Camping space, Kneecap, Chappell Roan, weather... 10 talking points from Electric Picnic 2025
Arms aloft from Kingfishr and one of their fans in the crowd at Electric Picnic at the weekend. Pictures: Niall Carson/PA Wire
With the addition of 5,000 more people on to the capacity of Electric Picnic bringing it up to 80,000, you’d expect things to feel a bit more crowded in the main arena.
But a slight restructure of the festival site – including the removal of the old Rankins Wood stage and a couple of new layouts for vendors – meant that things ran rather smoothly on day one inside the gates.
Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said of the campsites. Due to the sheer volume of people who had opted for early entry tickets on Thursday, five of the seven main campsites were full on Friday morning when gates opened for general admission.
This left a battle royale, with a number of extremely tight spaces being found to get a tent pitched. Gazebos were officially prohibited but there were still plenty of those space-hogging gathering areas up on Saturday.
Thankfully, festival director Melvin Benn has said they won’t increase crowd sizes for 2026, and that he’s going to make further tweaks to the campsite arrangements.
Kneecap’s manager Dan Lambert was emotional at the incredible response the group got from the huge crowd at their Saturday afternoon set: “Hounded by British media, a smear campaign by Zionists and a witch-hunt by the British state... And this is what Ireland thinks of three of the best people you could ever meet!”
How right he was. From people of all ages wearing tricolour balaclavas to the mass chants and singalongs, Mo Chara and co combined fun with meaningful messages in one of the best sets of the weekend. Review here.
All through the weekend, Palestine was being put front and centre by both performers and organisers.
Cork’s Izz Café joined forces with Dublin’s Bethlehem Restaurant in the Theatre of Food shortly after the main arena opened to discuss their work and family with One Plate for Palestine, including Izz chef Habib Al Ostaz’s ‘Paddystinian Balls’, combining potatoes with za’atar.
The Global Green area saw a display of activists, artists and movements – which came an hour after Kneecap lent a good portion of their time on the main stage to discussing the genocide.
Fatboy Slim's slamming dance set on Saturday night was delivered via a set of kit emblazoned with the words: 'Drop acid, not bombs."
When added to Hozier’s powerful words on Friday night, the genocide is not being let fade from people’s minds in Stradbally.
One of the biggest pop stars on the planet entertained tens of thousands of people in a field in Laois. Yes, Chappell Roan made her Electric Picnic bow to play her first Irish show since the Olympia in September of last year.
She’s had major performances at Coachella, Primavera Sound and Reading and Leeds since that point as her star continued to skyrocket.
Over an hour and a half on Friday evening, the Midwest Princess belted through her extensive back catalogue. Review here 5. Hozier’s voice is heard As it was at Reading and Leeds, Chappell’s carnival of colour acted as the last act before an Irish headliner.
Hozier closed out Friday night as a headliner for the second time. The Bray native weaved his extensive catalogue throughout the set, including a therapeutic rendition of Nina Cried Power and Too Sweet.
There was also a very pointed message aimed at the Irish Central Bank about its role in the sale of Israeli bonds.
For all the fear of storms and potential hurricane effects, there was barely a drop of rain on Friday. The weather did take a twist on Saturday, and was decidedly mixed for the rest of the weekend with winds and heavy showers, as well as blue skies. Cue the Picnic veterans nodding their heads about warnings to put up tents properly on the first day, and to pack suitable footwear and rain jackets.
Spoiler alert: a band that’s been going since the 1970s are still absolutely class. Nile Rodgers is no stranger to Stradbally or indeed Ireland in general, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still wow audiences.
He and Chic are approaching 50 years in the business but, similarly to Fatboy Slim, it wasn’t just older generations in the crowd at the main stage. That in itself is a testament to the American guitarist, who ran through both his own hits and those that he helped pen.
Special shout out to Let’s Dance, which was quite a visual as the heavens opened in Laois. The weather led to Rodgers noting that he was getting “frostbitten.”
The festival’s rumour machine went into overdrive on Saturday when Lewis Capaldi was spotted on site. Surely an unannounced Main Stage appearance was on the cards? Afraid not. The gossip about Fatboy Slim also playing one of the smaller stages was true, but the plan had to be scrapped when too many people found out about it.
One surprise that did bear fruit, however, was when both David Gray and Dermot Kennedy joined Noel and Mike Hogan of the Cranberries – backed up by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra – for renditions of the Limerick band’s hits in a powerful tribute to late singer Dolores O’Riordan.
Kneecap and Dara O’Briain. The Coronas and Fatboy Slim. The Frank and Walters, Aslan and Sam Fender. Not a dream dinner party list — instead, all were clashing on Saturday.
Add that to Friday’s collisions between Chappell Roan, The Saw Doctors and Self Esteem, Hozier and Confidence Man, and some heavy hitters have played to smaller crowds than they deserved. Perhaps those clashes are a good complaint to have at an event that always sparks debate about its lineup.
Hozier featured among the headliners, and Kneecap drew the biggest crowd of the weekend to their afternoon set, but the home-grown presence at Electric Picnic 2025 was evident every day on every stage.
As well as veterans like the Saw Doctors and The Coronas showing they can still rock a festival crowd, newcomers like Amble, Kingfshr and For Those I Love underlined the depth of talent in Irish music at the moment. Start your CMAT and Fontaines DC rumours now for Electric Picnic 2026.
