacket, Le Galaxie.

I thought the crowd was less scumbaggy than previous years and didn't notice too many very drunk people. Met a lot of people on pills and buzzed off them, most were in great form and the one young fella who I found outside my tent absolutely monged out of it and totally alone, I steered towards first aid purely because I didn't want to leave him on his own and I had to go sleep.

Sorry it's over to be honest, can't bring myself to cut off my wristband.

Jonotti

Sofiztikated wrote: »

Probably the usual festival mank, gave someone a muddy handy beside the jacks.

Ha, I know a guy that ate out a birds arse on the Sunday night.

Toulouse

KaTEA wrote: »

Great craic was had by all, but a friends relationship with the boyfriend is down the drain to say the least

Haha, sounds like my first picnic

Right Turn Clyde

Jonotti wrote: »

Fair enough, I'm on the defensive from 90s guitar music soft cocks.

I honestly wouldn't begrudge anyone, even grumpy 90s rock-dads, complaining about the amount of crappy dance music at this year's festival. I have literally travelled around the world in the hunt for good dance music, so I'd like to think I know it when I hear it. And there was genuinely a real lack of decent material at it this year. I mean Joy Orbison and Boddika headlined last year! They are absolute box-office at the moment and would receive top billing at the likes of Bloc. That's what Electric Picnic deserves, not 50 shades of 'deep' house. It's great to see lesser known DJs getting a shot, but not at peak time sets in the only dedicated dance area at a 50,000+ capacity festival. You don't see it anywhere else. Red Bull really messed up this year.

Ferris_Bueller

Just back from another unbelievable weekend, there is magic in the air down in Stradbally. Arguably my favourite one so far but with the group of people I was with it would have been hard to not have a great weekend.

Definitely noticed the increase in numbers this year, on the Friday the queues were a lot longer and the campsites filled up a lot earlier than the previous two years anyway. There were constantly a lot of bodies in the main arena, although most of the stages could deal pretty well with the crowds they attracted from what I could see. There were pretty long queues for all the food vans, toilets, entering the arena and queues to get into places like the Silent Disco and the Heineken Sound Atlas, although I didn't bother with either.

I did notice a good few more scummy types around than before, realistically if they keep increasing the crowd size it is only going to get worse so I hope they don't expand it again any time soon. I camped in the Oscar Wilde which seemed better than the Hendrix (which I heard was a war zone..), not much hassle down there but I did see one or two scuffles between security and some groups of scummers this morning when they were trying to get people to leave. I've no problem with people taking drugs but I did notice a lot of zombies going around at night time absolutely out of their bin, some of the girls I was with found them a bit creepy.

Music wise Despacio, Hot Chip & Maurice Fulton were my highlights. Despacio on Saturday night was possibly the best experience I've ever had at a festival to be honest, excellent tunes, great sound system and there was plenty of space to dance despite it being pretty busy. Didn't really enjoy the "rave in the woods" this year, it's at the point now where it's reputation just automatically gets people down there and it's full of people just talking and standing rather than people who are into the tunes. Was down there on Friday but didn't bother going back for the rest of the weekend.

Didn't notice too many young ones that would have been at Longitude for example, but it definitely felt like a large percentage of the crowd was in their early 20s. Security this year also seemed very tight, was talking to a security guard this morning who said that there were probably less incidents this year than the past two years but the incidents that did occur were more serious (didn't go into detail).

Overall an unbelievable weekend, so much to do and see there that you'd need a week to fit in everything you want to do. I hope they don't increase the attendance anymore next year and hopefully remain careful with their bookings.

PatrickIde1187

Amazing weekend. The amount of sound random people you meet across the weekend is really awesome , no hassle whatsoever despite campning in Hendrix!. Any1 see that young lad friday night wandering around with no shirt on absolutely high as ****?! He was blue he was so cold.

Dr. Zaius Dr. Zaius!

I will probably get slated for this but...does anybody else wish they would increase the age ban from 13-17 to 13-maybe 22!?

I had a great weekend but the amount of annoying eegits around. Christ! I was elbowed, shoved out of the way and just trampled on as if I didnt even exist at times by young wans. And im not a small girl!

I hate complaining because I did enjoy myself but I cant stand that carry on.

