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

In terms of per capita scale EP is much bigger than Glastonbury. The U.K. has a population thirteen times the size of ours yet Glasto is only twice the size.

For such a small country we’re lucky to have a respected festival that attracts international acts of calibre and has a wide and varied range of entertainment on site. Don’t diss EP, it’s by far the most significant festival that’s ever taken place on this island.

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Same with Arctic Monkeys. Headlined after their debut. The Killers were also offered that slot after their first but declined, waiting til they were ready for it.

Hear hear

Right lads, to combat the life-sucking vacuum that is Irish festival announcements at the moment, give us your favourite gigs by newly discovered artists in your EP years. We've done our best gigs many times. What about those artists you knew nothing about before they appeared on the poster? The no expectation slots that blew you away? I'm sure lots of you are like me in that those gigs are the ones you look back on most fondly. I freely admit my list includes a number of acts I SHOULD have known about before but these are all people I came to fresh and that I LOVED. Benjamin Clementine, Nick Mulvey, Alvvays, Animal Collective, La Femme, Whitney, Margaret Glaspy, Band of Horses, Public Service Broadcasting, Hak Baker, Stella Donnelly, Courtney Barnett, Sports Team, White Reaper, Bodega, Car Seat Headrest. Oh, and Murder Capital, who excited the **** out of me in OV and even more so in Jerry Fish later that weekend. Some very happy memories there. I feel better already. Go on, give it a whirl.

Sereena-Maneesh, Norwegian shoegaze band circa 2006/2007, wandered into the Little Big Tent to avoid rain and they were exceptional.

Palma Violets circa 2012/2013, had listened to a couple of tracks but they were much more impressive than expected. What went wrong with them?

Tapes ‘n Tapes, circa 2009, brilliant Minneapolis indie band.

Several more will come to mind but I’ve usually put in a bit of time on research before the fest.

Sports Team and Working Men’s Club were others. And by your criteria Arcade Fire 2005, album released at the end of Feb just before the announcement.

Would love to see La Femme back again. Their records are great. I think I was at Dua Lipa when they played in '18.

I just wish they would at least give a date for the launch, I don't mind the names launching yet but just some news about the actual date.

Sure? I thought it was the 32nd of May

I'm delighted to see you display some signs of humour, Fanirish. In the absence of any actual news, I'm going to chalk that up as a positive development.

Did anyone go to the Chris Cunningham gig in I think to 2009 edition, never caught it myself, just wondering what the gig was like. I heard he was late starting.

Checked the year for SM and it was 2007 in the Foggy Notions tent, a pretty tiny one with circa 500 capacity. Dan Le Sac & Scroobius Pip were in there the same day, very good, and I also got to see a seriously cranky Dave Couse.

On other stages that day were The Fall, Beastie Boys, Terry Hall, Primal Scream, Sonic Youth, Iggy & the Stooges and several more. How spoiled we were.

2007 was one of the best years.

Amazing. Several acts it’s not possible to ever see again - Sonic Youth, Stooges & Beastie Boys.

Also had The Good, The Bad & The Queen, Bjork, The Jesus & Mary Chain, LCD Soundsystem, Soul II Soul, Undertones, Polyphonic Spree, etc. Oh for a lineup like that now.

Having said that I think that EP is a better festival now than then, way more stuff on and brilliant installations. They’re also pushing young Irish bands heavily and that surely has helped many an act over the past decade.