PREVIEW: Electric Picnic 2010
Electric Picnic is now just under a week away, Stradbally Estate is calling and thousands upon thousands will answer the call and make the annual pilgrimage to Electric Picnic for their 2010 instalment which like every other festival in Ireland this year is yet to sell out as the recession keeps wallets firmly in pockets.
However we believe it’s not far off selling out, so if you want to go, start picking up tickets if you don’t want to be disappointed, the lineup for this year is pretty good, every festival has its detractors, every year the hardcore festival-going fans always say they feel the lineup could be better but when it all comes together and the festival kicks off, the posthumous reviews show that everyone has a corker, that certain bands played out of their skins, it’s the same old rigmarole, don’t let others tell you the lineup isn’t great, it’s all subjective and so many people right now are scanning through the lineup with agonising decisions on who to leave out if certain bands clash.
So here are a few acts from each day that we have picked out as our recommendations for Electric Picnic 2010, they are all music-related but there are also many non-music events going on throughout the weekend at EP, so do check some of them out.
Okay, here we go
Friday
Roxy Music
Bryan Ferry’s 70s/80s art rockers, Roxy Music have been around since before I was even alive. One of the first glam rock style of bands. These guys will have everyone dancing on the Friday night to hits like ‘Let’s Stick Together‘ and ‘Jealous Guy‘.
It’s their first ever Irish festival appearance as far as I know, so every reason to pop by and let them control your limbs with their pop hooks and rock pulls.
Jonsi
With Sigur Rós taking a break lead singer Jónsi took the chance to come out on his own with some spectacular solo material. His solo album ‘GO‘ is largely acoustic with string arrangements and obviously presents his amazing voice, from what we have learned from his label, there is a beautifully crafted stage show to go along with the music that alone is worth seeing.
If you’re a fan of Sigur Rós you will love this and if you have not heard of either (as unlikely as it seems) we still think you’ll enjoy this show.
Foals
Mercury Award winning Foals, played in Dublin earlier this year and literally blew our reviewer away, no seriously, we haven’t seen him since. They are mesmerizing crowds all over Europe and the U.S. and I have no doubts that they will do it again at Electric Picnic.
You seriously need to see these guys, expect it to be packed, expect the atmosphere to be electric, expect to leave satisfied.
Laura Marling
Folky singer songwriter Laura Marling is literally amazing, she is two for two with nominations for Mercury Awards for two album releases with ‘Alas I cannot swim‘ nominated in 2008 and ‘I speak because I can’ has been nominated for the 2010 award which is yet to be decided.
Laura was one of the first acts that came through as Folk-style music kicked in as one of the most popular genres over the last two years none more true than in the case of Mumford and Sons. You can’t go far wrong with dropping by for this show.
You could also drop by and see :
Janelle Monae, Thread Pulls, Jerry Fish and the Mud bug Club
Saturday
The Frames
20 years…….. Seriously has it been that long, i remember listening to Fiztcarraldo in 1998 as a teenager, obviously at that point it was out two years but it drew me into the band and eventually led to a few local gigs before seeing them play at Witnness 2002. One of the definitive Irish bands of our time, they defined a genre for Ireland and will always have a place on my iPod regardless of how big the collection gets. Revelation still gets me singing along passionately regardless of where I am.
With the success of the Swell Season, it’s hard to tell how many more chances you will get to see The Frames live as a band, don’t miss out on this chance on a special occasion for the band.
And So i Watch You From Afar
Belfast post-rock four-piece And So I Watch You From Afar (ASIWYFA) have been causing a stir lately, picking up a following both online and at gigs with headline gigs having La Faro and Wounds supporting them, reversing roles to support Them Crooked Vultures early in the summer.
Another top Irish act, definitely worth taking a peek.
Villagers
What can be said about Conor O’Brien and his cohorts that make up Villagers that hasn’t already been said? If you haven’t heard of Villagers you’ve been under a rock, they have had print and online writers falling over themselves to gush about the Dublin band, shortlisted for a Mercury Award for Becoming a Jackal this will be a cracking gig and we highly recommend dropping by.
Robyn
Sweden’s biggest export and a personal guilty pleasure for some Swedish dance pop, I reckon this gig could be a lot of fun, it might just be me though.
You could also drop by and see :
Imelda May, Japanese Pop stars, Bloody beetroot
Sunday
Massive Attack
It’s four years on since the 2006 appearance of Massive Attack at Stradbally but the Trip-hop legends are returning off the back of the massively successful release of Heligoland.
Can’t see this being filled with anything other than buckets full of win so make sure you’re here for this epic show.
