Electric Picnic 2023 **No Ticket Sales / Requests ** - It'll be grand

Haven't seen Bannered Mare, but big fan of them. Those lads were in Ka Tet and Race the Flux (and likely more bands too) who I saw a good few times, always good fun and really good songs

Ah looking forward to Robert tonight alright. No band, just himself and his son, seems to be playing a nice mix of solo stuff and Go Betweens. Last time I saw him in the Button Factory was the most unashamedly middle aged bloke audience I've ever been part of. A sea of bald heads. That's what we've come to, hunted out of Electric Arenas by the likes of Melvin, cowering together for warmth and solace at old people gigs in tiny venues. They won't break us. It's like the hedge schools. We'll emerge blinking into the Dublin night this evening, congregating in small knots for a scoop in the Stags head, plotting our next move. Up yours, Melvin.

Why is is still raining, and no acts to mull over, doesn't the organisers realise we need acts to get excited about to get through this sh1t weather.

Any news here, discussions going on all the the time for European festivals but not here, why is thread so dead.

Chemical bros and picture this are off the radar.

I respectfully disagree. The music is always the thing for me and a good 35-40 acts caught last year. Similar for most other posters here. Most importantly it’s the main gig of the year for a lot of varied Irish artists.

Where it disappointed in 2022 compared to previous years was the lack of depth in the afternoon. Hopefully rectified this year. For me the 2023 headliners are poor but I’ve already got three essential acts to see and I’ll expect a dozen more. If not then I’ll not be going and it’ll no longer be a significant part of my yearly calendar.

The bookers/festival owner who made that legacy have left, so changes are going to naturally occur.

External and internal forces means it’s not the EP of old.

homogeneity of summer festivals (summer festivals across europe were a different beast when EP started, sure EP being labelled as “boutique” was a novelty to the wider industry)

capacity increasing to 70k means it needs to deliver superstar acts.

I’d personally say 2018 saw the biggest shift

2013 was the last year with pod being involved

I think you’re very accurate on the 2018 change, that was very noticeable.

However Pod had less and less say after 2009, they were consistently overridden by FR and by 2013 their influence was pretty insignificant.

2011 was the first one I missed! Didnt go back until 2014.

Jim King back in 2010 must've spent a fortune booking some of these acts, it was him apparently who talked Leftfield coming out of retirement and RockNess was the first event they played since about 2002 I think. I only ever made it to the 2010 one as I was studying in Edinburgh at the time and bought an early bird ticket for the princely sum of 105 sterling. When I found out I passed all the exams they went and announced Aphex Twin which blew me away as I was the first time getting to see him live. Unfortunately RockNess never ever sold out as it was in heavy competition against T in the Park and the likes of Wickerman (Scotland's answer at the time for Body & Soul). The festival went bust about 2015.

Yeah, probably 2018 saw the sharpest intake of breath at the announcement but personally, I had an absolutely brilliant 2018. The slide from there to last year is at least as sharp as that from say 2012 to 2018.

Edit: I mean that's primarily down to the massive hole left by Body and Soul and OV not being there ladt year. Look at all the lovely stuff in those last 2 sections on the 2018 poster. The non announcements for Body and Soul etc last year were such a massive kick in the balls.

And I may be wrong @Dreamweapon but taking a look back at those years you’d have pretty impressive acts to see all day long on each day.

The early lineups were comparable to the early Primavera Sound one and those days were pure pleasure. However there’s nothing to prevent EP continuing along the Glasto course it’s taken where they combine the indie and eclectic stuff with the poppier acts.

For all the faults of 2022 (great allowances also made for continuing Covid fallout) I still got to see some of the best performances of the year, a few excellent young emerging bands, a couple of legendary acts and two decent indie headlines. I expect better this year and all will be clearer in a couple of weeks.

I remember Killing Joke being booked but I don’t think they played. Happy to be corrected.

And you’re right re 2022. I saw lots of great stuff, but there were several occasions on which I couldn’t find an act of interest on any of the stages. That’s never happened before.