Sadly, the much anticipated return of Electric Picnic will not go ahead this September as planned.
It was confirmed yesterday that Laois County Council would not be granting a license for the festival, which was due to take place at its usual spot in Stradbally over the rescheduled dates of 24th – 26th of September.
In an interview with RTE Drivetime, Conor Bergin of Laois County Council said “…we love having Electric Picnic in Laois… It’s a hugely beneficial event for the county… but unfortunately, Laois County Council have decided not to allow the licence… on the basis of very clear and unambiguous advice from the HSE“.
Only yesterday organisers posted a list on Instagram of reasons why they believed the music festival could go ahead safely. But, just 12 hours later a further statement was issued confirming the “huge blow” that the ever-popular music festival had been cancelled.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CSHwaFLMd-Y/
In a statement on Instagram today, the EP organisers said:
This is a huge blow and setback to our entire sector, which was mandated to close on the 12th March 2020 (over 500 days ago) and such a decision now means the further loss of employment for over 3,000 people, who had clung to the hope that Electric Picnic would bring an end to their period of hardship.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CSL8tQvI8h_/
The Electric Picnic team aren’t the only ones let down by the news, Liam Gallagher took to Twitter to express his disappointment:
Gutted to hear electric picnic has been cancelled was looking forward to seeing my Irish ☘️ brothers n sisters and my cousin Guinness
— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) August 5, 2021
In an interview with Morning Ireland, The Coronas frontman Danny O’ Reilly also shared his disappointment at the news.
It’s so frustrating that our industry doesn’t have a roadmap, there doesn’t seem to be a dialogue there, there’s no plan, there’s 40,000 people going to be in Croke Park in a couple of weeks for the All Ireland Final… and yet under the current guidelines we can only have 200 people at an outdoor show right until the end of September.
The Electric Picnic team closed off their statement by saying they’d be in touch with all ticket holders within the next week, and would take this time to review their options.
Header image via Instagram/Electric Picnic
