Photos: Alessio Michelini

So again as with Friday we have broken down the festival into the thoughts of our reviewers each day and the photos from the band playing that day. Here’s Saranne and Deirdre again with Saturdays fun.

Deirdre Harrison

Waking early on Saturday, the talk of the campsites seemed to be the large amount of robberies which had taken place during the night. Worryingly, the majority of robberies seem to have taken place while people were in their tents sleeping. Surely robberies only happen at Oxegen!

Escaping the trenches of the campsite, it was time to visit the arena and see how Trinity Orchestra were doing on the Main Stage. Taking up the entire stage they were the ideal act to open the day. Despite the rain and the early time of the set, there was a large crowd in great spirits dancing along to the University group’s now infamous Daft Punk covers.

The Cosby Stage paid host to up and coming American band Grouplove. The group’s clear joy of performing was infectious. Their upbeat songs and onstage dancing lead to beaming smiles throughout the weary crowd. Recent single Colours ended the set to a mass singalong.

Running over to the Electric Arena there was just enough time to catch the latter half of Le Galaxie’s blistering set. They really proved that it’s never too early to party by making having fans dancing at 2.00pm as if it was 2.00am. To sum it up in one word, “Tune”.

Back at the Cosby Stage, Dublin based alternative group Codes gave the performance of their lives treating the large crowd to some new songs including the fantastic Triangulum. If their new material is anything to go by then music fans should be in for a treat when they release their anticipated second album.

Still at the Cosby Stage it was time for Adebisi Shank to bring their unique brand of instrumental rock to Stradbally. Continuing the trend of a packed tent, constant dancing and incredible atmosphere, the Shank showed along with Codes and Le Galaxie that the Irish music scene at the moment is bursting with talent and definitely not waning as many believe.

Over at the Main Stage, yet another Irish group, Republic of Loose, were playing to what was probably the smallest crowd of the weekend on the stage. The crowd just did not seem to get into their performance until midway through the set when the radio hit singles began to flow. Joining the band for Sketch was members of Tieranniesaur.

The Electric Arena played host to magnificent Jape previewing a plethora of new material, all well received by the crowd. It was old favourites though such as I Was A Man and Floating that really got the crowd energised, yet new single Hands Of Fire appeared to have the crowd singing along as if they had known it all their lives.

Electric Picnic has much to offer than just music, with this in mind it was time to pay a long overdue visit to the Comedy Tent to check out Abandoman. While you may not have heard of Abandoman yet, they were recently named Ireland’s seventh biggest hip hop crew. Several places behind Jedward. Don’t let that put you off though, Abandoman are comedic geniuses. Taking suggestions from the crowd the duo performed raps about strange items in pockets, a love story between a scientist and doctor, gingers and when butter is too hard. Highlight of the performance was a love proclamation from Kanye West (complete with autotune) to a Rosary Beed Dealer from Donegal. The only complaint about Abandoman was that their set just was not long enough!

The Mindfield area played host to many different events over the weekend from science talks to poetry. On Saturday night the Theatre tent was the setting for “Cabaret Craiceáilte”, a night of songs as Gaeilge. First up was a rapper, yes a rapper, rapping in Irish. And dancing, dancing while rapping in Irish. What he said I’m not too sure, but it was rather mesmerising to watch and listen to. Next up was Henrietta Game performing translated songs from their recently released album Black Ship and a cover of the Rihanna classic S&M.

Highlight of the evening was Blanchardstown band The Dirty 9s. The acoustic nature and Irish translation were oddly suited to the band’s generally upbeat indie pop sound adding an extra layer of emotion expressed in lead singer Fergal’s voice. Closing the set with a cover version of the night’s headliners, Arcade Fire’s hit No Cars Go in a multilingual spectacular the entire crowd were on their feet dancing. An incredible performance from a band who are definitely one to watch.

Saranne Murray
Saturday was the day I was most looking forward to gigwise as pretty much every band I wanted to see was on that day. I started off the day by heading to see The Trinity Orchestra performing Daft Punk. Despite the fact it was the first act of the day it still drew in a healthy crowd and set people in a good mood for the day despite a few small rain showers. I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought that they brought the music of Daft Punk alive in a totally new way.

Next I took in some of the other aspects of Electric Picnic such as the bingo tent and the body and soul area. I have never laughed as much in my life as I did at bingo and it was probably one of my favourite parts of the festival. The host was hilarious and it was a great way to raise the profile of amnesty international.

Crawdaddy stage next for my favourite band, The Undertones. As a big fan I enjoyed them playing to their strengths and their crowd interaction between songs. The intro to ‘Teenage Kicks’ alone sent the crowd into a frenzy and it was an amazing sight to look into the crowd and see young and old alike. Some bands just make timeless music.

Later on I caught the start of Lykke Li’s set but was not very impressed, I just don’t think her music translates well into a live set, because of this I decided to head to Death In Vegas instead. The atmosphere there was much better and they put on a great show. Now was one of the hardest decision of the festival to make, would I see Ham Sandwich or Arcade Fire.

In the end it prooved a simple choice,  It had to be Ham Sandwich on the Salty Dog stage in the forest. When they came on stage I knew I had made the right choice. The atmosphere was electric!  The banter between the crowd and the band was hilarious and I have always felt that its one of the bands strong points. Every song they played got the crowd going and they seemed genuinely surprised that fans had come to see them instead of Arcade Fire which was astonishing as their popularity has risen so dramatically in the past few months. When their gig finished I called it a night as it was just so cold and miserable out I couldn’t face standing outdoors for too much longer.