Taking a vow in the church of rock'n'roll

Festival fringe:They do weddings too at the Electric Picnic. Among the 40 couples booked in to get "married" in the Inflatable Love Chapel at Picnic '07 were Natalie Price (26) and Brendan Dwyer (27), from Bandon, Co Cork.

"I legged it over as soon as we arrived on Friday to book it," beamed "newlywed" Brendan on Saturday afternoon.

"We tried to do it last year but it was booked up. We are actually getting married in a few months so this is a good run-through."

Asked if he was nervous as "Reverend" Dean Richard took them through their vows, he agreed that he had intended to take it all lightly.

"But when I saw her standing beside me at the altar and all the people looking on, well yeah it was a bit nerve-racking."

As they were pronounced "man and wife", Aha's Take on Me blared appropriately as Natalie whipped off her veil for a boogie and the congregation boogied along too, many throwing their heads back laughing at the all-good-fun absurdity of what they'd just taken part in.

In the nearby Body and Soul arena, entered through an arch of faintly billowing white fabric, everything from reflexology to head massages, from herbal elixirs to blood-warming Bengali street snacks was on offer.

At the Cork Community Bikes stall Eileen Murphy (65) was supporting her friend Eileen McGilicuddy (70) both from Kilorglin, Co Kerry.

Energetic Eileen McGilicuddy was powering a radio by riding a stationary bicycle as she explained how the two had won tickets to the festival from Today FM.

"We've three days to ourselves and we are going to try everything. We were at the silent disco earlier and we're looking forward to the Beastie Boys later on. Now we're off for some reflexology. All our children and grandchildren are very jealous of where we are."

There were stalls not only selling food and goods, but promoting causes, such as dying-out apples. Felice Rae of the Irish Seed Savers proudly showed The Irish Times the varieties of apples she and her colleagues in east Co Clare are preserving including Widow's Friend, Kerry Pippin and Cavan Sugarcane.

Much is made of the vast array of food on offer at Electric Picnic until 3am each night - including chicken and vegetable paella (€9) and shots of hawthorn berry and passion flower juice (€2.50).

A low-key but visible Garda presence watched over the event. There were no arrests .

The arena was also remarkably free of the usual blight of used plastic pint glasses discarded everywhere, due to the system at the bars where a €3 deposit was paid for reuseable plastic glasses, which were then refilled at each return to the bar. The €3 could be redeemed at the end of the festival.

One of the most oversubscribed acts was the Beastie Boys, who played the Electric Arena at 10.45 on Saturday night. By 9.30 the crowd outside the arena was five-deep trying to get in. Last acts on the main stage finished at 2am but DJs were thumping out music until 5am in a several small venues, while selling coffee, cakes and other drinks.

The five campsites were full to the point of being cramped with tents almost pitched on top of each other, but were peaceful with security guards carrying powerful torches patrolling through the night.

Amazingly, most toilets remained bearable and equipped with paper through the weekend. Queues were up to an hour long for the cold showers at €3 a wash. An ongoing hour-long queue formed for the one ATM .

The only real gripe was traffic on the way to Stradbally on Friday, which saw the Dublin- Portlaoise journey take up to five hours. Traffic on Saturday and yesterday was only a little heavier than normal.

One man died during the course of the festival.

Organisers said he was taken ill and treated at the medical centre before being taken to Portlaoise General Hospital where he later died. Festival organiser, John Reynolds, extended his sympathies to the man's family.