Electric Picnic weekend “absolutely glorious”, says festival director Melvin Benn

After an “absolutely glorious” return to Stradbally Estate for the 2022 festival, Electric Picnic tickets will go on sale this Saturday 10th September at 9.00am Festival Director Melvin Benn has said.

And in an Electric Picnic first, tickets will be entirely digital for next year.

Registration for the loyalty scheme is now open, ahead of tickets going on sale, where Picnickers can register for a discount for next year’s festival. For more information go to Electric Picnic website www.electricpicnic.ie/loyalty/

With no Electric Picnic since 2019, Melvin Benn said it was “really special” to be back in action once more.

Picnickers were treated to performances by headliners Snow Patrol and Arctic Monkeys on Sunday night, closing out the festival on a high.

“It’s been absolutely glorious,” said Melvin.

“Hard for me to know what’s better in a way. Is it what we present or is it what the audience bring and the two collide?

“One of the amazing things about EP is the spirit, the craic and it is touchable, it’s different, it’s identifiable.

“And of course, amazing as it is what we present on the stage and people ultimately come for that, but the participation of the crowd and their enjoyment of the festival, when those two collide, then it really works.

“So it’s the two colliding that make it work – the audience and the entertainment is all one, it’s just glorious.”

“The thing that sets the Picnic apart is the spirit of the audience, it really is a spirit of Ireland being together, young and old being together. It’s a spirit of enjoyment, just being in a field. We can just be in a field having an amazing time even if it’s raining. It’s really special,” he added.

Melvin also said that he thought the HSE pilot drug testing scheme could be deemed a success.

“I think so. The two aspects of it really, the aspect from the HSE, I think they feel it has been really well received and certainly the response again when I am wandering around, people are saying it is really important to do it, that nobody can pretend drugs are not part of society and the Electric Picnic is part of society and to have some sort of testing mechanism you know be it back of house is really, really important and I think the HSE have come to realise that and think it is a really good idea,” he said.

“We have been putting some messages out where the HSE have advised us they’ve had a pill or a drug handed in or confiscated that consider to be more dangerous than usual and we have been able to publicise that and that has to be a good thing.”

The increase in capacity to 70,000 has proven very positive for the festival allowing certain areas to have more prominence particularly the sustainability-focused areas like the long-standing festival stalwart Global Green.

“All our cups and all the plastic bottles that we sell are recyclable plastic, all the cups can be collected and recycled and I think that is a fairly major piece of activity. Global Green have been part of the festival environment for a long time and I think with the new layout of the site they have had greater prominence and I think that has been really good for them.”

He added he was keen to bring mains electricity onto site to power the main stage with renewable sources in the future, saying he would do everything he could to make it a reality.

He said as much as possible tents should be taken away, and that in the case of anything left behind after the weekend, everything would be collected and separated responsibly by the festival and recycled appropriately.