‘There are always people complaining’: Electric Picnic must ensure a feast for everyone in the audience

There are no two, perhaps even three ways about it – Melvin Benn is a busy guy. Three weeks ago, the managing director of Festival Republic was overseeing Wireless Festival. Two weeks ago it was Latitude Festival; in a few weeks, it will be Leeds and Reading Festivals, and in four weeks it will be Electric Picnic. One year shy of its 20th birthday (it began as a one-day event in 2004, headlined by 2ManyDJs, with a support cast that included Arrested Development, Jurassic 5, Super Furry Animals and David Kitt), EP remains the country’s primary music and arts festival.

It has progressed year on year, increasing not only its attendance figures but also its creative reach. Because of the festival’s broadening demographic, the line-ups are by necessity diverse, but they also have to be relevant. Getting the mix right, says Benn, is rarely straightforward.

“We never manage to satisfy everybody – there are always people complaining that the line-up hasn’t got this or that act. If you focus on the music line-up this year with the headliners Billie Eilish, The Killers, Fred Again, Niall Horan, and acts such as Johnny Marr, Young Fathers, Jamie xx, Tom Odell, and Rick Astley, what we try to do is present a daily diet of something for all the elements of the festival.

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“People of every generation attend Electric Picnic, and therefore, we have to have something for everyone, including the Little Picnic, for the kiddies. That aside, while there is no shortage of music acts, it’s always a challenge to fit into their touring schedules. The major names I just mentioned get offers from all the premier festivals, so it’s key that we maintain Electric Picnic as one of the world’s most prestigious festivals so that artists continue to want to come back.”

If it’s a challenge syncing with touring schedules, it is also something of an issue to have a gender balance in music and arts line-ups. In the UK, the figure for registered female songwriters is 16 per cent (there are no equivalent figures for Ireland). Looking at the situation pragmatically, does Benn ever see gender balance in festivals being equal? Such an eventuality, he says, is very feasible.

“As I recall, several years ago, the figure was at 11 or 12 per cent, so there has been an increase, and that number will continue to grow, I’ve no doubt about that.” He mentions the Festival Republic-funded programme ReBalance, which he plans to bring into Ireland later this year.

“It gives young female artists – who have no record contract, no agent, manager, that type of thing – their first opportunity to record professionally in a studio for four or five days, with proper engineers, where they can develop their first professionally made recordings. That’s something I’ve been doing in the UK for a little while – of course, it needs a little bit more proactivity from a lot of people in order to make that change, but there’s no question in my mind that we will get there.”

Electric Picnic remains the country’s primary music and arts festival. Photograph: Alan Betson

Next year sees Electric Picnic celebrate its 20th birthday. Is it a concern that there might come a point where things plateau? His instant response of “No, good heavens, no” isn’t surprising, while his reasoning is fair enough. “It would be like suggesting that ideas plateau, which is impossible because the ideas that people bring to me year on year are phenomenal. Also, and in truth, there are few better countries in the world to generate ideas than Ireland; the artistry of the country’s songwriters, poets, artists, you name it, is absolutely remarkable. We have ideas brought to us all of the time.”

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He mentions the introduction last year of theatre (“properly”), and a further alignment with Ballet Ireland; opera and cabaret are also very much on the menu. “Offering that type of culture is very important,” he adds. In addition, the festival’s new wellness area, Croí, “will in itself be a destination that people will barely want to leave”. Music acts featured across the weekend on the Croí stage include Jafaris, Wallis Bird, Scullion, Cormac Begley, Hothouse Flowers, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Cormac Begley, Strange Boy, Hazey Haze, and Imelda May (poetry reading). “Nothing is going to plateau,” says Benn, “because the vibrancy of ideas continues to be extraordinary.”

Time is now of the essence, he hints. He would love to chat about Electric Picnic for longer, but there are many things to do. A final question. Does he foresee any official tribute to Sinéad O’Connor across the festival weekend, or is that being left to some of the acts to decide? “We haven’t taken that decision yet,” is all he will offer, and then he’s off and away. As the saying goes, watch this space.

Electric Picnic 2023

Seven rising Irish stars

Clara Tracey

Fermanagh’s loss is everyone else’s gain? Clara Tracy released her debut album, Black Forest, in 2022, and immediately hit the kind of nerve that comes with listening to Serge Gainsbourg too much. And yes, one of the songs on the album is called Jane Birkin…

Yasmin Gardezi

Irish electronic techno DJ Yasmin Gardezi has spent the past few years making a name for herself at club shows and festivals (actual and online), but especially at Glasgow’s Sub Club and Life Festival. Best catch her in Ireland while you can – Yasmin Gardezi is tipped for international success very soon.

X Collective

The shape of neo-soul/pop/R&B X Collective shifts and twists, but the primary people behind it are Ele Breslin (aka Zapho) and Emily Shaw. Zapho has been crafting away for the past few years, ensuring that X Collective members and songs are seen and heard, so a performance at Electric Picnic will surely spread the gospel.

Sprints

The spirit if not the music of punk rock is alive and kicking Sprints, the Dublin band who signed to Berlin-based indie label City Slang earlier this year, and who will no doubt be performing songs from their imminent debut album.

