Electric Picnic coverage is brought to you in association with Ramsbottom’s Portlaoise
Electric Picnic coverage is brought to you in association with Ramsbottom’s PortlaoiseElectric Picnic organiser Melvin Benn says the festival will remain at 80,000 again next year but hasn’t ruled out growing the event further in the coming years if the demand for tickets is still there.
The 80,000 attendees this year is an increase on previous years when the attendance was 75,000.
“80,000 tickets – it’s an amazing amount of tickets for a country as small as Ireland,” he said today when speaking to media at the press event in Stradbally.
“It’s impressive. It feels really good. I’m not making it any bigger next year. It’s the same size next year.
“People will be unhappy about that I suspect because the demand for tickets is ever increasing. But I want to stay the same for next year and assess it for the future.”
When asked if Stradbally remains his preferred location going forward, he said, “Where else would I want to be?”
“It’s interesting, just listening to the radio this morning. People talk about Stradbally as though it’s the centre of the world this weekend and it’s right that they do.”
He also heaped praise on the Timahoe Male Choir, who will be on Main Stage on Sunday, as well as the Stradbally Community Choir, who are due to be in Hazelwood on Saturday. There had been some fears that Stradbally’s large numbers – close to 100 members – would see them miss out but it does seem that that issue is set to be resolved.
Never before has there been such a collective local involvement at the event.
“Where the acts are around and available,” he said of the approach towards local acts.
“Obviously the Timahoe Choir is a wonderful story and people getting together to ensure that men are not lonely.
“And, you know, it was people getting together to make sure that men are not lonely. That’s a really important message. Because, you know, men can often be more lonely than women.
“And, you know, they came and played last year and to be honest, we had to close the Hazelwood last year because it was so full.
“I’d never seen it so full. We literally had to have a one-in-one out. And so this year, they’re playing the main stage via New York.
“I don’t know if everybody knows that after the back of what happened they did at the Hazelwood stage, St Patrick’s Day Parade in New York invited them to go and play in New York, would you believe.
“So obviously the very wise people in Stradbally have now got a choir in the hope that they’re going to get invited to New York perhaps.
“But there’s 92 of them. I didn’t even know there was 92 people in blinking Stradbally. But anyway, so they’re all coming to play.
“I don’t know how they’re going to get on the Hazelwood stage, but they’re assuring me that they’re going to manage to do it. It is a bit of a policy (but) where we can, we want to give those opportunities 100%.”
Electric Picnic coverage is brought to you in association with Ramsbottom’s Portlaoise
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