I agree with somebody else who said its snobbery but that Cocktail Cocktail place pumpimg out Flo Rida and similar crap...just whats the point!? Full of teens all weekend, who probably do the exact same thing every weekend in their own nightclubs at home.
Get rid of that, and you probably wouldnt have stories of people sh!tting in tents and starting fires.

roll

Mike Guide 69 wrote: »

I think its now safe to say that the eclectic mix that previous picnic's had in the past is now gone. Whether this was due to the release of Sunday tickets at previous festivals to capitalise on a more mainstream (younger) audience for financial and economic reasons, is anyones guess. Or was it the demise of Oxegen which resulted with those in the know, to seek to gain an advantage by throwing in some mainstream acts which has severely diluted the authenticity of the attendance of the festival? As judging by this weekends attendance it is all to clear to see, that this festival has now reached its max and any additional changes to increase its audience will ultimately result in its demise.

As for the acts I caught;

Future Islands - Cracking set, with the best frontman in music today, Samuel T Herring, bodypopping, german krautrock growling, with a bit of elvis hip swinging thrown in, the man has it all. Had the crowd in his hands and you could see he really appreciated the vibe he got off the crowd. Also liked the way he stomped off too one side of the stage and unceremoniously unplugged the leads from one of the speakers, when it was giving feedback.

Comedy Tent - Foil, Arms & Hog, saw them last year and ermmm, played most of the same material they did at last years event

Colm O Regan - See above, saw him last year, and did the same material, the mobile phone sketch is getting tedious now Colm, new material please!!!

The 1975 - Only caught the last 15 minutes of their set as was in the comedy tent (if i only knew), but was good judging by the crowd that was there.

Churches - Excellent, really great show they put on. Had caught their coverage at Glastonbury and was eager too see how they would perform. Lauren Mayberry has a fantastic voice, really impresses by her vocal range and she even engaged with the audience, pointing out the long queues for the womens portaloos, in her best scottish accent.

Sam "Thank You For Buying My Album " Smith - Total borefest, an artist while having a good voice, would just put you to sleep, total dismal performance, talk about been in love with himself!!!

Blur - Judging by previous posters, there seems to be mixed views on this, missed the first 20 minutes, while I'm not a huge Blur fan, i thought it was a good show they put on, Damon seemed to be in good form, chatting away, even inviting a few fans up on stage , "Parklife" was great to hear, good the whole crowd going, still able to hit the range with a lot of the songs, was a good setlist they played.

Low - Oh dear!!!, reason I missed the first 20 minutes of the Blur set, was that I went to see the Minnesota's finest , slowcore, shoegaze act over in the Cosby Tent. But who in their right mind, decided to put this fine band on, wedged between, The Rankin Wood Stage, where Jon Hopkins was DJing his set and a dance act at the heineken complex beside the tent is beyond me. An earlier slot would have been more practical for this band, as their music was been droned out by the other surrounding artists. At one stage Alan Sparhawk looked behind at Mimi Parker on drums, when playing and pointed out at the Jon Hopkins set and sarcastically started shaking his head to beat coming out of the tent across the way from them. All Mimi could do was shrug her shoulders and kept playing away, which is a shame, because they are a great band live and earlier slot during the afternoon would have been more beneficial to them.

Anyway roll on Sunday, let the mayhem begin, now I wonder will Interpols Paul Banks, do a Damon Albarn and invite fans up on stage to do a dance, or knowing him, will only do so, if they unltimately stage dive to impending injury........:D

I love Mimi but she was pissed off from start to finish! Maybe they were more pissed off with the small crowd...?

ghostdancer

had a good enough weekend, had a laugh with friends and saw some good acts. The War on Drugs, Tame Impala, Hot Chip and Jon Hopkins were all excellent.
the festival itself was even more of a sh1thole than last year. increased amount of tacky crap all around the arena, increased amount of dickheads everywhere, increased prices to rip people off.
will be very glad if there's little on the lineup next year that makes me want to go, or we get organised for going abroad to somewhere like Dimensions/Outlook for the weekend instead.

roll

Saruwatari wrote: »

I was kicking myself for not going to EP this year just for these guys but seems like I didn't miss out! Ironically sounds like the same case their good ol' friend Mark Kozelek had with War on Drugs at that other festival haha.

I'm hoping they return for a proper gig this year, can't imagine the festival scene really suits em unless they're performing 20min drone reworks of their back catalogue :pac:

sparhawk said they'd be back in february

KaTEA

Jonotti wrote: »

What did she do?

