Electric Picnic 2022 - Here we go again! - **No Ticket Sales / Requests **

First EP for me. I went there with the opinion that the line up was very poor for a large scale festival. But I wanted to experience EP regardless, so off I went! I camped in Pink Moon. Arrived Friday morning fairly early and called it a day Sunday afternoon. First festival post pandemic. I definitely haven't got the same levels of energy and recovery I had from 2019!

Pros: First time paying for 'posh' camping. I was impressed... Nice showers, close to proper toilets, bit more chilled out, easy walk into main arena, bit more of an older crowd in there (i.e. more to my age!). The main stage is an impressive stage. Those screens are superb as well. The only act I would have wanted to see on it would have been Arctic Monkeys, if I had stayed on. Ended up rocking on to Glass Animals on the Friday which was fun! Sat in the seats watching some of Hermitage Green for a bit on the Saturday (Following along to some breathing exercises!). Spike Island (I think it was called?!) with a band called Blessed on the Fri night were excellent. Very enjoyable! 3rd time seeing Fontaines and they surpassed all previous gigs. Pixies were a lovely "warm up" to them. Good to catch some of Blindboy on the Saturday for a something a bit more chilled right after discovering a bar that had lagunitas stocked. Wolf Alice were good. Ended up going to see Annie Mac with some friends instead of Tame Impala. Not sure how my slightly drunken brain decided that! Wandering around and got some of the rave in the woods. There's something about woods, night time, lights, tunes that is the perfect mix for a good aul boogie! Vibes were good overall. Mainly a young crowd no doubt but I think that this didn't take away from any good atmosphere overall across the site. Ground seemed to hold up well overall.

Cons: Saw that some of the tents in the Pink Moon leaked/left in a bit of water after rain on the Fri night (2 man tipis). Rubbish bins were full pretty quick and didn't seem to be emptied (Certainly one big bin near me by those 2 man tipis). Maaaaybe it was my drunken brain, but a confusing, long slog back to Pink Moon from the woods on the Sun morning. Food was priiiicey. Big Q's everywhere. Muck pints were also priiiicey (Bar the lagunitas I found!). Again, I expected this but needs to be highlighted. Coming from Cork, I was directed to Red car park but that's a slog of a walk from there to Pink Moon. (Especially when my Dunnes festival trolley couldn't hack the large stone gravel paths through the main campsites en route!) Sleaford Mods... Gave them a go. Can't get into them.

Glad to have attended and ticked the box that I was there, but I won't go back to EP. In saying that, I would recommend it to anyone considering going, especially someone in their early 20's.

I found it hard to get into it this year what with my sketchy leg and the horrendous weather, I don't buy into the aul "there's no such thing as bad weather only wrong clothes" or whatever it is, I had appropriate rain gear in tow but it was horrible, i would normally just fight the elements but they got to me this year, it was relentless!! i felt the place was too full and the prices and queues were tiresome too, there were good points and i had fun (TCM was about as much fun as i had all weekend with smuggled gin and ridiculous flailing) but I think ill be moving on, need a change at this stage, something smaller and a bit more chilled, ive never been to anything else, whats my tonic for next year? ATN? B&S? Indie? cheers

I've seen this mentioned a few times throughout this thread...what's 'free flow'?

I heard great reports about Wild Roots and Forrest Fest, so they might be worth investigating further.

2 that I really enjoy are the Kilkenny roots festival on May bank holiday weekend, and the Rory Gallagher festival on June bank holiday weekend.

Both very chilled. bars in KK are great and I can organise a taxi home, but you could look into hotels too.

Roryfest absolutely tip top. Gigs on the street a lot of the time, so it's just chilled craft beers from the offie are needed.

