Bjork to headline Electric Picnic

Bjork is to make her long-awaited return to an Irish live stage during the country's only three-day music festival, it was announced today.

The Beastie Boys and Primal Scream will be also headlining The Electric Picnic, the Boutique Musical Festival, as the frenzy for tickets intensified.

Tickets for the festival, at Stradbally Hall, Co Laois, go on sale in the morning and is expected to sell out within hours.

With it’s capacity limited at 32,500, organisers are ensuring that the festival’s widely-reputed intimacy remains intact, with a bigger camping area allowing for more room and comfort for festival-goers.

Priced at €220, tickets include camping from August 31 to September 2.

Now in its fourth year, The Picnic has grown from being a one-day music festival to a three-day party encompassing music, the arts and poetry, with thousands of fans getting their tickets without knowing who is on the bill.

This year’s highlights include The Beastie Boys doing their first Irish show in over a decade and the recently reformed Iggy And The Stooges giving their only performance in Ireland or the UK this year.

Also on the line-up is a rare live outing by the seminal Bjork, ex-Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, a hark back to 1980s punk-pop with The Jesus And Mary Chain, cutting edge dance-rock from LCD Soundsystem, the newly-resurgent Primal Scream and the first ever Irish show by the Damon Albarn-led The Good, The Bad and The Queen.

Modest Mouse, the dramatic Polyphonic Spree and the eminently adaptable Craig Armstrong, Soul II Soul – who are arriving over with a 12-piece band and string section in tow – plus Paul Hartnoll’s The Ideal Condition will also take to the stage.

The Dublin Gospel Choir will be there to redeem festival-goers’ souls on Sunday morning.

Away from the music there’s a dizzying array of delights including the Body and Soul Village featuring organic food and drink, a massive range of holistic treatments, and an arts and crafts area.

Favourites to return will be the games field for adults and children, Comedy Club hosted by Des Bishop, Bodytonic Arena, where they’ll be serving up the finest underground funk-dance, and the Leviathan Think Tank – the political debate tent hosted again this year by economist, broadcaster and writer David McWilliams.

Lost Vagueness are proud to attend the festival for a third year, this time round bringing the infamous Chapel of Love and Loathing.

And the Village Green, complete with Village Hall, will host a right rustic knees-up, with line dancing, daily ceilí, gypsy bands, trad sessions, apple bobbing, salsa classes, dancing competitions and a bit of mayhem for all the family, friends and freaks to enjoy.

New this year is the world renowned Fossets Circus, with acrobats, clowns and jugglers.

There’s also Beach Huts, a fab Bohemian Bivouac, the very popular Podpads, Tipis and the double decker dormitories that are the Bus Beds.

“As always, no matter what the line-up is or the changes made to the festival year on year, Electric Picnic wouldn’t happen at all if it wasn’t for the support and co-operation from the local council, gardaí and of course the residents of Stradbally and Laois,” said John Reynolds of Pod Concerts.

“Last year we raised €65,000, which was distributed among several local charities.”