Mumford and Sons
Completing a rare double are Mumford and Sons, one of the few international acts to play both Oxegen and Electric Picnic
I saw the Oxegen set this year and literally WOW, the atmosphere in the tent was unbelievable, the crowd were word for word, motion for motion hanging on every move the band made, it was unbelievable, I literally had goosebumps at the gig. If you miss this you are either clinically insane or just plain silly. This will be one of the sets people are talking about after Electric Picnic for months after.
Two Door Cinema Club
Another Irish band with massively rising stock. Played to death through advertising containing the use of Undercover Martin and Something Good can Work but again are very, very good live, the rest of the album is excellent and are well worth watching alongside being Irish. Patriotism people.
Fight like Apes
We couldn’t avoid putting these guys down on the list, the new album The Body Of Christ And The Legs Of Tina Turner is a quality second album, having seen them play some of the new songs at Tower Records recently I can say that the songs I thought would not be as strong live, I was completely wrong about. Once again Fight Like Apes will effortlessly fill a tent or venue as they are brilliant live performers.
The new album is on sale from today and is worth every penny. It was on Itunes for €5 this week and available in HMV for €8 so it’s nice and cheap which is a bonus. If you’re heading down to Stradbally then don’t miss them, it’s going to be an excellent gig.
You could also drop by and see :
Friendly Fires, UNKLE, The Big Pink
can’t believe you didn’t mention leftfield – leftism is possibly the best album ever made..
i’m 8 months pregnant so have to give EP a miss this year so i’m totally gutted.
Well it goes without saying Leftfield are a top act, but with so many we had to be selective, and as personally writing the article i wouldnt be the biggest fan of Leftfield, i had to keep it objective and write about what i know.
Fully awknowledge that Leftfield will most likely be a corker
where is k’naan, he’s really big and a very popular at the moment…is it cause hes a rapper r wat?
Nothing to do with Genre, more to do that we can say “Go see everyone” because there are a lot of class acts on over the weekend, it’s about being selective
LCD Soundsytem? maybe their last ever Irish show.
All I need is The National and i’m good to go, cannot wait for the entire weekend though!
Cant wait to see LCD Soundsystem,Roxy Music,Mumford and Sons,Paul Melia,Leftfield,Jonsi and Massive Attack.Gonna be a cracker of a week.
modest mouse…cant wait!!
See you at the Picnic!
Too freakin expensive .. Not one act that you would go to see on their own .. 250 quid ,you go wi your wife or girlfriend 500 quid get real ep… Weekend gigs all over europe wi better acts for 40 .. Rip off ireland at its best disguised as a family festival ..
Where can you get a lineup of better acts for 40 euro?
While the €40 mark might be a bit low, I would be surprised to pay over €75pp for many equivalent European gigs.
The ticket cost is far too much for all concerts/events/festivals in this country, not just EP. You cannot argue that point.
Don’t know what festivals your looking at, but Bennicassim is around €160 for tickets for a weekend festival
Pukkelpop is 75 per day or €150 for the weekend
Rockwerchter is 190 euro before any booking fee’s are applied
would appreciate a clarification on sub 100 euro festivals
For the best coffee head to atridge and cole citroen h van! He has great coffee! Best burger is rocket and relish! Enjoy!
Aidan, thanks for your recommendations (notice my correct spelling of the word), but please take the time to spellcheck your writing and grammar before you publish your articles. Your repetitive incorrect use of apostophes is shocking. It’s = it is. Its = (ownership). Allowing your articles to go on-line with these errors is a discredit to your and your website and is simply unacceptable.
Thanks for pointing out the two mistakes Evan, these things happen, hopefully you’ll take the article at its recommendation value rather than mistake hunting.
I have to agree that it’s overpriced (as is Oxegen), though I’ll still be going. Glastonbury is a vastly (and I do mean vastly) superior festival with dozens of stages (if you count all the lil ones) plus far more of an artistic side and still costs less. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find a more expensive festival in all of Europe. As for sub 100 Euro festivals, give Berlin Festival a look Aidan, costs around that mark and the line up’s pretty strong. EP will end up costing at least 400 (conservatively) once you factor in food, a few bevvys and transport, which are also more expensive in Ireland. Im going, but only because I cant get enough time off work to go somewhere else right now and I love my music, but the price is at least 50 Euro too much compared to the market across Europe, probably more in all honesty.
Cheers for the great comment James.
I’d agree with Glastonbury, it’s a lot more for a lot less, though £160 is around €200 plus you need to fly into Bristol and will need 6 days worth of food (i found Glasto food prices to be largely what i’d expect of Oxegen / EP) so overall i think Glastonbury will end up costing you more.
One thing to bear in mind about Glasto is as a partly charity event they get the bands cheaper and turn away bands looking for huge silly money. This is reflected in the cost of tickets. Oh and Glastonbury has 42 stages, which makes it all the more impressive.
