Every year that I have camped at Electric Picnic there’s a particular moment that I love. It’s midmorning. A queue has formed outside the shower blocks in the camping grounds. People are patiently holding bottles of shampoo, fluffy towels from home slung over their arms. They’re wearing pyjama bottoms, squishy jackets and comfy sandals.
Some of those faces, if you squint, you might even recognise. Maybe they’re the burlesque performer who was on stage with Jerry Fish the previous night. Maybe it is Jerry Fish. Or maybe you’re exhausted and slightly hallucinating. You’ve had five hours’ shut-eye in a tent that half-froze you overnight, then cooked you like a little sausage roll in your sleeping bag in the early morning. But you’ve made it this far. And weirdly, you’re feeling happy because what’s lovely around you is the sense of community. The laughs, the smiles, the sore head sympathising. The smell of grass and the sounds of the countryside. Birds. Trees. The thrum of a generator. Squalls of amplified guitar in the distance, a flute drifting down on air. Yellow-jacketed security officials grinning at the state of you.
This warming memory is important to hold on to if you are a camper heading into the buzz of Electric Picnic 2025. As 80,000 punters make the pilgrimage to Stradbally, Co Laois, for the annual music and arts festival, right about now many of those 80,000 people are wondering if they’re too old for Electric Picnic and if they have packed any of the right stuff to see them through.
Electric Picnic delivers some of the best moments you will ever have in your life. Electric Picnic can also deliver some of the most physically taxing moments you will ever have in your life. What the festival is not is bland. If you’re having a forgettable experience at Electric Picnic, then you just aren’t doing it properly. I’ve been to more than 10 EPs now and what I’ve learned is that your best approach is to embrace the madness, surf the highs and lows, and watch out for your friends. Here are some tips to make your festival experience run smoothly.
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Plan with military precision and take nothing for granted
If you are camping, check and double-check what you’ve begged, borrowed or bought, and don’t be like this correspondent who landed at Electric Picnic in 2019 with a brand-new tent, but crucially no tent poles in the box. Sure it was nice to make friends with the helpful strangers in boutique camping who fished around in backpacks for spare tent poles. Would I have been happier to have just got the tent up and made it to Billie Eilish early? Yes. A thousand times yes.
Interrogate your gear and be smart about your clothes
There will be walking. Lots and lots of walking. So be realistic about what you can carry. Shorts are good because they’re light, have pockets, and if it rains it’s easy to dry off quickly. No one needs to be in soggy 1970s flares soaking up the Stradbally mud. You are not Father John Misty. Waterproof rain jackets and old, worn-in boots are vital. Tights are great, because they’re light, washable and easy to pack. Plastic bags are a must. Pop your day-by-day outfits into individual plastic bags. If the Day Two look gets soaked, something else will survive.
Accept that you can’t control the weather
On behalf of The Irish Times, I asked an Electric Picnic spokesperson about the forecast for Stradbally this weekend. “It is Ireland at the end of the day,” she said. “It’s changing.” She had a point. Yes, the sun looks set to shine before Chappell Roan on Friday evening. Yes, there’s a high probability of a washout for Kneecap on Saturday afternoon on the main stage. But perhaps these questions should be left to one side. Perhaps what’s needed is not a weather app, but military-grade optimism. It might rain (it probably will). It might not rain (it probably will).
Bring small items that help in a big way
Bottle tops (trust me), hairgrips, an eye mask, ear plugs, a power bank, paracetamol, many pairs of socks, hats, glitter (for the vibes) and thermals. A thermal vest from M&S isn’t sexy, but neither is freezing your arse off at 4am. Don’t forget to bring some cash. Sunscreen too, because a girl can dream. And a fluffy jumper for comfort, so when the guy in the tent next to you is still wailing Wonderwall at 5am, you can hug it to yourself and think about better times.
For every high, there will be a corresponding low
One year I slept in a “princess bed” in a six-year-old’s bedroom because someone in a private house decided to call their home a B&B for the weekend. There are few lows like scrabbling around in the driveway of a house in Stradbally looking desperately for a key left underneath “a pot, you can’t miss it” at 4am. As a dozen terracotta pots stare at you from the shrubbery while rain cascades down and you’re on your own because your pal is still partying in Body and Soul, it’s easy to question your life choices.
Embrace the unexpected
Sometimes there will be a win. A friend with beer. A lift home when you need it. An encounter with a kind pop star. A personal high came in 2010 when I did an interview with Janelle Monáe for a radio show and on leaving, she casually peeled off her artist pass from her jacket and handed it to me. And so, for one brief, beautiful evening, I was Janelle Monáe: Grammy nominee, acclaimed actor and Electric Picnic superstar. I floated through every security check. I accessed every forbidden area. I dined like a queen in catering (I’m not sure Janelle going to catering was on brand).
The fitness boost
What’s certain is that when you get home from the festival, you’ll sleep for days. And you’ll feel a tremendous sense of loss that it’s all over until next year. The music, the chaos, the colour, the life, the excitement. And if that’s not consolation enough for the festival-shy among us, take a look at your fitness app and discover how many steps you’ve taken. You didn’t just pay to go to a festival in Laois, you also signed up to a boot camp and you are now as healthy as a horse. Electric Picnic: it’s basically orienteering with music.
