Electric Picnic’s plastic cup generation gets taste of ’80s

Festival fans were as eager to snap up their camping spaces as they were to buy their tickets, judging by the speed with which the campsites filled up at Electric Picnic yesterday.

Tickets for the festival sold out in record time last March, and by mid-afternoon yesterday campers were scrambling for space to pitch their tents, before heading in to the main arena for Friday’s line-up.

For all its reputation for being the place to see emerging acts, Electric Picnic 2016’s opening offerings had a distinctly 80s feel, as attendees were split between seeing the pop of ABC on the main stage and the indie melancholy of The Smiths, via tribute band These Charming Men, who channelled Morrissey et al from a stage fashioned from the ‘Salty Dog’ pirate ship in the woods near the campsite.