I just had a look at the Berlin festival, first thing that strikes me is that it’s 2 day, that saves them a whole day’s band, security and operating costs. The lineup is pretty much inferior, let stages, variety etc. It still looks a good deal at the 60 euro for both days but does that cost include camping? again camping is another cost for land mass area, security around campsite, insurance, lighting etc etc, i could go on but there are reasons certain festivals are so much cheaper.
I’d like to see EP and Oxegen back around the 200 mark, i always thought that was a fair price for the lineup’s we got.
Aidan, I hope you don’t mind that I agree with Evan_erickson but he has a point. You obviously care about music a lot and put a great deal of effort into your work but the spelling and grammar issues are a problem and do detract from what you’re trying to do. I mean this constructively, am not having a go or trying to make you feel bad. Maybe they don’t matter much to you but for others who do read English in its proper form, every single mistake (and there are more than two) sticks out like a red ink on a copybook. Spell and grammar checks will only take a second to run through your posts and make the world of difference. I think if you value your readers and the site you’ve built, you should think about tackling this.
As for me personally, if I were to go to Electric Picnic this year, Fever Ray, Massive Attack, 808 State, Liquid Liquid, Leftfield, Bloody Beetroots, Monotonix, Fang Island, Kn’aan, Neon Indian would be the main ones for me, not to mention the huge slew of brilliant Irish bands like Hunter-Gatherer, Patrick Kelleher, Twin Kranes, Nouveaunoise, Donal Dineen, Land Lovers, The Pulpit just to name a few. It really is a good year for EP but still overpriced. I hate festivals, the muck and cold, would rather wait it out for headline slots and go home to my lovely duvet after
Good article, disagree with a few of the choices but that’s always the way! For me, personally, the National and LCD Soundsystem are the biggest draws. I’ll be doing my own post on who is unmissable on my blog at some stage over the next 2 days if anyone wants to see more! Just shout for the link. (I don’t wanna spam up your comments section!!)
As for the price of festivals here… Well, in reality, everything in this country is more expensive. It’s not a sudden shock. Do you buy bread for €2 in the shop and think “In Belgium this would only cost me €0.40 and I’d get five extra slices…”? It’s not right – we do get screwed in some instances, but to stage anything here is very difficult. As well as the price of the acts alone you’ve to factor in labour, equipment, etc. It all builds up and up.
Realistically I think the price of Irish festivals could be dropped by €20-€30 but I cant imagine that MCD are about to do that any day now. As for the “oh there’s not one act I’d go see on their own …” argument – well that’s simply taste. I’d pay an absolutle fortune to see the National and LCD Soundsystem, and when you factor in the smaller acts down the bill it’s not too bad a price for what you’re getting.
I always welcome constructive criticism but can i ask, after the 2 evan suggested were fixed i am struggling to find any other issues that your saying are “more than two” and definitely need more information as to what exactly i’ve done wrong on the article. I’ve re-read it twice now and it seems fine
Jesus, I can’t believe the grammar police on show today. This has gone from a discussion on pricing to a petty and pedantic discussion on grammar. Constructive criticism is always a good thing but trying to embarrass some over the grammar publicly is ridiculous, theres no tact here. Shame.
Normally i’d agree rob, but privately Nay has pointed out constructive points and a breakdown of the article which will enable me to keep on top of these things, a lot of the issue’s seem to be related to American English spell check seemingly being in place at the moment which i need to try rectify
Fair play Aidan
I grew up next to Glastonbury so having been to it year after year, I do tend to find other festivals a touch frustrating in comparison. It’s a truly epic festival, and having been to (pauses for head count) at least a dozen other different festivals (and around 25 in total, including the repeats), it’s by far the best I’ve ever been to.
60 Euro in Berlin is a bargain given they have LCD Soundsystem, Editors, 2 Many DJs, Fatboy Slim and Hot Chip, and in a great city (though maybe that’s just a personal preference). Of course, these things involve flights, but that’s only for those of us traveling, the prices really should be similar for the locals. You’re right on Glastonbury food, but I’d argue that the drinks are substantially cheaper, and you’re also able to camp actually in the ‘arena’ (around the stages), which means your ‘drinking your own stuff’ limit is basically non existent, you don’t have to buy anything at all on site.
Still, Irish prices generally frustrate me, but I guess that just comes from growing up elsewhere. Went up to Belfast for a night out the other week, including the bus fare it still cost less than just going out in Dublin!
The incorrect use of apostrophes could almost be as shocking as the incorrect spelling of the same word, Evan. But thanks Aidan for the tips, plenty there for everyone.