Bands of rain: Picnickers urged to bring their wellies

YOU know the summer is officially over when Electric Picnic time rolls around.

Although it might not get the weather, the boutique festival always gets the acts.

Blogs have been humming all week about the age-old question of Electric Picnic weather.

It looked like Saturday and Sunday were going to be complete washouts. However, the news from Met Éireann is that, while it is going to be wet, it’s not going to be as bad as people had thought.

“I’d advise people to bring their wellies. There will be two main bands of rain. One on Friday night into Saturday morning and the other on Sunday afternoon and they will be quite heavy,” said a forecaster.

Luckily, the weather in Stradbally has been reasonably good in recent days and the site is dry and looking in fine fettle.

Not that the weather is likely to affect hardened festival goers who usually come stocked with enough equipment to mount a summit bid for Mount Everest.

Despite everybody struggling with lighter wallets, ticket sales for this year’s festival are reportedly strong. Organisers are also confident in selling out the one-day Sunday tickets, which were introduced this year.

As always, Electric Picnic is more than just a music festival and if you fancy a break from the main music tents, revellers can enjoy all sorts of non-music related activities.

These include as diverse a range of options as you can find at any festival including a circus, a cinema, a comedy tent, hot tubs, hortisculpture and even a little bit of old fashioned blacksmithing.

The event has become increasingly family friendly in recent years with the family campsite always first to sell out despite having doubled in size from last year.

As always, Body and Soul remains one of the most popular aspects of the festival, with features including garden showcases, shamanic healing and laughter yoga.

Highlights on the main stages tonight include DJ Shadow, Britpop stars The Charlatans, Interpol and PJ Harvey.

Organisers recommend that, where possible, people use public transport or car pool to help reduce road congestion and carbon emissions. Gates open at 9am today with the first bands taking to the stage at 3pm in main arena.