Electric Picnic 2021 - Cancelled :( **No Ticket Sales / Requests **

For me Stradbally is the home of EP, it simply wouldn't be the EP else where.

It's a good connected location reasonably central, i.e lots of motorway access. Traffic plan down to a tee now.

The mix of forest, terrain in b&S on mature ground is just magic, it blew me away and what hooked me from the first time I went. (Admittedly taking it for granted in recent years) I think Punchestown should be used to spook and show that it can happen elsewhere, but it would be soleless.

Hugely frustrating seeing the amateur hour unfold with the 19 Laois councillors, some didn't and still don't really understand why or what exactly their voting on it seems. 10k or 70k does that really make a difference in the grand scheme, I mean if you take the average 22 year old now, they're out in the pub mixing all over the place currently, work mates, school/college mates, so if only x1 instead of x7 attend from a wider mixing pod attends is it really much difference in risk to the locals?

How would you scale back.... lots of issues.

Meanwhile in the UK 😪😪

And therein lies the issue. Politicians who don't bother with research, be it local TDs or councillors. EP 2004 was a one-day event with a capacity of 15k. 2005 was 22k, 2006 30k, etc, etc.

Anyway it defies any sort of logic that a business planning for a event with 70k people could alter it for a seventh or fourteenth of that without making catastrophic losses. Festival Republic should be putting adverts in the local Laois papers reminding people of the €26m brought into the county every year, €16m for Stradbally alone.

I can understand why the licence was refused. I also sympathise with any worried locals.

What is frustrating is the stream of ignorant comments from local politicians. They're making the decisions so surely they can do a little research. One councillor stating that she'd oppose the licence due to EP being a mainly indoor event was staggeringly stupid.

The locals have been great over the years and I'd hate to see the festival move elsewhere but maybe it's not a bad idea for 2021.

I feel the same, Stradbally is EP's home, even doing the festival build the town is a lifesaver, a well stocked Super Valu and that little green shop just above the festival production entrance which made the best breakfast rolls. Ramsbottom's for pints at night and a few decent takeaway places and Centras and Gala shops. I'd say the town is missing that build up for the festival, meeting worldly weary festival technicians, grifters, décor volunteers, all the different security firms and festival volunteers and workers in general. That's some nice income to build over the two to three months prep for the festival normally.

The affection that most on here have for the site and the town have been obvious on this thread for years. I've been staying off site the last few years at one of the dozens of impromptu B and Bs that spring up in the village. I know the family well at this stage and I know how much they love EP weekend, not just for the hundreds of under the table euro they fleece from gullible Dubs like me for a couple of nights on the sofa bed in the front room 😉 but for the craic and the buzz and the life that the festival brings to the place. EP wouldn't be EP anywhere else. We all know it. Very 2021 to be making this argument into something between the locals and ourselves, the punters. That's not the truth of it at all.

Well it's not really relative, you don't need a council license to stage a match a Croke Park.

So the GAA could have had big crowds at games before now, could they?

My point was that maybe the Government could have given some guidance rather than leave it to the council. It's the largest festival we have here.

It isnt solely up to LCC but Croke Park is completely different and not equal comparison. Permissions, licenses for events to go ahead are very different.

It may not be normal times but even if it was the permissions for events to go ahead are slightly different when you compare the dozens of matches in Croke Park to EP in Stradbally.

It mentioned nothing about jobs for the local community, just that it would be employment for 3,000 people. Which it is. The economic benefit to the local community is well documented. Of course Melvin and his gang are in it to make money but there are also huge benefits to the Irish music community in all it's forms and to Stradbally and it's surrounds. People talk like the two are mutually exclusive.

News piece on the radio I listened to was using the potential 3k local employees as a stick to beat the county council with (Today FM I think).

Reality vs what they said are not aligned - my point of mentioning the employment was only to add some rational to the decision not to grant a license. As disastrous as this pandemic is to the irish music scene, that will not have been a factor for a local authority when deciding, the interests of their voters however most certainly is.

There's the original interview. You have more faith in the Laois C.C. thsn I do. I get that there were constituents that have suffered dreadfully over the last year and I know some would have been genuinely anxious about a possible reoccurrence of infections. There's a difference between serving your constituents and being seen to serve them. I think those fears should have been addressed by seeking proper scientific advice and discussing it in a public way, then seeing if the festival could work in that context. What the majority did was have a quick look at what the optics were, see who was shouting loudest and go with that.

Should they have been left with that burden in the first place? Absolutely not. Should the government have given more leadership? Of course.

Anyway, feels stupid still babbling on about the flipping Laois C.C. It's not happening. Grand.

https://www.laoistoday.ie/2021/08/09/electric-picnic-organiser-to-fight-this-week-to-get-refusal-decision-reversed/