{"id":35989,"date":"2025-09-01T06:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T06:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/35989\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T06:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T06:30:10","slug":"chappell-roan-hits-like-a-typhoon-e20-burgers-like-a-lead-balloon-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/35989\/","title":{"rendered":"Chappell Roan hits like a typhoon, \u20ac20 burgers like a lead balloon \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eighty thousand people landed in Stradbally this weekend for three days of music, culture and craic on the Co Laois estate, meaning that Ireland\u2019s biggest arts and culture festival<\/a> got even larger. Here\u2019s our pick of some pluses and minuses of Electric Picnic 2025.<\/p>\n

HIGHSChappell Roan<\/p>\n

She came, she played, she conquered. On Friday night the pop star was thinking big, delivering true spectacle and showing the value of live instrumentation. Backed by her all-woman band, Roan<\/a> performed her 80-minute typhoon of a set in part from a Disney villain\u2019s Gothic castle complete with blood-red sunsets and flying dragons. Playing in front of a huge crowd on the final date of her European tour, the singer made her fantasy world real. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Chappell Roan review: good luck to the rest of the Electric Picnic line-up following this performanceOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Kneecap<\/p>\n

Chappell Roan was going to be a hard act to follow \u2013 but Kneecap<\/a> rose to the challenge by giving an equally electric performance on Saturday afternoon, when they played the festival\u2019s main stage for the first time. If you were right up at the front, the mosh pit was a thrill, the set exhilarating, Mo Chara<\/a>\u2019s words riveting. An absolute Electric Picnic highlight. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Kneecap review: Rap trio give a performance for the ages at Electric PicnicOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Kneecap bring the crowds out at Electric Picnic despite the rain. Video: Alan Betson & Nadine O’Regan The weather<\/p>\n

Forecasts for the biggest weekend in Irish music were predictably grim, billed as three days of wet and breezy weather. Festivalgoers were pleasantly surprised by the sun that shone for much of Friday. Saturday and Sunday were patchy but still better than the predicted washout. While it wasn\u2019t good, it wasn\u2019t dreadful. In Ireland anyway, that\u2019s something.<\/p>\n

Chatty celebrities <\/p>\n

It was surreal to talk to the American comedian Rosie O\u2019Donnell<\/a>, one of Ireland\u2019s newest residents, while she was chilling out by the main stage, happily chatting to everyone she encountered. A very EP experience. We also spotted Lewis Capaldi<\/a>, the US TikToker Brittany Broski and even, floating around after his Saturday-night set, Fatboy Slim<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"ElectricElectric Picnic 2025: Lewis Capaldi on Saturday. Photograph: Niall Carson\/PA Wire Trenchtown<\/p>\n

Trenchtown Dub Club spins reggae vinyl from 4.20pm to 4am every day of the festival. The songs play from beginning to end, the selection is great and the sound system is booming. A muddy, joyful atmosphere. <\/p>\n

Joost Klein<\/p>\n

The Netherlands\u2019 exiled Eurovision act from 2024 played the 3 Music Stage on Saturday to a packed tent, with many groups gabber-dancing in sync. Klein finished his set, which was full of fun, chaos and energy, with an ode to Riverdance. <\/p>\n

Glitterball campsite<\/p>\n

Despite being used as a bit of an overflow (see Lows, below), the new Glitterball campsite was an absolute win. Enough room for everyone, enough showers so you weren\u2019t queuing for ages and a respectful clientele. Being able to book which festival site you want to pitch your tent in, as the festival offered this year, may be the way forward. <\/p>\n

Good vibes and good manners<\/p>\n

The atmosphere around the site was warm and friendly \u2013 not a given at every festival. <\/p>\n

Cro\u00ed\"ElectricElectric Picnic 2025: chilling at Cro\u00ed on Sunday. Photograph: Alan Betson <\/p>\n

Electric Picnic\u2019s \u201charmonious hub of music, movement and meditative activities\u201d is a lovely, human antidote to some of the Scooter-style DJ thumpy-thumpy going on around it. The craic there was mighty. <\/p>\n

LOWSStrong headliners, weaker satellite stages<\/p>\n

In 2024 the main headliners, announced at the last minute, felt lacklustre. This year\u2019s top billing of Chappell Roan, Hozier, Fatboy Slim, Sam Fender, Kings of Leon and Becky Hill provided something for everyone. In contrast, the smaller stages had less interesting line-ups, with fewer up-and-comers and hidden gems. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Hozier doesn\u2019t go full Bono but there\u2019s plenty of politics in epic Electric Picnic performanceOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Food and drink prices <\/p>\n

From \u20ac10 for a curry cheese chips to \u20ac18 for a halloumi pitta and \u20ac20 for a burger and chips, some of the prices were eye-watering. They almost made the drinks, at \u20ac7-\u20ac9 for a pint or about \u20ac12 for a rum and Coke, look like good value.<\/p>\n

Signage<\/p>\n

Mindfield was probably amazing. But we\u2019ll never know because we couldn\u2019t find it. <\/p>\n

Tent speakers<\/p>\n

Way too many people seemed to have brought Bluetooth speakers so they could share their music with the campsite at all hours. Death Grips are great, but 6am isn\u2019t the right time. When those people finally went to sleep, the MK fans took over. <\/p>\n

Campsite overflow<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s crowd was 5,000 up on the 75,000 music fans who attended in 2024 \u2013 and you could feel the difference. Plenty of festivalgoers who had reserved pitches in one of the specialist areas, such as the Gaeltacht, Eco or gender-inclusive Glitterball campsites, were annoyed when Electric Picnic opened them up as overflow sites. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eighty thousand people landed in Stradbally this weekend for three days of music, culture and craic on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[19967,18,11985,117,27671,2215,19,17,4066,742,10303,27927],"class_list":{"0":"post-35989","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-chappell-roan","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-electric-picnic","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-fatboy-slim","13":"tag-for-you","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-kneecap","17":"tag-lewis-capaldi","18":"tag-mo-chara","19":"tag-rosie-o-donnell"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35989","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=35989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}