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

Reggie noble

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 .

scruff monkey

Reggie noble wrote: »

Defo notice the increased capacity, are they going to up it again next year i wonder.

apparently not, will try and find linky.

Peterd66

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.

run_Forrest_run

Melvin Benn was interviewed on the radio Friday or Saturday morning and he said they will not be looking to increase capacity for next year.

scruff monkey

found it
http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/electric-picnic-day-three-covered-in-mud-still-humming-lcd-1.2779320

at the bottom is the Mr. Benn bit.

Beechwoodspark

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

Melvin Benn was interviewed on the radio Friday or Saturday morning and he said they will not be looking to increase capacity for next year.

Dunno where they'd fit even 5k more.It was full to the gills this year, but seemingly using the same site plan and facilities as other years with 10 thousand lower attendance

scruff monkey

Beechwoodspark wrote: »

Dunno where they'd fit even 5k more.It was full to the gills this year, but seemingly using the same site plan and facilities as other years with 10 thousand lower attendance

20 thousand lower 3 years ago.

Lotus Flower

Did anyone go for a dip in the lake?

Lemsiper

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

Button_y

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

I will be buying tickets on Friday and going, but with the knowledge that its not the same event I am attending as I did 5-10 years ago.

Beechwoodspark

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*

princemuzzy

on the subject of kids i will have to give it serious consideration for next year because of the crowd element, we have never let them come with us on a sunday as the crowd was always that bit rougher ( day trippers imo tend to be locked when they arrrive)

however my eldest (10) has done 6 and my youngest (6) has done 3 picnics, they have their own taste in music and really look forward to it. I really think if all kids were brought to festivals early, festivals will be a much better place in 20 years as kids will see how to properly act and be respectful of others

one of my main gripes this year were pissed off their face 18-23 year olds constantly talking to my kids looking for high fives, you wouldnt do it normally so why here?

by the way drink and drugs has always been a big part of ep however its out of control imo

my lads love music and research the entire lineup for people to see and we bring them even if it means listening to somebody crap who cares its their choice? the day it becomes completely unsuitable for them will be a very sad day and unfortunately i think its coming very soon

johnpatrick81

I thought it was borderline too packed 2 years ago. It's increased the capacity twice since. If the lineup had gotten better, and the price gone down, then I'd be still tempted. The fact the lineup got noticeably "cheaper" and the tickets remain the same(perhaps even went up a little in the last 2 years) means I'll be steering well clear. Stinks of pure and utter greed, but hey you can't knock them when they sell out.

Pity as it really was one of the best festivals in Europe(and the world really) 4 or 5 years ago. The fact it sells out means it will only get worse/remain the same sadly.

The Nal

princemuzzy wrote: »

one of my main gripes this year were pissed off their face 18-23 year olds constantly talking to my kids looking for high fives, you wouldnt do it normally so why here?

Because they're c nts? A lot of Irish people act like total twats when they're outside of their comfort zone. Same reason idiots walk around Santa Ponsa in Dublin jerseys chanting "Dublin Dublin" at people in bars and the same reason middle aged women wear pink cowboy hats at stadiums gigs.

UsedToWait

^ re Melvin Benn interview mentioned above:

He also said one of next years headliners has already been booked, and said it was a guitar band, clearly implying that it will be Radiohead..

sadie06

My 5th EP. Three with our oldest child, and two with both children.

I am usually bursting to give my review of all the music and fun, but have to get this rant off my chest first. This is NOT a family friendly festival anymore. Spread the word! The families have been slowly marginalised anyway. 5,000 tickets out of 55,000 is nowhere near enough. Double that would be appropriate. I know it's a money thing, but families buy their tickets early…EP would have it banked for all that time.

Add to the ratio issue the ridiculous route from car park to camp site, the completely unsafe route from the campsite to the arena this year (all to cater for the swimming, which never happened) and the woeful services and squashed conditions in Family Camping and it's pretty obvious that families are being phased out or taken for granted big time!

