Pedal power to the Picnic is a real tour de force

It’s the fifth year of a charity cycle that makes getting to Laois a fun ride that beats the traffic. Richard Fitzpatrick reports

THE most novel way to get to this year’s Electric Picnic, which will be the tenth staging of the popular festival, has to be by bicycle. The first Tour de Picnic cycle rolled out of Dublin for the 80km trek down to Stradbally Hall in Laois in 2009.

“It was the world’s first cycle to a festival,” says co-founder Brian McDermott. “We were into cycling and decided to do it one year with about 30 people. The second year we were keen to get a charity involved. We did that, and promoted it, and got a really good response — 600 people in the second year.”