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

I agree. I'm 25, bang in the middle of that main demographic, I can only speak for myself and some of my friends and people I know, pretty much everyone I know has sold their tickets or not bought them based on lineup. I knew at least 20 people from different friend groups in my age graphic who went in 2022 and previous years too, although I'm sure a few will still get tickets late. It's clear that they are targeting late teens now and I genuinely think they've gotten things wrong, I don't know anyone who listens to Mimi Webb, Steve Lacy, etc. Most of us seen Fred Again last year and Billie and Johnny Marr in 2019, and the Killers play here regularly so I know a lot of people who have seen them already too but they don't interest me. It feels like a seismic shift between 2022 and 2023.

I'm heading to Primavera this year and the difference in lineup quality is night and day although I suppose it has a much bigger budget, still have my EP tickets if I decide to go it'll be my last, but honestly BTP, B&S and ATN all have better lineups so will most likely head to one of those instead this year. Most of my friends listen to either the charts, Drum & Bass, Hip Hop, Indie, Techno most of which is missing.

Trust me, there's a huge demographics of us in their mid 20s would rather see YYY's, M83, Aphex Twin rather than most of the rubbish on this lineup.

The constant bickering between the 2 of ye is so tedious. You both make good points and just won't accept each others position.

Recap of the months long back and forth.

EP is great, but it could do so much better and cater for everyone.

Yea, but why would they bother when it sells out regardless, and unless that changes, why change the formula?

If there’s an economic downturn then EP won’t sell out. And the older, often more-moneyed demographic who saved it 15 years ago won’t be there to rescue it again.

For me EP isn’t just a product that can be ditched by the promoters for something else if a new direction doesn’t work. It’s the best festival this island ever has and is building up a rich history. Glasto is the same. They should evolve and progress. But now one of them is being butchered by fools. As Dr. Robert sang, it doesn’t have to be this way.

Where did I say that twenty year olds don’t do indie? making up things I never said.

I said that EP sells out by booking/pandering to chart/pop acts, both Artic monkeys and Tame Impala are chart acts and sell out arenas.

EP 2023 has numerous heritage acts: the killers, Johnny marr, Rick astley, fight like apes, lightning seeds, saw doctors, wolfe tones.

It still has a devoted reggae area in trenchtown.

people on here for last while have been asking my certain expensive acts like Aphex twin, m83 or Yeah Yeahs Yeahs aren’t playing.

as for hip hop, EP was never great for this genre and it’s lack of any on the line up wouldn’t shock anyone. Every year had maybe one or two American hip hop acts and that was about it.

festival republic have longitude which in recent years has been devoted almost exclusivity to hip hop. More of a dance music tilt this year.

The main change over last few years is headliners being more chart oriented and the midcard being a bit more bland. But the former comes with increased capacity and trying to capture superstar acts (with very expensive fees).

What genre of acts were you referring to?

“….it’s not in EP financial interest to book a ton of expensive acts that don’t appeal to the main festival demographic of 20-30 years.”

Sunday afternoon reggae act has been ditched.

EP never great for hip-hop. Seriously? Last year alone there was Kneecap, Little Simz, Rejjie Snow, Mango X Mathman and several others.

A few other acts would be slightly miffed at being overlooked, a who’s who of hip-hop bands (and some solo acts) of the past four decades - De La Soul, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, Wu Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, The Streets, Nas, OutKast, Kendrick Lamar, etc, etc. They even had Jenny Greene and the RTE Concert Orchestra doing a hip-hop special. Please stop saying this sort of stuff.

Who knew?

If anything, I now enjoy the fact that fanirish now replies to posts with full coherent paragraphs as opposed to half finished sentences.

Not exactly a genre of acts but as I said above people asking why Aphex twin, yeah yeahs yeahs, m83 etc haven’t been booked for 2023. These are all very expensive to expensive acts who primary audience are in the 30/40 year category.

as for Sunday reggae act, the reality is the acts that were booked previously like lee scratch Perry and toots have died. Can’t book dead people.

EP has never been great in a numbers sense for hip hop especially American acts. Never more than a few hip hop acts each year out of what 150/200 acts in the line up. Yeah the few big names booked over the year have been great, but it’s never been genre well served on the line up in a quantity sense. A handful of acts for one of the most dominant genres around is piss poor in my opinion.

i personally wouldn’t use the term “great hip hop” when mentioning kneecap and mango x mathman.

'As for Sunday reggae act, the reality is the acts that were booked previously like lee scratch perry and toots have died, Can't book dead people.'

@Fanirish there is still a ton of great heritage reggae acts abound, Burning Spear, Macca B (who was brilliant at Stendhal festival in 2021) Black Uhuru, Max Romeo, Jimmy Cliff, Eddie Grant, Misty N'Roots, General Levy, LKJ and the Dennis Bovell Dub Band (who are touring other European festivals as @Dreamweapon pointed out in ATN thread) plus up coming reggae artists such as Protoje and Chronixx (who headlined B&S festival in 2018).

I said primary not sole audience for those acts, a basic literate reading yourself would clarify the difference.

I’ve seen all those acts on recent tours and the shows weren’t full of 20 year olds.

yes young people have broad taste not patronising them. Simply when it comes to booking a festival with a historic audience of young people a Booker naturally books acts that young people are known to love in numbers.

hence why people on here including yourself are constantly complaining that EP is no longer booking acts you like and is giving “banal” acts instead.

it’s not more complex than 20 year olds love Tom brennan, mimi webb, Lewis capaldi, Billie eillish etc let’s spend a ton of money booking them.

you said EP is great for hip hop and listed examples from last year of act.

in the context of a festival with hundreds of act a handful of hip hop is pitiful. Sure you yourself were saying it’s a genre underserved by EP bookers today. So stop going back on your own comments in a matter of minutes.

Tastes change. The bookers perceive that the 20/30 year olds of today favour different music to those of 15 years ago.

If the curation stayed the same they would start to see diminishing returns as a smaller percentage of the audience returned each year.

I feel the direction the festival is going in I would have expected the likes Longitude to go more so, why fix something that isn't broken. Although I don't really get the new direction of either festival to be honest.

I actually attended Longitude once in 2019 due to it's lineup plus thousands of teeney boppers were selling their weekend tickets for 75 each as ASAP Rocky got jailed and Chance pulled out (2/3 headliners), it was a no-brainer, music wise it was fantastic and had many artists that would appeal to potentially a younger demographic but were really well received by reviewers/ older age groups too. Dave (Mercury Prize winner later that year), Stormzy (decent live act, just after headlining Glastonbury days before), Denzel Curry (Critically Acclaimed album just released), Headie One (played days after being released from prison, went on to release a UK #1 album, critically acclaimed), Slowthai (touring a critically acclaimed album at the time too), Brockhampton again after 3 critically acclaimed albums and a bunch of decent artists too like Juice Wrld, Jpegmafia.

I think from that selection alone, there's some acts that could have crossed over into EP and been more universally enjoyed by different demographics this year rather that some of the acts that I guarantee pretty much no one under the age of 20 will enjoy like some of these Tik Tok celebs that are playing. What I find interesting is that 2020 EP had a few really good hip hop artists on it Skepta (excellent live, Mercury Winner too), Denzel Curry, JID, Jpegmafia, the festival never happened and now did a complete 180 on Hip Hop acts being booked!

Nobody wants the curation to stay stagnant. Most of us want evolution. And crucially, variety.

I'd say there's always hope for next year, the market was probably too crowded for them, but things might settle a bit in terms of inflation, insurance. I'd say sunstroke would need to bring in plenty of international acts so that was probably a pretty big hurdle.