Electric Picnic tickets sell out in half an hour

Tickets for the Electric Picnic music festival sold out in about half an hour after going on sale on Friday morning.

In a statement shortly before 10am, organisers said all 70,000 tickets for the event, which was cancelled in 2020 and last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, were gone.

The festival takes place from September 2nd to 4th at Stradbally in Co Laois. Dermot Kennedy, Tame Impala and Arctic Monkeys are among the headline acts announced.

Organisers said they were reconfiguring the position of the stage in the main festival area, which is to increase in size by 60 per cent and give improved views of the performers. The Jimi Hendrix arena entrance has been doubled in size.

‘I certainly felt that the music and the man were one and the same thing’

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Among the other main acts due to perform are Megan Thee Stallion, Picture This, Snow Patrol, Fontaines DC, Annie Mac, Glass Animals, Pixies and Anne-Marie.

‘Surreal’

Irish singer-songwriter Kennedy said it felt “surreal to announce” that he would be headlining the festival.

“I first played EP seven years ago, to about 20 people sitting in front of the stage at two in the afternoon. And I almost didn’t make my set ’cause they wouldn’t let me in to the artist car park in my old Ford. The people working there didn’t believe I was actually playing ’cause I just rocked up with my guitar in the passenger seat! So you know it’s gonna be special,” he wrote on Twitter.

Festival organiser Melvin Benn said the wait to return to Stradbally has been "enormous".

“The wait has been too long and you know, we live in an incredibly troubled world but we have to remind ourselves that life has to go on, we have to have our diversions,” he said.

“We have to support people that are in need and need our support but we have to have our diversions and our amazing cultural lives that we have and Electric Picnic is at the top of that and so being at Stradbally in September is something that I just can’t wait for to be honest, it’s very special.”