{"id":32301,"date":"2025-08-30T05:55:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T05:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/32301\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T05:55:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T05:55:09","slug":"nightmare-traffic-and-prospect-of-rain-doesnt-dampen-spirits-at-electric-picnic-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/32301\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Nightmare traffic\u2019 and prospect of rain doesn\u2019t dampen spirits at Electric Picnic \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">This year\u2019s Electric Picnic saw 40,000 people land at the Co Laois venue on night one, eclipsing last year\u2019s 20,000 on the same night. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">By 8.45pm on Thursday evening, popular campsites Jimi Hendrix, Ginsburg, Andy Warhol, Janis Joplin and Samuel Beckett had all reached capacity, according to the Electric Picnic app. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"> Speciality campsites An Ghaeltacht, Eco, Poets and Glitterball \u2013 the gender-inclusive site \u2013 were opened up as overflow.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Organisers said further registrations to these camps \u201cwere made available because of space not being used\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Gaeilgeoirs R\u00f3ise \u00c9ilis Nic Eochaigh, from Wexford, and Liadh\u00e1n Nic Cormaic, from Galway, are both frustrated by the organisers\u2019 decision. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe saw two girls come in last night and ask if there was any space \u2013 as Gaeilge &#8211; and obviously because it was ticketed they weren\u2019t accepted, but then it was kind of a free-for-all today,\u201d says Nic Eochaidh, from Wexford.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of people let in this morning who aren\u2019t interested in trying [to speak Irish] at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The pair have camped every year for the last four years at the Gaeltacht site, says Nic Cormaic. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt\u2019s usually a really nice community. We can rely on it being very safe, very calm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/ireland\/2025\/08\/29\/weekend-weather-rain-showers-loom-as-electric-picnic-faces-the-odd-downpour\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Temperatures to dip to nine degrees tonight as Met \u00c9ireann forecasts downpours at Electric PicnicOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She agrees that it is disheartening that people are being allowed in who do not speak Irish. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI think it\u2019s not good enough. I heard someone this morning giving out, saying, \u2018Oh, you need to speak Irish to get in there,\u2019 and they weren\u2019t happy. They said it was ridiculous. I think there are about seven or eight other campsites so they can camp there if they don\u2019t want to speak Irish. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing to hear English around the campsite anyway. Every year there are always one or two but now it will be the majority.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"R&#xF3;ise Eil&#xED;s Nic Eochaidh and Liad&#xE1;n Nic Cormaic who are staying at the An Ghaeltacht campsite at Electric Picnic. Photograph: Alan Betson\/The Irish Times&#10;&#10;\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/QQGWSFENXNAERBKMW6AVYILUWM.JPG\"   width=\"800\" height=\"533\"\/>R\u00f3ise Eil\u00eds Nic Eochaidh and Liad\u00e1n Nic Cormaic who are staying at the An Ghaeltacht campsite at Electric Picnic. Photograph: Alan Betson\/The Irish Times<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Conor French, who also arrived on Thursday evening, described traffic as a \u201cnightmare\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Sitting in the Jimi Hendrix site in a circle of camp chairs around a pile of cans, French is joined by a big gang from Carlow. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He said \u201cway more people came in on the Thursday this year than last year\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe left Carlow at two o\u2019clock and we didn\u2019t get here till about five, half five. I was stuck outside Stradbally for about an hour.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Rachel Hockney and Lauren Hayes travelled to the site on Friday morning, which turned out to be a time-saving measure. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWe left the house at 12 o\u2019clock and arrived at about half 12,\u201d says Hockney. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThere was absolutely no traffic.\u201d <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Rachel Hockney, Lauren Hayes and Conor French at the Jimi Hendrix campsite at Electric Picnic\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/EC4MSTXYCZGF3JWMNRYMONSKTU.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"600\"\/>Rachel Hockney, Lauren Hayes and Conor French at the Jimi Hendrix campsite at Electric Picnic <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In terms of how to prepare for the bad weather forecast for the weekend, Hayes says it will be \u201ctracksuits all day\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">One festivalgoer who is sufficiently prepared for wet conditions is Orla Murray, who has brought her dry robe.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Orla Murray from Galway at Electric Picnic\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/WUFWIV3PINAPLBTSB4JF32CODQ.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"600\"\/>Orla Murray from Galway at Electric Picnic <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe secret to staying warm is plenty of clothes and plenty of gin and tonics,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Also travelling with Murray, from Galway, is Fiona Monaghan, who said that \u201ctraffic was moving very well\u201d. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Fiona Monaghan from Galway at the 2025 Electric Picnic\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/F2AQ456GXFHB7OYI5LKSJMNSNM.jpg\"   width=\"800\" height=\"600\"\/>Fiona Monaghan from Galway at the 2025 Electric Picnic <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">In her fourth year in a row attending, she says: \u201cIt\u2019s great to see the buzz and the energy from teenagers right up to folk like ourselves who have been around a little longer.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This year\u2019s Electric Picnic saw 40,000 people land at the Co Laois venue on night one, eclipsing last&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,11985,117,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-32301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-electric-picnic","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}