Friday review

Electric Picnic is the jewel in the crown of Ireland’s Festival season. With its child friendly policy, its big nod to world music & a ‘Body & Soul’ area where you can learn to do anything from Juggling, Thai Chi or knitting, this boutique festival is comparable with Glastonbury – just with a lot less people (32,500) & a lot less mud.

Unlike most multi day UK Festivals, Irish punters were only allowed to enter the Festival grounds to set up camp on the day the festival commenced. This meant by mid morning Friday, aided in part by the overly helpful but ill advised local police who were out directing traffic - tailbacks from the motorway exit for Stradbally & the small town of Portlaoise meant it took some people seven hours to arrive - a distance they would have normally covered in seven minutes. In turn, though proceedings didn’t really kick off on the main stages until 5pm, there was still a distinct lack of people present for Friday’s headline acts.

Despite this planning flaw, the atmosphere on site over the three days was refreshingly upbeat. Perhaps it’s the Irish joie de vivre, the fact adolescents under 18 are banned or the fact that being in Ireland means you’re immune from British Festival fatigue, but the enthusiasm of the public for the event made for a fantastic Festival experience.

Friday’s performances began at 5pm with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain on the Main Stage. Performing a mix of modern covers with tongues planted firmly in cheek, it’s a shame that the numbers within the grounds still remained so low. Numbers really only began to swell for Hot Chip at 6.30pm who sounded great, but are somewhat lacking in their visual performance.

Besides the Main open air stage, there were numerous other venues on-site to view live music. The second largest stage was the Electric Arena tent which saw a lively Manic Street Preachers set with Nicky Wire & James Dean Bradfield playing with a surprising amount of enthusiasm. New single ‘Your Love Alone (Is Not Enough)’ was a surprise early inclusion in their set with the greatest applause coming for their classic material.

Back to the main stage for Bjork, who didn’t disappoint despite a twenty minute delay before coming on. As the sun set, Iceland’s best known export began what became an almost two hour show with a mix of material from her new Album Volta & the best of her back catalogue including an emotive version of ‘Pagan Poetry’ & ‘Hunter’, which saw her fling cobweb style streamers from her fingers.



A shame to have to cut this performance short, but back in the Electric Arena, Damon Albarn’s new project, The Good, The Bad & The Queen were due to begin. Like sinister Victorian Magicians, the supergroup appeared on stage in top hats & dark coats. Albarn seems happy to take a back seat quite literally, singing many of the songs from a piano at the back of the stage with the lights kept low, leaving former Clash bassist Paul Simonon to sidle around stage enveloped in his own cigarette smoke, mesmerizing the audience with his wicked grin.

Modest Mouse meanwhile had squashed onto the smaller stage in the nearby Crawdaddy Tent. Pretty much ignored in the UK until the recent addition of former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, the American band fared pretty well but seemed a little constrained by the lack of space they’d been given.

Back at the Main Stage Bjork finished her performance with silver confetti spraying into the night sky (& impressively, by morning the cleaning staff had removed every last piece). Following on as the last band of the night, American dance/punk outfit LCD Soundsystem – a band with more songs than you realise you know including ‘Daft Punk Is Playing at My House’ – a surprise early inclusion, ‘Give it Up’ & ‘North American Scum’ with singer James Murphy taking turns to bang on the back of Drummer Pat Mahoney’s Drum kit & tweak the knobs on Nancy Whang’s keyboard.

With the conclusion of LCD Soundsystem’s set at midnight, punters were closed off from the main area of the Festival grounds to the back of the site where DJ’s in the Bodytonic Tent played until 2am & the Bars, Cinema tent, Silent Disco & Fairground remained open for business.

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