Shifted the couple of lads, and "went off to Hendrix" for a while with another guy

MadYaker

I had a great weekend as usual. I think I'm going to buy a ticket for next year as soon as they go on sale. Yeah the crowd was noticeably rougher and I did see a few scumbags pissing on tents in the campsite but to be honest they didn't impinge on my weekend so I didn't care. I'm not the type of moron who looks at a crowd and get in a huff because they aren't the type of people I think should be at a certain festival, although there are plenty of those morons posting in this thread. Pillheads are fine by me. Me and my friends took pills and went to the RBMA stage in the woods every night until 4am, danced my arse off at the Bacardi stage as well and it was ****ing great fun altogether. Everyone I met at both places were nice and just wanted to dance and have fun. I think people who have never tried MDMA judging others for taking it is frankly ridiculous but anyway...

Friday: Arrived at 5pm, drank in the campsite for a while, wandered into the main arena and explored for a while. Ended up at the Bacardi Stage, then underworld and then on to the RBMA stage. Epic night.

Saturday: George Ezra followed by the start of Chvrches and then on to Yasim Bey. All great. Sam Smith and Blur were thoroughly boring. Tourist after that was excellent as expected, then on to the RBMA stage to finish out the night. Throw in some great food earlier on in the day and all in all it was very enjoyable.

Sunday: Campsite cans followed by some more nice food and then the Dublin Gospel Choir, lovely start to the day. Back out for more cans then back in for Jape who were great. Bit of Despacio then on to MK which was one of my highlights of the weekend. Yeah some people can bash it for being generic house music, but I don't care, we were high and we danced our asses off and had a great time. Bit of A. Skillz at the Bacardi stage followed by Florence who was epic. Into Body & Soul for a bit of Mother DJs and then on to RBMA until 4am. All in all a great weekend was had by all.

Sunday was too packed though. The main arena was jammers by lunch time. Too many people they should reduce it for next year but i won't hold my breath...

Dtp1979

KaTEA wrote: »

Shifted the couple of lads, and "went off to Hendrix" for a while with another guy

Ssssssslllllllluuuuuuuuuuttttttttt

Barlivia

Stayed in pink moon and besides the long que to get in friday I couldn't fault it. The showers and toilets were well maintained and the crowd staying there were all great hardly no noise at all at night from what I experienced.

The only rip off was that cracked pepper place they had. €12 for a burger and chip and €15 for a breakfast in a box. They really must have thought "Whats the most we can charge people without it being illegal!!"
Highlights for me were blur, future islands,chvrches,al porter and florence

Fatfrog

Woke this morning to a smell of burning in the campsite, at some point during the night an empty tent was set on fire. It wasn't that close to me but scary stuff.
There was a large group of 18-20 year olds dickheads (they'd been giving ****e to passers by all weekend), apparently thought it would be a "bit of craic" I heard security were straight on it and chucked a few of them out.

total former

Yes, the EP is getting more and more corporate, but that's inevitable as it gets bigger. I just didn't bother my arse with them, didn't even know what the Sure, Surf or e-Lites things were about.

Plenty of young toe-rags around but that's inevitable too. Can't say it particularly affected my weekend or was any worse than previous years, didn't see any particularly nasty incidents. I was staying in Janis Joplin which is definitely more civilised than Hendrix or Wilde.

The larger crowd didn't seem particularly noticeable until Sam Smith - as soon as he started, there was a fully-fledged stampede of young wans toward the stage and the crowd for Blur was definitely much larger than previous headliners, but most of the tents were grand nearly all weekend.

Since we're all griping about something, what wrecked my head most was the attitude of some of the people with kids. I think it's great that some people bring their kids (I have two but I'd never bring them), but some of them were taking the p*ss. Like, it was Baltic on Saturday night, went into John Hopkins for a while and there was a woman with a toddler in a buggy. The poor kid must have been freezing, and if my spleen was vibrating from the bass, I can't imagine it's good for a toddler's ears. I saw plenty more people doing similar and I'd feel more strongly about that than some 18-year old dropping some pills and acting the prat.

Musically, I really enjoyed War on Drugs and Hot Chip. Blur were OK, not really seeing what all the fuss was about though (and I'm a fan). One surprise for me was Ham Sandwich, was expecting nothing but they were really good. Grace Jones just went way over my head, didn't get it at all.

As a Dubs fan, the big screen was a great addition.

