LCD, Lana Del Rey and a woman in a Santa Hat stood out in Stradbally for Ed Power

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.

Pop priestess Grace Jones, dance veterans Underworld, and student disco icons Belle and Sebastian were among the highlights as the Electric Picnic music festival began at Stradbally, Co Laois, Friday night.

All over Europe and the Northern Hemisphere, grape growers are checking the weather forecast on an hourly basis, and saying prayers that the rain stays away.

MUSIC NEWS: Fans of Bombay Bicycle Club got a nice bonus at the band’s gig in Earls Court last weekend when the Londoners were joined on stage by David Gilmour. 

Appropriately for a music festival that veers in tone from eccentric to sublime and all the way back again, on the first day of Electric Picnic the weather couldn’t make up its mind.

Organisers of the Electric Picnic have added 23 new acts to the bill of the three-day arts and music festival.

If festival attendances are any indication of the health of the economy, then this year’s Electric Picnic turnout would seem to suggest a turnabout in the nation’s fortunes.

Headliners The Cure are set to play "upbeat" songs at Electric Picnic, but could change their set list moments before they go on stage.

A BUSY National Organic Week has left the sector buzzing. Plenty of well attended events, some new research, promising policy developments and upcoming opportunities have emerged.

Electric Picnic has today announced several additions to its lineup for the September event in Stradbally, Co Laois.

DAMIEN DUFF will this morning unpack a suitcase in his London pad after leaving the Ireland camp, on the back of a 10-day stint away from home, to rejoin his new team-mates at Fulham.

Thousands of music fans have one final day of revelry to look forward to in Co. Laois.

LAZING about, tapping your feet and sipping beer are usually the extent of a festival goers’ activities. Not for much longer.

Heavy traffic is expected on the M7/M8 near Portlaoise this morning as tens of thousands of festival-goers return home from Electric Picnic.

One person is in intensive care in hospital with suspected carbon monoxide poisoning following an incident at Electric Picnic in Stradbally, Co Laois.

ORGANISERS of Electric Picnic are promising this year’s boutique festival will not only be bigger, but greener, with a host of initiatives to reduce environmental damage.

TWO grannies, dubbed the Electric Eileens, will be hosting a bingo bootcamp for revellers at the Electric Picnic music festival this weekend.

The ‘Spoken Word’ area at this year’s Electric Picnic festival has been expanded this year to include everything from theatre to political discourse to how to put out your first novel.

Organisers at Electric Picnic are aiming to make this year's festival low in carbon emissions and as eco-friendly as possible.

More than 30,000 revellers will descend on Co Laois today for the Electric Picnic music festival.