Eccentric Picnic weather confuses 40,000 reveller

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.

As the best part of 40,000 attendees descended on Stradbally, Co Laois the conditions see-sawed between deluge and late August heatwave — one moment you cursed yourself for not bringing rain-gear, the next you wished you hadn’t worn quite so heavy a jumper.

It’s the biggest Electric Picnic yet, the capacity raised from 32,000 to 40,000, and the first in several years to sell out (promoters cite improving economic conditions and ‘aggressive pricing structure’).