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BreakingNews.ie
11 hours ago
- Entertainment
- BreakingNews.ie
Electric Picnic to cost €25m to €30m to stage
Laois County Council has given the green light for the largest ever Electric Picnic festival to take place. Today, the Council granted the licence to EP Republic Ltd to stage the festival where 80,000 are to attend each day to see the likes of Hozier, Chappell Roan and Becky Hill perform. Advertisement Last month, Becky Hill was named as the final headliner and joined Sam Fender, Fatboy Slim, and Kings of Leon on the roster. The 80,000 for the 2025 EP - which is expected to cost between €25 million to €30 million to stage - is a 5,000 increase on the 75,000 tickets that were sold for the 2024 event. Entertainment for weekend ticket holders will commence on Friday at 2pm and finish at 4am on Monday, September 4th. The Council has granted the licence for the multistage live music and arts event at Stradbally Hall, Stradbally Estate, subject to 51 conditions. Advertisement The Council had received a number of submissions calling on the EP promoters to support local businesses. In one of six submissions made to the Council on EP Republic Ltd's application, David Walsh Kemmis of Ballykilcavan Brewing Company said: 'With a view to supporting small local businesses, I would like to see the Council enforce a planning condition that the festival organisers must provide access to the festival for food and drink suppliers based in Laois, even if their product is in competition with a sponsor of the festival However, in its 29 page planner's report into the licence application, the Council stated that submissions received relate to a number of issues relating to the event supporting locally produced produce and particularly the nearby Ballykilcavan Brewing Company. The report stated that 'this matter is outside of the remit of the Local Authority and therefore cannot be dealt with in the Event Licence. The decision to allow or not the Ballykilcavan Brewing Company or any corporate entity to trade at the event is a commercial decision for the Promoter.' Advertisement Ceo of Electric Picnic, Melvin Benn said last month that the cost of staging this year's Electric Picnic will be between €25m to €30m. In an interview, Mr Benn said Electric Picnic provides an enormous economic boost to the local economy. He said that every year, EP has 'an awful lot of local businesses and local traders that sell at the festival'. Mr Benn gave the example of Laois Taste which is a collection of local producers which sell their produce at the Electric Picnic Ireland EU foreign affairs chief criticised over 'clear la... Read More He said that 'we work very closely with local traders and I choose the ones that I work with. It is not up to the local authority to say who we work with. We have the freedom to choose who we work with and we exercise that freedom'. Tickets for the 2025 EP event went on sale on August 21st last and sold out within hours without any act confirmed at the time. This year's event returns to the traditional last weekend of August where it will run from Thursday, August 28th to Sunday, August 31st. The first Electric Picnic was staged on Saturday, September 4th 2004 when around 10,000 people attended.
Irish Daily Mirror
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
EP headliners Kings of Leon cancel UK and European tour after 'freak accident'
Electric Picnic headliners Kings of Leon have been forced to cancel their forthcoming UK and European shows after frontman Caleb Followill injured his foot in a "freak accident". According to a statement from the band, the singer has a "serious" shattered heel injury and needed "a significant emergency surgery that will prevent him from travelling and performing". "The anticipated recovery process is expected to take 8 weeks, under strict guidance of expert orthopedic specialists. The band regrets to report that they will need to cancel all upcoming UK and European festival headline shows in June and July of this year," the Grammy Award winners said. Kings of Leon were set to kick off their European tour in Paris on June 10, and the run of 10 shows would have concluded on July 12 in Portugal. Despite being forced to cancel a slew of upcoming shows, the Use Somebody rockers are still expected to perform at Electric Picnic in Co Laois in late August. Followill took to social media soon after the band announced that they were cancelling their upcoming tour dates to confirm that he had undergone emergency surgery after suffering a "gnarly" foot injury while playing with his children. "Hello to everyone out there, especially to our European fans that are preparing to come see us this summer," Followill said in a video posted to Instagram on Wednesday. "Unfortunately, I regret to inform you that those shows will have to be cancelled due to a freak accident that happened the other day – broke my foot pretty bad, just playing with my kids, it's pretty gnarly, I'll spare [you] all the details. "But we're fortunate enough to have some great doctors here in Nashville that gave me emergency surgery, and I'm on the mend, but they've told me that I can't be on my feet or travelling or anything for the next eight weeks or so. "And that's a big bummer, man, we were so excited, we've been preparing for this tour for a long time. "We've been preparing for a lot of things, we've been in the studio recording, we have a bunch of new songs, we were going to debut a few of them on this run. "We had a lot of exciting things planned, and now we're just going to have to pivot and find a new way to continue the work that we've started. "I'm very excited when we do get to show you the stuff that we're doing, and in the meantime, we're gonna do whatever work we can while I have these limitations." Followill later showed the band's followers his leg in a cast, saying the situation was "no fun." "I know this isn't the message that anyone wants to hear and it's certainly not the message that I want to be sending," he said. "But it's gonna be alright. Everything's gonna be good and hopefully we'll see y'all soon." Kings of Leon are set to make their Electric Picnic debut this summer when they headline the Stradbally festival alongside Wicklow singer Hozier, US pop star Chappell Roan and chart-topping DJ Fatboy Slim.