A festival with EA as the main stage, and salty dog / trailer park / spike island / Hazelwood would be a massive draw for aul fellas like myself

No free flow no festival for me tbh

You bring your own lovely cans anywhere you want on site. 😃 It really makes a huge difference. The vibe is a term that gets thrown around a lot, but the vibe from ATN this year totally reminded me about the first EP I was at in 2010. Something just clicked perfectly for the event this year, it can be hard to point out exactly what it was but it's invaluable to a promoter.

I never let that rule get in the way, 4 pack of cans in your hood and just keep it moving.

On Sunday I sneaked 6 cans a 70cl of Jameson in a water bottle and a litre of ginger ale in, in one sitting 😂

Not overly sure if I’ll be back to EP next year but I could tell the second I walked out of B&S this summer that I’d be back.

I'll post a lengthier missive late. Apologies in advance. But after reading some of the earlier posts I feel like challenging a couple of points, mostly by non-attendees who seem to be gleefully revelling in the thought of EP having been a washout and descending into an Oxegen 2 setup.

Firstly the weather was, for me anyway, better than predicted, sunny every day from Thursday to departure on Monday. The rain was almost entirely overnight bar the 11pm start on Sunday and the late afternoon downpour on Saturday. I'm not being smug in saying that I stayed almost entirely dry through the weekend. A mixture of planning and very good luck (sitting at the back of the Salty Dog for Silverbacks a big bonus) ensured that. Parts of the campsites were muddy but very light and leather boots/docs were fine all weekend, next to no mud on them at departure.

Secondly, this is not the new Oxegen. This resembles that festival in very few ways, a weekend that was much more comparable to Reading/Leeds and some mainland European fests where all that is provided are a few stages of music and lots of bad food. Trenchtown, Trailer Park, Fishtown, Mindfield, Providencia, Spike Island, Hazel Wood, the old Body & Soul main stage, the Hustle Bar, the Mother DJs set up and so much else involve extraordinary creativity and effort by artists only surpassed (in my estimation) by Glastonbury which has had 52 years to work on that stuff. They also get slagged off every year. And again, mainly by people who don't go.

I have many criticisms of EP but the Oxegen comparisons are lazy, uninformed, cliched and pure unadulterated horsesh*t.

Been at every EP since 2016 and while understanding the lamentations about the change in the festival demographic, lineups et al... I might've had the most fun I've ever had at this one. Maybe the weaker lineup gave me more time to explore and relax in new areas rather than worrying about getting around the place!

Irish acts definitely blew every import out of the water this weekend, not a new phenomenon but overwhelmingly clear this time.

Freetown really coming into its own as an area, loved the little container bars, the foggy exit to the cerebral fortress, and the bdsm club in brutopolis

First time camping in Eco and it's a serious game changer, felt much more at ease there (even though we got stuck beside the only crew still partying until 6am the first night, the rain quieted them out for the rest of the weekend though!)

8 euro for the waltzers in Jimi Hendrix... but they were worth every penny

The promoters can set whatever age limit they wish. And they have. Under-12s and over-18s only. They can change this to over-21s or over-25s if they so wish. To continue to dispute this is futile.

There was indeed a heavy presence of undercover Gardai.

we saw a lady garda glittering herself up at her car in her festival garb in the garda car park while passing, snakey!

Free Flow was very possible if you were staying in Pinkmoon. Threw a bag of cans over twice on saturday, think I spent about €20 the whole day. One advantage of the lack of security.

Noticed very little security around the entire weekend. The one-way systems of the toilets fell by the wayside with no one enforcing it. As did the big NO ENTRY sign going from Electric Arena to Main Stage. They tried to enforce it on Fri but there was a bout 3 security holding back thousands.

That been said I didnt see any hassle and the atmosphere was friendly and fun throughout. I dont buy into the change in atmosphere or "dodgey looking types". This was my 12th picnic, the first being in 2006 and back then there was the same young lads and young ones, some knackery, some not, bashing off people, enjoying themselves, getting rowdy and with the same lack of hassle. The demographic of this site is older (me included!), I have a feeling people are just a bit intimidated by them unnecessarily