FINAL PREPARATIONS are being made for Electric Picnic this weekend – and for the first time day-trippers will be able to attend the festival.
Ground conditions at the 600-acre site in Stradbally, Co Laois, are “perfect” despite the changeable summer weather we’ve had, according to site manager Robbie Butler.
Interpol, Arcade Fire and Pulp are due to headline on Friday, Saturday and Sunday respectively.
About 30,000 of the 35,000 tickets had been sold, he said, and Sunday-only tickets were selling well.
In the Body & Soul area, leaves and vines were still being wound around a dome-like structure, the Hortisculpture, one of the five garden areas in B&S, where people can “sit, reflect and take it all in”, according to B&S founder Avril Stanley, who emphasised that the area is open until 5am.
“The point of Body and Soul is to get away from the idea that festivals are about headline acts and whoever is selling the most CDs. Festivals came from people of a like mind, coming together, creating, experiencing and participating in ideas, in joy, in community. We want to tap back into that.”
New to this year’s picnic will be the Theatre of Food.
As well as the food stalls throughout the site, this area will feature wine-tasting, food demonstrations, debates on such issues as raw milk, comedians working as waiters, and a farmers’ market.
Next to the Theatre of Food, the Mindfield will feature Bob Geldof and other speakers in the Leviathan tent, writers Roddy Doyle and John Banville on the Arts Council stage, a theatre stage and experiments in the Science Gallery.
Cultivate.ie’s Global Green area returns, as do the Comedy tent and Fossetts Circus.
The fun-fair and the Soul Kids area, with children’s yoga and arts and crafts are laid on especially for harassed parents.
Bars will be open until 10pm on Friday and Sunday and until 11pm on Saturday.
Warm clothing is advised throughout.
The forecast is for dry weather on Friday, showers on Saturday and Sunday and coolish temperatures of between 16 and 17 degrees.
To date more than 850 cyclists have signed up for the Tour de Picnic, a cycle that takes place from Tallaght Stadium on Friday morning to Stradbally, a distance of 80km.
The cycle is in aid of new isolation unit at Temple Street Children’s Hospital.
It has been boosted by a €30,000 grant from the Vodafone Ireland Foundation.
The hospital is hopeful of raising about €400,000 for the cause.
Pre-registration for bicycles takes place at the 2Wheels pop-up store located at Harcourt Street in Dublin between 8am this morning and 7pm and 8am and 9pm tomorrow morning.