Arcade Fire, Pulp, and Chemical Brothers for Electric Picnic

Arcade Fire, Pulp, and The Chemical Brothers lead the acts announced for Irish music festival Electric Picnic.

Joining them will be Interpol, P J Harvey, Beirut, Jimmy Cliff, DJ Shadow, White Lies, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, Midlake, The Charlatans, and Big Audio Dynamite.

Other acts announced include Codes, The Walkmen, Lykke Li, Sharon Shannon, Death In Vegas, Micah P. Hinson, British India, Toots and the Maytals, Gavin Friday, The Potbelleez, and Sinead O' Connor.

Also confirmed to play at the Irish event are The Go! Team, Boys Noize, Paul Kalkbrenner, Twin Shadow, Willy Mason, Trentemoller, Killing Joke, Ivan St John, Dave Clarke, Caitlin Rose, Health, Mogwai, O Emperor, Adam Beyer, The Danger Is, Adebisi Shank, Flying Lotus, Mundy, and R.S.A.G..

The festival will also feature Comedy & Spoken Word, Arts & Theatrics, the Arcadia area, Fosset's Circus, Art Trail, the Body & Soul area, Global Green & Greencrafts, the Eco Picnic, and Amnesty Ireland.

The 'Comedy Tent' once again will cater for all comic styles ranging from the musical stylings of Dead Cat Bounce, Rubberbandits, and Abandoman to stand up. There will be a special emphasis on 'breakthrough' acts both from the national and international circuits.

The 'Body & Soul' area will be back with a new stage for 2011 inspired by the 'Earth Ships' of Arizona - made from recycled electrical waste, bottles, tyres and cob walls, with a line-up of up and coming performers and artists on both the Body & Soul Stage and the Love Letter Stage, whilst resident artists the DoLab will be returning alongside performers Lucent Dossier. Plus L.A. artists Shrine and his recycled art installations and Gerard Minawaka's bamboo sculptures, and the Wood Collective.

The 'Mindfield' spoken word area is back with a programme including political cabaret events hosted by David McWilliams with special guest, Jon Snow, plus interactive conversation, debate, poetry, literature, music, science, history, architecture and more.

The 'Global Green' returns as the place to slow down and celebrate the potential for cultural transformation, bringing together a wide community of cultural creatives, artists and civil society organisations with Greencrafts including a chance to wrought hot metal on an anvil, to smith your own silver ring, and to carve a wooden bowl.

Late night favourites 'Arcadia' return with more scrap metal art and futuristic stage shows.

'Trenchtwon' returns with the spirit of Jamaica tucked away in the forests of Stradbally as does 'Fossets circus', 'The Salty Dog Saloon', 'Farmers Market', 'The Family Area', and 'Soul Kids' in the walled gardens with festival fun including yoga, enchanted fairy workshops, and arts & crafts.

Tickets will be priced at priced at 240 euros for an adult weekend ticket. Tickets will go on sale at 9am on Friday 11th March. There will be no single day tickets, Family Camping Tickets and Campervan Tickets will also be available, and eFestivals will have links to buy them then.

Electric Picnic returns for its eighth year from Friday 2nd to Sunday 4th September at Stradbally Hall Estate, Co Laois - less than an hour from Dublin.

Ireland's complete music and arts festival offers an array of fine music, theatre, comedy, holistic health and art. Musically it's a more eclectic mix of artists than the other Irish mainstream events.

As well as loads of comedy, spoken world, a range of stages, lots of site art and many areas to explore with plenty of catering options and all the normal facilities you'd expect at a festival, and an an emphasis on eco-friendly initiatives.

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