Krea

With Co Wicklow trio Wyvern Lingo on an extended hiatus, Karen Cowley, aka Krea, ventures out with solo work that is invested with themes of the past, family, loss and love. Keep the noise down at the back!

Pa Sheehy

The former lead singer of Walking on Cars made his solo debut in his native Dingle last December, and has since worked on fashioning excellent folk/pop tunes that will surely mark him out as one to keep an eye out for in 2024.

Jazzy

Easily the Irish hit of the year (so far), singer/songwriter/DJ Yasmine Byrne is forging ahead with the kind of radio-friendly electro-pop that is bound to bring her from Crumlin to the world stage.

Seven veteran acts

The Killers

More than 20 years as a band constitutes some kind of legacy, especially when their 2004 debut album, Hot Fuss, generated one of the longest-running singles in the Irish charts – Mr Brightside. The band’s 2021 Springsteen-influenced album, Pressure Machine, softened dynamics a bit, but their EP gig will assuredly focus on the hits.

Johnny Marr

Oh, we can visualise it now – the Main Arena pulsing to some of his solo songs (his most recent album, Call the Comet, contains some beauts), but then going into interstellar overdrive when he delivers the likes of How Soon is Now, This Charming Man, Last Night I Dreamt that Somebody Loved Me, and other perennial Smiths tunes.

Rick Astley

Speaking of The Smiths, it should be noted that while performing at this year’s Glastonbury festival, UK pop singer Rick Astley – the man who you know will never, ever give you up or let you down – teamed up with Greater Manchester band Blossoms to perform a set of Smiths songs. So, you know, one never knows what may happen, right?

Lightning Seeds

Liverpool’s Lightning Seeds have three songs – 1989′s Pure, 1992′s The Life of Riley, and 1996′s Three Lions – that would be instantly familiar to even the most unaware pop music fan. In other words, Ian Broudie and friends know their way round a tune so well that even if you don’t recognise what they play, you’ll be humming it regardless.

The Saw Doctors

It is almost 40 years since the Saw Doctors formed in Co Galway, and in the interim period a few things have made themselves known: they go away for years and then return; they have two steadfast members, Leo Moran and Davy Carton; and whenever they play a gig in Ireland they receive a level of adulation you rarely witness.

Fight Like Apes

The reason for this Irish band reforming is the 15th anniversary of their 2008 debut album, Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion. It is, admittedly, a good enough reason, but as far as we’re concerned any excuse will do.

Paolo Nutini

Back in Ireland after hugely successful open-air shows, the Scottish-Italian singer-songwriter will go down a treat with those in the Electric Picnic audience that like to listen to rugged soul/pop while looking at a ridiculously handsome face.

Seven spoken word events in Mindfield

The Rodfather

Roddy Collins is part of the packed Mindfield lineup that this year's festival. Photograph: Inpho

Paul Howard’s collaborative autobiography of football manager Roddy Collins was published last year to much acclaim (”like a Naked Gun movie but with anecdotes instead of jokes,” observed Malachy Clerkin in this newspaper), so to have a live interview between the subject and the author is a rare treat.

Three Castles Burning

Donal Fallon’s Three Castles Burning social history podcast specialises in stories about Dublin city, and you can guarantee that his interview with acclaimed Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick (whose work includes album covers for Thin Lizzy, and his world famous two-tone portrait of Che Guevara) will unearth many, perhaps some forgotten, gems.

The Word

Curated and hosted by Marty Mulligan, those featured across the weekend’s Word stage include Templeogue poet Caoimhe Weakliam, whose poems about her favourite Dublin bus route (the 150) and the option of career as an educator (Teacher) are deft and beautifully delivered. One to watch, for sure.

Orgasm

Jenny Keane is an Irish holistic sex educator (”the orgasm queen of Ireland” claims her website) who has, we have been reliably informed, helped about 20,000 women to find their mojo, or whatever it’s called these days. To which we say, form an orderly queue, ladies.

Sunday Brunch

Author John Banville with Miriam O’Callaghan at Electric Picnic in 2011. O’Callaghan has been a regular at the festival. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons

Miriam O’Callaghan’s Sunday Brunch has been a staple of Mindfield’s Leviathan tent for many years. No guests have been announced at the time of going to print, but you can bet your bottom Bitcoin that the Sunday newspapers will be scrutinised by a few suitably curious people and marshalled by O’Callaghan’s honed journalistic instincts.

Manifesto

Writer Sinéad Gleeson gathers together a superb line-up of conversations and public interviews with writers, filmmakers, musicians, actors, and comedians. Sit yourself down to hear the likes of Louise Kennedy (writer), Aisling Bea (actor/comedian), Amanda Coogan (performance artist), Colm Bairéad (film director), and poet Khanyisile Mbukwane. Manifesto? Bingo, more like.

The Culchie Show

We are fairly sure that Barry Murphy’s Culchie Show has its roots in his co-created 2007 limited edition comedy series, Soupy Norman (which redrafted a Polish soap opera with a storyline about a Cork family in Dublin). Whatever – Murphy is a gold star pupil in the class of Irish comedians.

Electric Picnic is at Stradbally House, Co Laois, from September 1st to 3rd