Irish Times
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Electric Picnic 2025: More acts added to line-up as capacity increases again
English singer-songwriter Becky Hill has joined the line-up for this year's Electric Picnic, organisers said on Friday. Hill joins Chappell Roan, Kings of Leon, Sam Fender, Fatboy Slim and Bray's Hozier as headliners for the August event. Other acts announced on Friday include The Kooks, Conan Gray, Confidence Man, Suki Waterhouse and Biig Piig. This year's festival has plenty of Irish acts too, including Orla Gartland – who this week beat Fontaines DC to win best song at the Ivor Novello awards in London – KhakiKid, Amble, Bell X1, Kingfishr, The Academic, Maverick Sabre and Mundy. READ MORE Fresh off the Eurovision train is Tommy Cash, who finished third for Estonia with his song Espresso Macchiato, as well as the Netherlands' Joost, who was excluded from last year's final following allegations of threatening behaviour to a woman camera operator. Swedish authorities later announced that he would not be prosecuted for the alleged incident. In Terminus, the festival's large techno and dance tent, Ewan McVicar, AZYR, Girls Don't Sync, Holy Priest, Sim0ne and Puzzy Wrangler will perform over the weekend. We're over the moon to announce 40+ names have just been added to your Electric Picnic 2025 line-up 🎪✨ We can't wait to see you all down in Stradbally for the best weekend of the summer 🎶⚡ Only 98 days to go! — Electric Picnic (@EPfestival) Electric Picnic returns to its usual end-of-summer slot this year, from August 29th-31st. It took place on the earlier dates of August 16th-18th last year and was the largest in the festival's history. Capacity grew from 70,000 in 2023 to 75,000 in 2024. This year, capacity has increased once again as organisers have said they will be welcoming 80,000 people to the 600-acre Stradbally Estate in Co Laois.
BreakingNews.ie
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BreakingNews.ie
Electric Picnic announces final headliner and 45 new acts
Electric Picnic has announced Becky Hill as its final headliner, as well as 45 additional acts for the festival weekend. The Stradbally festival will return from Friday, August 29th until Sunday, August 31st, this year. Advertisement Becky Hill will join the previously announced headlining lineup of Hozier, Chappell Roan, Sam Fender, Fatboy Slim, and Kings of Leon. Top international acts from the four corners of the world will converge in Stradbally Estate to entertain 80,000 music fans including Confidence Man, The Kooks, Lord Huron, Barry Can't Swim, and Conan Gray. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Electric Picnic (@epfestival) They join an catalogue of homegrown Irish acts such as Amble, Kingfishr, Bell X1, Maverick Sabre, The Academic, Orla Gartland, Aaron Rowe, and KhakiKid. Eurovision fans will see Estonia's Tommy Cash, whose song 'Espresso Macchiato' is one of the top streamed Eurovision songs of this year's competition. Joining him on the lineup is Dutch Eurovision favourite Joost. Electric Picnic said fans can expect the return of festival favourites such as Provedencia, Croí, Trailer Park, Fish Town, Salty Dog, and Mindfield.
