Electric Picnic 2020 falls victim to coronavirus pandemic

This year's Electric Picnic festival in Stradbally, Co Laois, has been cancelled by its organisers due to the coronavirus pandemic. A statement posted on the festival website on Monday afternoon stated that "sadly, Electric Picnic 2020 will no longer be taking place".

The statement went on to say that the decision had “become unavoidable” and that “whilst the entire Electric Picnic team are terribly disappointed, we have a responsibility to all our fans, artists, crews, suppliers, sponsors, partners and our entire Electric Picnic family including the wonderful people of Stradbally who have welcomed us into their community each year”.

Electric Picnic, which was scheduled to take place from September 4th to 6th, is Ireland's largest music festival. This year almost 70,000 people were expected to attend and be entertained by acts including Rage Against the Machine, Snow Patrol, Lewis Capaldi and The Chemical Brothers. It is one of the last of the summer's major events to be officially cancelled due to the pandemic, following similar announcements from the Galway International Arts Festival, The National Ploughing Championships and many others.

Ticket holders have been advised that refunds will be available from Ticketmaster or any other original point of purchase them over the next 30 days, although they can also be retained for use next year.