2025 Electric Picnic to be the biggest ever 

The company behind the annual three-day festival at Stradbally, Co Laois, intends to seek permission to increase the daily attendance to 80,000

Tickets went on sale on August 21 and sold out within hours without any act confirmed.

The 2025 Electric Picnic is set to be the biggest event in the music festival’s 22-year history.

EP Republic Ltd, the company behind the annual three-day festival at Stradbally Hall Estate at Stradbally in Co Laois, intends to seek permission from Laois County Council to increase the daily numbers attending to 80,000.

This is a 5,000 increase on the 2024 event.

Tickets went on sale on August 21 and sold out within hours without any act confirmed.

Now, in a statutory public notice, EP Republic has confirmed that it is applying to Laois County Council for a licence to hold the outdoor musical event under the Planning and Development Act 2000.

The notice states that “the anticipated number of audience attending the event is 80,000 people each day”.

This year’s event returns to the traditional last weekend of August where it will run from August 28 to 31.

The notice also states that “early entry camping will be open to a maximum of 40,000 people" from August 28 at 2pm to September 1 at 4pm.

The first Electric Picnic was staged on September 4, 2004, when around 10,000 people attended.

At the conclusion of last August’s event, promoter Melvyn Benn hinted at the planned increase for the 2025 event.

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He said he intended to talk to Laois County Council about the possibility of increasing capacity, but is "quite happy with where we are right now".

He added at the time: "It's up the council to see if there is more room”.

The sale of 80,000 tickets would guarantee the promoters a box office of €18m at the loyalty scheme price of €225 per weekend camping ticket.

The most recent accounts for EP Republic Ltd show that Dermot Kennedy, Fred Again, and Picture This helped the operator of Electric Picnic to post tax profits of €1.56m in 2023.

EP Republic Ltd recorded post tax profits of €1.56m for the 16 months to the end of April 2023 and followed covid-19-related losses of €336,446 in 2021.

The company made the profits on the back of a then record 70,000 music fans attending the 2022 event.

Those headlining the event in 2022 included Snow Patrol, Arctic Monkeys, and Dermot Kennedy while Fred Again, Fontaines DC, and Anne-Marie also featured.

In 2023 the company paid out dividends of €7m to its Irish parent firm and Denis Desmond’s MCD joint venture with Live Nation, Live Nation Gaiety Ireland Holdings Ltd.

EP Republic Ltd must lodge the licence application for the 2025 event over the next two weeks with the council and after receipt of the application, members of the public have three weeks in which to make submissions.