Music

REVIEW: Ireland's Electric Picnic thrives at the end of the summer festival circuit, hosts Pulp's last show ever(?)

by Richard Trapunski

The Coachellas, Glastonburys and Primaveras have come and gone, but there was still one last hurrah left in the summer music festival season, and we went all the way to Stradbally, Co Laois, Ireland to get it. And we weren’t alone.

The eighth annual Electric Picnic attracted a healthy crowd of punters, ravers, partiers and campers looking to wring a final bit of festivity out of the season, even if the cold, rainy weather left much to be desired (it was Ireland in September, after all). Fittingly a pointed “back to school” vibe wafted heavily in the air for the festival’s three days. Perhaps it was no coincidence that this was the last tour stop for many bands playing the summer circuit: Pulp, Best Coast and Arcade Fire, to name just a few.

Europe has a thriving festival culture—the headline-grabbing spectacles of festivals like Glastonbury and Primavera Sound can attest to that—but beyond the giant, money-soaked events are smaller, more quirky fests that rarely soak in the tastemaking gaze of Pitchfork or NME, but attract their own dedicated followings.

Electric Picnic started as one such event, the “boutique” alternative to the much grander, rougher barely-about-the-music spectacle of Ireland’s other festival, Oxegen. There were rumblings from Irish Picnic regulars that this year’s event may be losing that distinction as the festival increases in stature and begins attracting some of the same shit-disturbing “knackers” as Oxegen. “Relax lads, you’re not at Oxegen” was a common refrain to those letting the yokes go to their head (look it up). But it still managed to walk the line nicely between gaudy big-ticket spectacle and “festivalgoer’s festival”, an event that succeeds regardless of who plays the big stage.

That they had some quality big name headliners certainly didn’t hurt, anyway. Pulp had the distinction of closing out the mainstage Sunday night in front of many of the festival’s nearly 30,000 fans and between playing wry, charismatic frontman, Jarvis Cocker hinted that the set may be the reunited Brit-stars’ final performance, full-stop. And hell if that didn’t add an extra bittersweet note to the full-crowd singalong of the band’s standard, “Common People.”

Arcade Fire’s headlining set a day earlier was more purely joyful, due in no small part to their renowned 2005 Electric Picnic performance in which the audience sang “Wake Up” to them for nearly ten minutes before they had a chance to play a note. Graduated from a packed tent to the mainstage, the Canadian band (who called this show their “second homecoming”) retained the tradition by moving the track from its usual spot in the encore to the beginning of the set.

The festival’s other official stages hosted some memorable performances from the likes of Public Enemy, Warpaint, Yuck (pictured above) and the Rapture, as well as a disappointingly uncontroversial performance by Sinead O’Connor (whose recent sex-trolling was all over the Irish tabloids over the weekend).

But, in keeping with the festival’s tradition, the most memorable moments of the festival came in more rogue trappings. Unlike many bigger festivals, Electric Picnic’s middle of nowhere location meant no noise curfew, and it meant many refused to return to their campsites after the official programming ended. Instead, every nook and cranny of the festival site became a site for raves and special acoustic performances. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes’ stripped-down, rain-soaked show on the pirate ship shaped Salty Dog Stage for instance, or out of the way performances by in-demand Irish DJ Toby Kaar (who played at least four times over the weekend).

A mini-festival within the festival, the Body & Soul Arena played host to a number of smaller acts, many of them Irish, in a stand-alone location where sad mimes wandered by playing the accordion, life-sized playing cards danced with little children and sushi was served in its own sit-on-the-ground restaurant outpost. It was the perfect location for Toronto’s Austra, whose synth-heavy goth rock was given an extra dose of gravitas in a sunken hill stage in a twilight-hours performance.

Though it may be attracting big-stage festival mainstays like the Chemical Brothers and DJ Shadow, it still plays a valuable community role. Many of the festival’s 200 acts were Irish and many were small bands looking for an audience. It was also nice to see that acts like Jape and The Cast Of Cheers waiting to break in North America can still attract huge numbers in side tents. In fact, the best set we saw all weekend was from an Irish band (well, Northern Irish). The huge-in-Europe And So I Watch You From Afar played an incendiary set of well-orchestrated, heavy as hell instrumental guitar rock that sounded Dragonforce playing Mogwai. Absolutely huge.

As the festival rolled to a close the Oscar Wilde campsite, host to a non-stop party for most of the weekend, remained eerily calm as its inhabitants returned only occasionally to grab tall cans of beer. If the party continues, sleep becomes unnecessary. Summer may be ending, but that doesn’t mean it has to pass by quietly.