{"id":656181,"date":"2026-08-25T19:32:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T19:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/656181\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T19:32:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T19:32:21","slug":"electric-picnic-2026-womens-urinals-guinness-and-that-barefoot-garden-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/656181\/","title":{"rendered":"Electric Picnic 2026: Women\u2019s urinals, Guinness … and that Barefoot Garden \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an Irish music festival first, Electric Picnic <\/a>will introduce women\u2019s urinals<\/a>, a facility which has had success at other international festivals.<\/p>\n

The 21st iteration of Ireland\u2019s biggest music festival will take place from August 28th to 30th and feature headliners Fontaines DC, Gorillaz, Lewis Capaldi and CMAT. <\/p>\n

Speaking on Tuesday at the site in Stradbally, Co Laois, Festival Republic managing director Melvin Benn said the women\u2019s urinals have been a success at the company\u2019s United Kingdom gigs. They have also been a hit at Glastonbury and Barcelona\u2019s Primavera Sound<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve been coming to my shows for a long time in the UK. And actually I am told that it\u2019s a much cleaner, quicker and better experience … something that people will really enjoy,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The urinals are reportedly more hygienic as they can be cleaned externally using a hose and reduce toilet queues for festivalgoers as they are three times faster to use than normal portaloos. Users will be obliged to squat in order to use the toilet and will be covered from the waist down. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Electric Picnic debuts women’s urinals at festivalOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

These kinds of urinals had previously been used at the VHI Women\u2019s Mini Marathon in Dublin in 2025 and 2026, but have yet to make a music festival appearance in Ireland. <\/p>\n

Branded as \u201cpeequals\u201d, the toilets will be available at numerous bathroom sites across the arena. <\/p>\n

Electric Picnic debuts women’s urinals at festival Video: Alan Betson Editor: Eoin Ronayne <\/p>\n

In another first for the music festival<\/a>, Guinness will be available at the 2026 Electric Picnic following a partnership between Diageo Ireland, Live Nation Ireland and MCD in December 2025, putting an end to the company\u2019s long-standing agreement with Heineken. <\/p>\n

Regarding the stout, Benn said: \u201cI mean Guinness is having a resurgence.\u201d <\/p>\n

As with the beverages, the food options have also received a shake-up at this year\u2019s festival, with a new dedicated dining area, Nomad. The sit-down dining space hopes to host 150 people a day, with two bookable restaurants in the form of West African kitchen Ibile and Smithfield noodle joint Biang Biang. <\/p>\n

The sittings will take place between 12.30pm-4pm and after the final serving, the area will become a more casual dining space with walk-up food and drinks from Greek food truck Gyro Kings, Belfast chicken wing chain Wing It and Brazilian restaurant Bah 33. <\/p>\n

\"PreparationsPreparations under way for Electric Picnic 2026. Photograph: Colin Keegan\/Collins \"FlorenceFlorence Road lead singer Lily Aron on the main stage in advance of Electric Picnic 2026. Photograph: Colin Keegan\/Collins <\/p>\n

The festival <\/a>is expected to be attended by 80,000 people over the three days and features musicians, artists, circus, yogis, podcasts, talks and comedy. <\/p>\n

This year, the comedy tent has added an extra night of scheduling, kicking off at 6pm on Friday night instead of the usual Saturday-Sunday programming. Billed comedians include Mario Rosenstock, Deirdre O\u2019Kane and Vittorio Angelone. <\/p>\n

Another novelty in store for the picnickers of 2026 is the Barefoot Garden in Cro\u00ed, which is designed to be a wellness space. <\/p>\n

Daith\u00ed Neavyn, who is presenting the space, said: \u201cYou\u2019ll actually see that this idea first came from Melvin [Benn] himself. He said, \u2018I\u2019ve always wanted to find a place within Electric Picnic where we could have somewhere where very simply people could take off their shoes and run barefoot for a moment\u2019. And we ran with that idea.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"FestivalFestival Republic’s Melvin Benn believes Guinness is enjoying ‘a resurgence’. Photograph: Colin Keegan\/Collins \"TheThe Timahoe Men’s Choir limbers up in advance of Electric Picnic 2026. Photograph: Colin Keegan\/Collins <\/p>\n

Also original for Electric Picnic <\/a>2026 is brand new stage GlowDepot, which has been added to showcase neo soul, as well as underground and Irish hip hop.<\/p>\n

As Electric Picnic reflects on its 21st birthday, Benn said he believed that \u201cchange and great line-ups are the key to its longevity\u201d. <\/p>\n

This year\u2019s edition is sold out. Tickets for the 2027 festival will go on sale on Tuesday, September 1st. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an Irish music festival first, Electric Picnic will introduce women\u2019s urinals, a facility which has had success…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[74],"tags":[14867,18,11985,34759,42283,19,17,11763,742,82],"class_list":["post-656181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-cmat","tag-eire","tag-electric-picnic","tag-fontaines-dc","tag-gorillaz","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-laois","tag-lewis-capaldi","tag-technology"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117157819901096720","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656181","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=656181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}