Add again the dynamic in the arena, especially yesterday. I couldn't wait to get the kids out of there. It was their last year anyway as my son is 12, but to be honest there is no way we would have brought them again unless they increased the number of families to be in proportion with the overall body of festival goers.

1/5 families would make for a more relaxed festival for everyone, although I agree with the 'identity crisis' theory, and…well…it may just be too late to turn back.

Will report back on the good stuff later. Glad everyone is in one piece. :-)

Edited to add: Our biggest mistake was trying to make our way to My Lovely Ranch in Trailer Park just as every 18-23 year old girl was entering the Arena to catch some band called Picture This. It was pretty intimidating seeing the blonde army marching towards us. It was like an unforeseen end-of-the-world scenario. The fake-tan apocalypse.

scruff monkey

UsedToWait wrote: »

^ re Melvin Benn interview mentioned above:

He also said one of next years headliners has already been booked, and said it was a guitar band, clearly implying that it will be Radiohead..

Wouldn't bet on it, remember, anyone can play guitar.

threein99

Reggie noble wrote: »

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 .

I couldnt sleep all weekend worrying about them

SoundOfSilence

UsedToWait wrote: »

^ re Melvin Benn interview mentioned above:

He also said one of next years headliners has already been booked, and said it was a guitar band, clearly implying that it will be Radiohead..

Are you basing that off the fact he said it was a guitar band? Or did he actually say something else that implied it's radiohead?

scruff monkey

Some one had said earlier in the thread that they'd broken off negotiations for the R-word band when it sold out, if that was the case, would said band really be arsed to deal with them after such poor form?

Thundercats Ho

Oh my god, the fear.

scruff monkey

Thundercats Ho wrote: »

Oh my god, the fear.

now now, lets not start that till next march in the week leading up to the main announcement (assuming that they stick to around then)

The Bishop Basher

princemuzzy wrote: »

one of my main gripes this year were pissed off their face 18-23 year olds constantly talking to my kids looking for high fives, you wouldnt do it normally so why here?

Probably just drunk, high and looking to share their good vibes. They could be doing worse tbh.

Just to balance it up though, i kept getting high fived by this cute young kid (4/5) every time I left the main stage to go get a cuppa fro the tea van..

Anyway, he put a smile on my face.

I didn't think the drink and drugs were as bad as other years and definitely less tracksuits about but i did notice a lot more 15 - 21 year olds which does change the vibe considerably..

That said, only downsides for me this year were the weather and the lineup. We've been almost every year and will definitely go again but i'd be hoping for a vastly improved line up next year.

sadie06

Thundercats Ho wrote: »

Oh my god, the fear.

Aw…..tea, and a blanket, and the couch, and something comforting like Malcolm in the Middle. It will be OK.

murphyebass

sadie06 wrote: »

My 5th EP. Three with our oldest child, and two with both children.

I am usually bursting to give my review of all the music and fun, but have to get this rant off my chest first. This is NOT a family friendly festival anymore. Spread the word! The families have been slowly marginalised anyway. 5,000 tickets out of 55,000 is nowhere near enough. Double that would be appropriate. I know it's a money thing, but families buy their tickets early…EP would have it banked for all that time.

Add to the ratio issue the ridiculous route from car park to camp site, the completely unsafe route from the campsite to the arena this year (all to cater for the swimming, which never happened) and the woeful services and squashed conditions in Family Camping and it's pretty obvious that families are being phased out or taken for granted big time!

Add again the dynamic in the arena, especially yesterday. I couldn't wait to get the kids out of there. It was their last year anyway as my son is 12, but to be honest there is no way we would have brought them again unless they increased the number of families to be in proportion with the overall body of festival goers.

1/5 families would make for a more relaxed festival for everyone, although I agree with the 'identity crisis' theory, and…well…it may just be too late to turn back.

My opinion here won't be popular but here it is...

