Electric Picnic 2023: Some of the best podcasts, poetry and people to catch at Mindfield

On the off chance you need a break from dancing the weekend away, or if your looking to be enlightened at Electric Picnic, Mindfield is the place to go.

The spoken word arena of the festival, Mindfield has a line-up of interviews, debates, poetry and speeches that will definitely get you thinking. Here are some of the highlights you won’t want to miss.

The Rodfather

Saturday, Leviathan, 1.15-2.15pm

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

Sunday, Ah, Hear! Podcast Stage, 3.45pm-4.45pm

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.

Billie Eilish: Why pop’s great outlier has always done things differently

---

Electric Picnic 2024 lineup revealed: Kylie Minogue, Noah Kahan and Calvin Harris to headline festival

---

Ireland’s best festivals in 2024: A handy guide to more than 100 of the best cultural showcases

---

71 big gigs to watch out for in 2024

---

The Word

Guests across the weekend, see www.electricpicnic.ie

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

Sunday, Ah, Hear! Podcast Stage, 1.15-1.55pm

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

Sunday, Leviathan, 1.15-2.45pm

Miriam O’Callaghan’s Sunday Brunch has been a staple of Mindfield’s Leviathan tent for many years. This year’s guests include CNN correspondent Donie O’Sullivan and journalist Aoife Moore. You can bet your bottom Bitcoin that the Sunday newspapers will be scrutinised by O’Sullivan and Moore, marshalled as ever by O’Callaghan.

Manifesto

Guests across the weekend, see www.electricpicnic.ie

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

Sunday, Leviathan, 7.15pm-8.15pm

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.