Pamper units, sound baths, fitness classes: How the Irish festival has changed over the years

With luxury, wellness, and pampering now a fixture at Electric Picnic, are the old ways of festival culture dead and gone? And, if so, is that necessarily a bad thing?

Fitness, meditation, energy rebalancing and somatic movement is now on level pegging with sex, drugs and rock’n’roll at Irish festivals

Audiences at Electric Picnic, the music and arts festival located in Laois annually, are accustomed to unpredictable goings on, but offerings in recent years may have caught even veteran attendees off guard.

Cacao ceremonies, reflexology, Brazilian dance classes, tarot reading, slam poetry, live theatre, An Céilí Mór, cabaret, cocktail-making classes, and meditation all fit snugly on the Stradbally site, where festival attendees partake in a changed music festival experience, one which seemingly has placed fitness, meditation, energy rebalancing and somatic movement on level pegging with sex, drugs and rock’n’roll.