Don't bring the kids if you feel that way.

To be honest as someone with their own kids I can not for the life of me understand what you/anyone bring children to the drink and drug fuelled chaos that is an outdoor festival. (And yes I've been to plenty over the years)

Personally I didnt drink at them (don't do drugs) and I even found it painful dealing with people falling about the place.

It's the same as the parents who bring heir kids to a pub all day Sunday. Ugh

Get a baby sitter or don't go. Simple.

..Again just my opinion. Opinions may vary.

sadie06

murphyebass wrote: »

My opinion here won't be popular but here it is...

Don't bring the kids if you feel that way.

Did you miss the part where I said this was the first year I felt this way? And the part where I said I wouldn't bring them again? Thanks for the advice though.

You just said that I'm the same as a parent that brings their kids to a pub all day Sunday, and you expect me not to take offence? I could easily have left my children with grandparents every single year, but I didn't because it was an enriching experience for them…until this year.

I wasn't drinking either…for the record.

princemuzzy

murphyebass wrote: »

My opinion here won't be popular but here it is...

Don't bring the kids if you feel that way.

To be honest as someone with their own kids I can not for the life of me understand what you/anyone bring children to the drink and drug fuelled chaos that is an outdoor festival. (And yes I've been to plenty over the years)

Personally I didnt drink at them (don't do drugs) and I even found it painful dealing with people falling about the place.

It's the same as the parents who bring heir kids to a pub all day Sunday. Ugh

Get a baby sitter or don't go. Simple.

..Again just my opinion. Opinions may vary.

it wasnt always like that, its always been family friendly and it was marketed as such

the last 2 years have killed it as family friendly, and its bull**** families like mine and others on here were loyal customers even when it was dwindling and getting poor crowds and now we are been marginalised for profit.

MJohnston

murphyebass wrote: »

My opinion here won't be popular but here it is...

Don't bring the kids if you feel that way.

To be honest as someone with their own kids I can not for the life of me understand what you/anyone bring children to the drink and drug fuelled chaos that is an outdoor festival. (And yes I've been to plenty over the years)

Personally I didnt drink at them (don't do drugs) and I even found it painful dealing with people falling about the place.

It's the same as the parents who bring heir kids to a pub all day Sunday. Ugh

Get a baby sitter or don't go. Simple.

..Again just my opinion. Opinions may vary.

Opinions do vary, but yours still sounds like that of a handbag clutching oul biddie (but that's just my opinion, no offence)

murphyebass

princemuzzy wrote: »

it wasnt always like that, its always been family friendly and it was marketed as such

the last 2 years have killed it as family friendly, and its bull**** families like mine and others on here were loyal customers even when it was dwindling and getting poor crowds and now we are been marginalised for profit.

Meh, it's not personal it just business.

That said whether or not it said it was kid friendly in the past doesn't escape the fact that it is and always has had drink and drugs freely accessible which can and has done in the past at all venues and festivals led to poor decision making and behaviour sometimes worse than others.

Look at the gig in the phoinex park only a couple of years ago.
Imagine you and your loved ones were caught up in that!!
And yes lots of these gigs go off without hassle but why on earth take that risk. On your own fair enough but why the kids?

As I said I can't fathom why someone would intentionally put a child in those surroundings. Teenager maybe but not a young child.

MJohnston

murphyebass wrote: »

Meh, it's not personal it just business.

That said whether or not it said it was kid friendly in the past doesn't escape the fact that it is and always has had drink and drugs freely accessible which can and has done in the past at all venues and festivals led to poor decision making and behaviour sometimes worse than others.

Look at the gig in the phoinex park only a couple of years ago.
Imagine you and your loved ones were caught up in that!!
And yes lots of these gigs go off without hassle but why on earth take that risk. On your own fair enough but why the kids?

As I said I can't fathom why someone would intentionally put a child in those surroundings. Teenager maybe but not a young child.

Just because you cant fathom it doesn't make it unfathomable