Also; the price of food is f**king criminal. I don't mind being gouged for beer, you can have a few in the campsite and it's often more of a pain in the arse to leave a gig to get a beer, then leave again to go for a slash, but the food stalls in the main arena were outrageous.

BullBlackNova

Stayed in Pink Moon and won't ever be returning to Hendrix. The novelty of sleeping and having space is something else - and the entrance by the Electric Arena was great, even if the staff were seriously OTT in the searching. The pockets of my wallet, etc. What point is too far?

Musically, I didn't leave any act disappointed all weekend so I'm pretty pleased with that. Now, I thought Florence was ****e, but I was only there with the other half anyway. Blur, Girl Band, Jape, My Morning Jacket, War on Drugs, Belle & Sebastian and Hot Chip were all great. Thoroughly enjoyed Interpol and the bit of the Manics I saw too.

LA Priest was just too late for me so I left after two songs, Shamir I managed to stick it out longer even with the tiredness. Don't really see what the fuss is about, though it was fun.

Had no crowd issues though it was noticeably busier on Sunday. It didn't seem like they increased the arena or campsite size at all, so it was just more people in the same area. Naturally enough, it felt less comfortable at times. The commercialisation too isn't nice to see. And with that I'm specifically talking about the sponsorship mile with Just-Eat, Heineken and the E-cigarette/vaping crowd all shilling their wares. It wasn't nice to see I don't think.

boardie100

First time at EP and a large festival but i loved it.... saw a lot of new great bands that i hadnt heard of before...

i stayed in the hendrix and while it was ok it did get loud and messy late... i picked it at random but are the other campsites the same?

The crowd was a lot younger than i expected but maybe thats me getting old ..
I dont understand people bringing kids though, especially toddlers and children no older than 6 months.... i think its selfish to bring them and have their ears blown off by booming speakers.... not to mention witnessing pissed up people falling around...
I'd never bring my own...

roll

found myself not going to salty dog, other voices etc due to knowing the impending queues back into the main arena..... apart from that and the fact both beer and food was bad value for money, EP15 was great. families, gob****es, pillbeads, lager louts, gaa folk, hippies, posh people all seem to have had a good time! saw a hell of a lot of good music too... highlight of the weekend was definitely the 'mound' slightly left of centre near the back of the electric arena which gave a great view of the best acts of the weekend, war on drugs being the best!

MadYaker

I saw a toddler on her mothers shoulders in Despacio at about 10pm as well. She had ear muffs on for the sound but still I thought it was a bit much.

sadie06

Still too knackered to do up my little review but in defence of us parents, the majority of us are responsible. The family camping experience is nothing like the general camping experience. There is a whole kids area that you do not have access to so probably don't realise it exists, plus all sorts for the children in Mindfield, the craft area and the circus, and that's before the music! It is awful to see a few parents who ignore what's best for the kids, but they are few and far between.

discodiva92

Was there a rule on the time kids were allowed in till?

Fatfrog

Did anyone make the boards meet up? Was fully intending on being there, but the main ticket-wristband queue delayed me.
Managed to get to BBB at other voices, but it was absolutely jammed, was standing outside not a chance of recognising anyone!

MadYaker

Fatfrog wrote: »

Did anyone make the boards meet up? Was fully intending on being there, but the main ticket-wristband queue delayed me.
Managed to get to BBB at other voices, but it was absolutely jammed, was standing outside not a chance of recognising anyone!

Same happened to me I didn't leave Galway early enough.

Paddy2012

I went with my disabled brother which meant I was drinking a lot less and instead focused on the music which was brilliant. Lots of highlights including Ride, underworld, future islands, chvrches, Jon Hopkins, Blur, Jurrasic 5, Alvvays, Elephant, Django Django, War in Drugs, FKA Twigs and Florence. I also managed to catch a secret set by villagers in the trailer park yesterday on the way out which blew me away. The atmosphere and organisation was as good as any festival I've been to and I didn't really notice a big difference in the crowd (although I've not been since 2012) apart from some trouble around the woods near salty dog on Sunday evening. I'm already thinking about next year (surely the xx are a strong possibility to headline?).

SantryRed

What's the story with the staff not knowing where the buses are? I got sent the complete wrong way by staff last night, left at 11 o'clock and ended up in Stradbally, and walking right around the site and eventually found the bus site and got on one at 1:15! I was absolutely fuming. Had to be in work this morning and at one point, I genuinely was thinking of giving up and pitching my tent again in the woods :pac: