Electric Picnic: Best headliners, essential singalongs... 15 highlights to see in Stradbally
Chappell Roan and Kneecap are among the headliners at Electric Picnic
Last seen in Ireland playing the 1,500-capacity Olympia Theatre in Dublin in September 2024, Midwest Princess Chappell Roan returns for one of the most anticipated shows of the year. Judging by the Disney-esque castle set that has adorned her festival stages this summer, she’s ready to be crowned the queen of pop. New singles The Giver and The Subway don’t quite pack the same punch as the all-conquering Pink Pony Club, but as she says on the former, “I get the job done.”
Six years on from his last headline appearance, Hozier returns to Electric Picnic bigger than ever. That’s down to Too Sweet, which featured on his Unheard EP last year and topped the charts in Ireland, the UK, and US. Fresh from a summer touring the US as well as headline slots at Reading and Leeds festivals over the weekend, Hozier released the Unaired EP in mid-August and shows no signs of slowing down. A triumphant homecoming is in store.
Expect heart-on-sleeve, Springsteen-aping anthems from Newcastle’s finest rocker Sam Fender on Saturday night. It’s his last stop in the UK and Europe before heading to the US and further afield for the rest of the year, bringing his stadium-rattling show to Stradbally. He’s been finishing his shows with the powerful 2019 chart-topper Hypersonic Missiles - Greta Thunberg appeared on stage for the song in Copenhagen - in which he sings about bombs in Gaza - it will prove a cathartic singalong.
As sure things go, Norman Cook is a solid choice to round out Saturday night on the Main Stage. A combination of genuine good taste in dance music and a crowd-pleasing nous will ensure a field of heaving bodies. Right here, right now.
Regular visitors to these shores over the past two decades, Sunday will be Kings of Leon’s debut performance at Electric Picnic. They feel like the quintessential EP band, though, with tunes like Sex on Fire, The Bucket, and their very first single back in 2003, Molly’s Chambers, to draw on. Now nine albums deep, good luck following the Followills.
If their set at All Together Now last summer was anything to go by, Australia four-piece Confidence Man, led by the hot n sexy Janet Planet and Sugar Bones, are the ultimate festival band. They utilise fans to get their hair picture-perfect for posing, twirling their way through bubblegum-dance tunes. While we hope the sparkling Jade collaboration gossip gets an airing, Holiday (“We all need something to live for, baby”) is everything we could ever want in a festival set closer before real life - whether work, college, school - intervenes on Monday.
Dublin DJ and singer Jazzy will hopefully bring a touch of Ibiza sunshine to Laois, having spent much of the past month on the island’s club circuit. She’ll certainly bring the noise when she drops Giving Me, her breakout hit with Belters Only that turned those irresistible “doo-doo-doos” into a No.1 single. At under three minutes, it’s a short, sharp jolt of pure dancefloor energy, bringing the kind of summer heat only Jazzy can deliver.
Fresh from supporting Duran Duran in Cork and Dublin earlier this summer, Nile Rodgers + Chic return with a setlist bursting with disco party hits. The best singalong? Take your pick: Le Freak, Everybody Dance, their Daft Punk collab Get Lucky, and about two dozen others ensure that regardless of waning energy levels, the New York legends will have you dancing like it’s 1979.
One of Spotify’s top 30 biggest songs ever, The Night We Met has amassed billions of plays everywhere you look, leading Los Angeles band Lord Huron to headline slots around the world, including Dublin’s Marlay Park last summer. It soundtracked the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why in 2017 and, slow and dreamy, it’ll prove irresistible as the sun goes down on Stradbally.
Electric Picnic has a capacity of 85,000 this year, with a mix of young and old, festival veterans and newbies. The generations will come together for David Gray, who, like Nile Rodgers, is a more than frequent visitor to Irish shores. He may have complained about crowd antics at his 3Arena shows earlier this year (he described the crowd as "rowdy and a bit out of control”, explaining that it was challenging to perform his more emotional songs amid the noise), but the likes of Babylon should get the reaction it deserves. Anthemic.
Synonymous with summer singalongs, Galway’s finest have a catalogue of classics - I Useta Lover, N17, About You Now - and always ensure crowd‑wide nostalgia and kitchen-sink karaoke. Decades into their career, Leo Moran et al deliver in spades - and might even leave some misty or teary-eyed by the end.
Regardless of what you think of their music, everyone has an opinion on Belfast rappers Kneecap - and no other band has had the year they’ve had. They’ve worn their support for Palestine on their sleeve - or should that be Tricolour balaclava? - as they’ve had festival slots cancelled and faced court appearances in the UK on terror charges. They will get a heroes’ welcome when they take the EP stage this weekend before they whip the crowd into a frenzy.
Just announced for a show at Cork’s Musgrave Park next summer, Leitrim/Sligo/Longford trio Amble will be greeted with huge roars this weekend. Theirs has been a rapid ascent, having only played their first show in 2022, signing a major-label record deal with Warner Music since, playing to some 12,000 people at the Electric Arena last year, and releasing their debut album Reverie at the start of this summer. Their slot this weekend is the cherry on top.
David Balfe released his second album Carving the Stone at the start of the month. It’s a polemic against the state of Ireland in 2025, raging against the housing crisis, homelessness, and engineered emigration. The Choice Prize winner spits truths over a dance-addled beat. Electric Picnic will be the first live outing for the new songs and For Those I Love’s first show in Ireland in over two years.
Having just released a 40-track-plus reissue of No Need to Argue to celebrate 30 years of their second album, The Cranberries original members Noel and Mike Hogan will remember the late lead singer Dolores O’Riordan as they team up with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra for a special one-off show. New arrangements of timeless hits such as stadium anthem Zombie will add fresh drama - a poignant tribute for fans old and new alike.
