Electric Picnic 2023 **No Ticket Sales / Requests ** - It'll be grand
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Some thoughts on 2023. Was an absolutely fantastic few days. I think the festival is what you make of it, definitely almost all positive feedback, maybe there wasn't enough exciting acts available but only complaint still was still feel top tiers booking quality is poor and doesn't rank with international festivals that it used to/standards dropped, the one big thing I'd hope for in the future is that less generic boring irish acts that are passed their prime. Not really sure about the Wolf Tones booking either, I walked near EA at that stage and crowd looked very young and rough and seems out of place in 2023, but maybe that's just me.
But negatives aside, there are so many positives I could go over. I was a bit worried about not finding a decent camping space, last year was a shambles seemed increased capacity and same amount of space, and we arrived even later this year due to work, however we were directed towards an overflow area beside the silver campsite, and it is very nice lots of room, only issue is felt like a bit of a longer walk slightly and no toilets. I also felt there was a little more attention to making the festival more eco this year which is good to see. Security and organisation seemed really well this year, thanks to anyone involved for making it a brilliant weekend for us.
Acts wise, Friday Billie Eilish was fantastic and a real quality headliner show eventhough I wouldn't normally listen to, went to look at Southstar in terminus it was grand, terminus always thought it was a good addition when it was added but feels slightly underutilized sometimes, I'm not a big techno fan either so probably wasted on me. Nia Archives was absolutely excellent, felt different from her Primavera set but still sounded great, really good music.
Saturday started with Pa Sheedy, absolutely excellent, I never got to see Walking on Cars so was fantastic to see him and felt as good as Dermot Kennedy, Hozier, etc at times. A few others we got to see Inhaler were very good Dec Pierce decent too for 90s tunes for a bit, and checked out Simple Kid due to recommendations here and enjoy it too, only knowing one song personally. With all of the talk about De Dannan I actually started listening to Cian Finn again recently, not sure how many know of him but WOW is he absolutely fantastic, threw some songs on in the car on the way up, one of the best talents I've ever seen from this country. I was really hoping he'd pop up at a gig this year, but with nothing announced my hoped faded but felt it might happen since I knew he'd be there with De Dannan. Randomly accidentally stumbled across him at B&S in 2019 and was blown away, think I seen him again somewhere but not since around then. I was enjoying Fred Again, thought he was very good but felt maybe his smaller stage stuff might have been better, but still excellent. It was my 4th time seeing him and about a half hour before Fred ended a notification popped up saying Cian Finn added as a last minute addition starting in 5 mins (but had already started/ missed some of the set due to network) so made a quick but difficult decision to bolt from the front of Fred Again to Croi and absolutely was the right choice, an amazing gig and pity it was such a small crowd probably only 50 or 100 people. Went to a few Croi acts Moving still, Post Punk Podge, some DNB act and Naive Ted plus plenty others all great, feel like as said above Croi area much improved and feels like it has its own identity now, the guys booking really know what their doing although still feel B&S's touch is missed.
Sunday started with Fight Like Apes, live wise really not my type of music unfortunately which is a pity, I think they have something but sorta wish they'd listen to themselves back, but yeah left after a few songs. Went to De Dannan again not my usual style of music but great to see knowing how legendary they are. Rick Ashley was fun for sure. Checked out Hannah Laing was decent in Terminus. Went back to the tent for a few cans with not much planned for the evening and said we'd hit Freetown and Trenchtown. Both much improved with Freetown having all these nooky roomes, really cool and gets better late on. Massively enjoyed Trenchtown, what an improvement over before, sorta just felt meh to me whenever I went but went to the Revelation Sound stage and it was amazing, an amazing Dub DJ there for about 2 hours and left eventually for Jamie XX who was very good and the Killers who I didn't find too remarkable personally but can see why a lot enjoyed. And then at the end, we checked out Mother and Survivor Stage and both great fun, really like the design of that new stage with the aircraft's and everything it's great.
Food wise the one thing I'll say is prices seemed absolutely mental. Like one vendor I went to pre COVID was 12 EUR for a meal, 16 last year and 19 this year for the same thing, the other went from 12 last year to 15 eur, for a burger and fries, even worse for pizza! Seemed really difficult to find anywhere of value unless outside the main arena slightly, I know prices are always mad at festivals but just seemed beyond normal and way beyond inflation levels, like I'd get a meal at a fancy restaurant in Limerick for some prices. Pints were nice, 7.50 a bit mad for a Heineken but thought Lagunitas was lovely and 7.90 for 6.2% isn't actually terrible value, considering classed as a premium beer and is now 7eur plus in most pubs for the 5.5% Irish watered down version.
I definitely think I'll go back, not 100% sure about next year might depend on bookings, I usually got 3+ entry early bird. As for this super special act, I'm not even going to get excited out of fear it's Picture This or someone, have lost faith lately and am still worried about direction things are going in but definitely a lot of positives signs for the weekend. Thought it would be my last but at some point for sure will be back, all of the improvements of the smaller stages really have swung it for me, Trenchtown's revelation sound system stage as I mentioned was a huge bonus, not sure if it was there previously but whenever I visited it previously most stages just had a big of grand reggae that you'd enjoy for a small bit, but this year better stages and all of the acts great. I ended the festival there, enjoyed some amazing heavy Dub and Jungle I never seen so many people having so much fun, looked around during the final set and one fella hanging upside down off of a tree and a pilon of 8 people at the other side of the stage, and another bunch of people worshiping a flag of Japan for some reason along all sorts of bizarre stuff listening to huge dub tunes, people went crazy during 2 Flowdan tunes that came one at one point before the final DJ came on. Then to top it off, Radikal Guru brought out Cian Finn as a surprise for the last hour or so of the set to close it out, couldn't have finished any better it was absolutely unreal stuff and surprisingly one of my favorite festivals I've been to out of the probably 30 or so I've been to.
Post edited by dav09 on11 -
On a practical note ref the Wolfe Tones being in the EA, I mean there wasn’t exactly competition or alternatives for the masses! This was Sunday and prime time, Rankins wood empty, nothing on the MainStage until Gavin James (Most will have seen live at least once) so no surprise!
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