Electric Picnic: 15 of the most memorable moments, from a blistering Fontaines DC’s set to Lana Del Rey’s tears

It’s almost time to set the table for another Electric Picnic – the 18th, to be exact. The Picnic, which began life as a charmingly esoteric “boutique” festival at Stradbally Estate in Co Laois, in 2004, has grown into a huge mainstream event headlined by some of the world’s biggest acts. Here’s our pick of the most memorable moments from almost two decades of Picnicking.

15. For Those I Love bring the feels

Electric arena, 2022

David Balfe’s spoken-word electronic project was a vehicle for articulating his grief over the death of his friend Paul Curran, the poet and musician. The duo had attended Electric Picnic together, which made this performance by For Those I Love all the more emotional. What a rollercoaster it was, from joy to devastation, all illuminated by Balfe’s memories of his hard-knock upbringing in the Dublin suburbs. “I can feel you in this room,” he said towards the end, talking both to the audience and to his dear friend.

14. The Cure play on and on

Main stage, 2012

The Cure weren’t pandering to the lightweights among their fans when they pummelled through a three-hour set at Stradbally, chucking in the hits but playing lots of B-sides and obscurities too. It did go on and on – to the point where you could nip off and enjoy a lean 40-minute performance by The Horrors in an adjoining tent and then return to The Cure without feeling that you’d missed all that much. In all, they performed 39 tracks, starting with Plainsong, from Disintegration, and concluding – a long time later – with 10:15 Saturday Night and Killing an Arab.

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13. Scary Éire say goodbye

Salty Dog Stage, 2019

A poignant 1am gig by the influential early-1990s Irish hip-hop crew became even more significant after the fact. They blitzed through a gangsta-influenced repertoire informed by their experiences of life on social welfare in that pre-Celtic Tiger purgatory when Ireland was poor and miserable. It would be a poignant Picnic farewell to remember, with founder member and MC Dada Sloosh (aka James Molloy) dying a few years later, in 2022. In the dark, in front of a devoted crowd, he and the rest of Scary Éire left us with something to remember.

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12. Charli XCX is joined by Christine and the Queens

Electric arena, 2019

A rare Charli XCX performance in Ireland was elevated when her occasional collaborator Héloïse Letissier, aka Christine and the Queens, guested on their single Gone. The only black mark is Charli continually saying, “Hello, Dublin!” As Richard Ashcroft, late of The Verve, would declare from the main stage later that weekend, this was the time to be “unleashed in Laois”. Still, it was a searing turn by Charli – who also performed her Troye Sivan nostalgia juggernaut 1999 and even covered the Spice Girls.

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11. Fontaines DC storm the Body & Soul stage

2018

Fontaines who? The Dubliners’ early single Liberty Belle had come out just a year earlier and they were not yet on the radar when they played the arcadian Body & Soul stage. What a treat of a gig it was, with those in the know hearing early versions of Boys in the Better Land and Hurricane Laughter. Ireland’s new stars had arrived. It was just that nobody knew it yet – them least of all.

10. Julian Casablancas goes on a rant

Main stage, 2019

“Hey, what’s with these fancy TVs?” the Strokes frontman said as the louche New Yorkers headlined Saturday night in 2019. He was referring to the new wraparound screens on either side of the Picnic’s main stage. That wasn’t important, however. What mattered was the not-a-care-in-the-world energy that Julian Casablancas radiated. On a nippy night, it warmed the cockles – especially when he responded to chants of “Olé, olé, olé” with a derisive, “What does it mean?”

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9. Sigrid’s secret gig

Other Voices stage, 2018

Sigrid, the Norwegian pop star, had fallen in love with rural Ireland when playing the Other Voices festival. The day she headlined the Electric arena she made her feelings plain with a secret performance at the Other Voices stage. Back at the arena, she was so overwhelmed that she started crying – a moment that inspired the track Sight of You, on her second LP, How to Let Go.

8. King Kong Company close the Body & Soul stage

2019

Such was the interest in the final-ever gig at the Body & Soul arena that the gates had to be closed so the crowd stayed within capacity. Attendees were rewarded with a set of knockout electro-rock from the Waterford group.

7. Grace Jones turns up as the grim reaper

Main stage, 2015

Taking to the stage to the strains of Nightclubbing, Grace Jones was dressed as the grim reaper until she tossed off her robes to reveal head-to-toe body paint. “I know my Jamaican accent sounds a bit Irish,” Jones says, followed by, “I’m surprised it’s not raining.”

6. Beastie Boys’ final Irish show

Electric arena, 2007

The Brooklyn rappers delivered a powerful performance at the Electric arena, concluding with the mosh-pit frenzy of Sabotage. Five years later, Adam Yauch, aka MCA, would die of cancer, aged 47. Beastie Boys disbanded and their Picnic set would take on a poignant note.

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5. My Bloody Valentine stage a glorious return

Electric arena, 2008

Kevin Shields, the mercurial leader of the Irish-British shoegaze quartet, was spotted having a carvery lunch with his parents in Portlaoise the afternoon MBV headlined Electric Picnic. The dinner must have blown away the cobwebs as their concert was rafter-shaking and beautifully uncompromising. It was memorable for other reasons, too: 2008 was the last year of Electric Picnic’s early incarnation as a collaboration between John Reynolds’ Pod group and Aiken Promotions.

4. Mark E Smith Discovers Mumford and Sons

Backstage, 2010

The Fall’s 2010 set at the Picnic is not widely remembered. Mark E Smith’s response to encountering Mumford and Sons backstage, however, has gone down in the annals. “There was this other group warming up in the next sort of chalet and they were terrible,” he recalled. “I said, ‘Shut them c**ts up,’ and they were still warming up so I threw a bottle at them. The band said, ‘That’s the Sons of Mumford or something. They’re number five in charts!’ I just thought they were a load of retarded Irish folk singers.”

3. Lana Del Rey cries

Main stage, 2016

The Video Games star has long had an intense relationship with Ireland, having been feted like royalty when she played Vicar Street in 2012. Four years later, headlining Sunday night at Electric Picnic, she became overwrought. Her tour had been long and she was growing ambivalent about stardom and its pressures. As the crowd sang back, the floodgates opened. “It’s just heavy performing for people who really care about you and you don’t really care that much about yourself sometimes. I thought it was sad. I thought my position was sad. I thought it was sad to be in Ireland singing for people who really cared when I wasn’t sure if I did.”

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2. Arcade Fire knock the blocks off

Electric arena, 2005

Much like Billie Eilish in 2019, Arcade Fire had yet to fully cement their stardom when they played their first Irish show. They knocked the roof off the Electric arena in the early afternoon – and later spoke of the show as transformative in their history. Their reputation has since been sullied because of reports about the behaviour of their singer, Win Butler. For 40 shining minutes 18 years ago, though, they were the most exciting band in the universe. And Electric Picnic discovered them first.

1. Billie Eilish draws a record crowd

Main stage, 2019

Billie Eilish wasn’t even listed as a headliner when the festival line-up was first announced. She drew a record main-stage crowd of more than 50,000 for her Friday-evening set, though. It was emotional for Eilish – whose real name is Billie O’Connell and is of Irish and Scottish heritage – and even more so for the audience, including many teenagers and children who were overwrought as she high-kicked her way through her hits. “That show was awesome,” Finneas, her brother and co-songwriter, would tell The Irish Times. Can they top it as they return to headline in 2023?