Picnic aims to hit right note

One of these years, the organisers of the three-day Electric Picnic may decide to change its name to the "Eclectic Picnic" given the bewildering range of attractions on offer to festival goers.

Now in its fourth year, the Electric Picnic, in the grounds of the picturesque Stradbally Hall in Co Laois, opens its doors to the public at 9am this morning and they will need all three days to exhaust the available diversions.

There is an expanded "body and soul" area, where festival goers can have a massage, go to the foot spa salon, the hot tub temple or the bog cottage. The Fair Green, new to the festival this year, will feature classes in barn dancing and salsa, a swing band and trad sessions.

There is a place called Granny's Gaff, where the public can dress up like grannies and play bingo and make tea and toast.

Adults with children can take them to the expanded children's area, where they can indulge in kiddies' yoga, face painting or play Sony Playstations. If that doesn't amuse them, Lamberts Puppet Circus might do and Fossett's Circus, a first for the festival this year, will have twice daily performances.

For adults who want to relive their childhood, there will be grown-up games like Twister, tug of war and sack races.

The Art Trail will feature the work of dozens of artists, a 15-metre water dragon, a sand sculpture of the ancient Celtic goddess Bridget, paintings by Brian Eno and Diarmuid Gavin's "Pod". The oval-shaped structure, which is covered in enamelled steel balls, cost €500,000 and caused a stir when it was first unveiled at the Chelsea Flower Show three years ago. It is hoped that it will double as an acoustic stage.

The Electric Picnic is generally viewed as the music festivals for people who don't usually go to music festivals, but with so many distractions in place, those attending could amuse themselves all weekend without seeing a single act.

"I don't view the Electric Picnic as a music festival," said John Reynolds of Pod Concerts, the festival's promoter. "We've got art installations from Brian Eno and Diarmuid Gavin. We've got spoken word. We've got a circus.

"It's never been just about the music, even though I'm a huge music fan. If you are in somewhere for three days, you need diversity. I don't think we know where to stop with the diversity we have."

The list of artists performing this year range from LCD Soundsystem to the Beastie Boys, the Manic Street Preachers, the supergroup The Good, the Bad and the Queen, featuring Damon Albarn of Blur, Primal Scream, the Chemical Brothers and the eccentric Icelandic singer Björk, who has arrived at the festival with an entourage of 42 people.

All 32,500 tickets for the event sold out in six weeks. With its luxury podpads, tipis and Airstream accommodation trailers (the latter costs €4,000 for the weekend), the Electric Picnic has earned a reputation for providing a comfort level beyond that expected of the conventional music festival.

This year is no exception. The boutique camping area will have a 24-hour on-site reception and an apres-fest chill-out zone.

Festival goers will be able to buy their beer online and pick it up, chilled of course, when they arrive, while, in response to criticism of the toilet services last year, the organisers have built their own.

Even the weather is promised to be fair, with good sunny spells and just the chance of an odd shower. The dry weather of late is also likely to spare music fans the morass of mud that has been feature of so many festivals this year.

Children under 12 are allowed in free, but teenagers between 12 and 17 can find their amusements elsewhere. "They can go to Oxegen," said Reynolds.