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THE ORGANISERS OF Electric Picnic have confirmed that the 2021 festival has been cancelled.
The music and arts festival was rescheduled to take place in late September but Laois County Council refused to grant a licence for the event at the beginning of August.
“As many of you are aware, we asked Laois County Council to reverse the decision on EP being cancelled this year. Unfortunately, they have not yet done so and we now run out of time. Regrettably, we have no other choice but to cancel this year’s edition,” the statement reads.
We would not be able to do the festival justice this close to show day, and it would be unfair to ask ticket holders who have stood by us throughout this pandemic to come to EP and not get the full experience that they are used to and deserve.
The cancellation comes despite the easing of restrictions announced yesterday that will allow live events to go ahead, albeit with reduced capacity, during September.
It is the second consecutive year that the event will not take place due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The festival also provided an update on what people can do with their tickets.
“We will be offering all ticket holders an option of a full refund, including booking fees, please contact Ticketmaster directly and they will process your refund as soon as possible. Please contact them within the next 30 days.
“If you prefer, you can retain your ticket and carry it over to next year. If you choose this option instead of a refund, you do not need to do anything, just hold onto your ticket,” the statement added.
The organisers added that the 2022 edition of the festival will take place on 2-4 September.
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Cancelled? It never got the go ahead. Nice P.R spin though.
@Madra: totally agree with this. The organisers have been leveraging the press and while I appreciate the pressure they are under to run the event I cannot understand why they couldn’t apply for a licence for a festival within the numbers allowed rather than the bonkers numbers they want
@Sinead Merrigan: because you couldn’t make a profit on the small numbers. You need volume to to cover the overheads.
@family guy: but was 70,000 ever a realistic goal or just greed
@family guy: any idea what the profit margin is on 70000 attendees? Is there much of a difference in running an event for 35000 compared to 70000?
@Brendan O’ Gorman: Another 35,000 worth of abandoned tents, sleeping bags, chairs, blankets, and general litter and filth to clean up afterwards.
@Madra: sorry. Ep did get licence. Croke Park had no licence to host 45000 un vaccinated fan.
@Tony Maher: it actually didn’t get it, a license is paired with the location and approval of the local planning committee. Laois rejected the application this year.
Oh nooooo!! I’m devastated!! What will I do with my life?!
Lovely attitude. Missed the best years of your life by the sounds of it ! You are exactly what is wrong with the country.
@: And you trying to give impression that your some sort of artistic type ?
@Liv Andrews: Hahahahahaha!!!!!!
@Da Dell: You’re doing a great impression of a troll, well done!! *applause*
@Liv Andrews: while I had mighty craic in my teens and 20s, believe me my 40s have been the best so far.
@Liv Andrews: hahahaha missed the best years of their life because they didn’t go to a music festival. Your narrow-minded opinion is what’s wrong with the country; not everyone needs to like the same things you do. Weirdo.
@Gloria Go: very well said!! :-)
What was the point in getting a vaccine if we can’t do anything.
@Ciaran O ‘Reilly: I say this as someone who has gone to EP 4 or 5 years and dying to go again, not being able to have a festival that is usually at this time when restrictions are still gradually being lifted isn’t exactly ‘not being able to do anything’.
@Ciaran O ‘Reilly: Spoken like a true grumpy teenager!
@Ciaran O ‘Reilly: wow, thats a statement, what can’t you do if you are vaccinated? Apart from EP
@Ciaran O ‘Reilly: “No, I’m not giving you sweets”… “Wahhhhh, you never give me anything, wahhhhh”
@Ajax Penumbra: only surprising thing is that Ciaran actually reads the journal, so for that well done
@Ciaran O ‘Reilly: have you got your third one ?
So what
@JMcB: exactly. A few more important things.
Should move it out of Laois now
Wow!!!! Who really cares?
@M.J. O’ Neill: off the top of my head, 70,000 festival goers, their friends and family. The musicians, the people who work at it, local hotels, taxis, bus companies, surrounding tourism..
@M.J. O’ Neill:
Not your cupán tae? Horses for courses.
@M.J. O’ Neill: I do, had a ticket.
@Chief: why are people being so nast y if you don,t like it don,t go .
Why say it was cancelled. It never got permission to go ahead.
It’s baffling from Laois Council surely they will lose an awful lot of money plus local business’s will lose the tourism
@Craig Daly: I would imagine the local area doesn’t do too well from it. Usually these events are not too well received by locals. I know most people in concert or festival areas take a trip away or holiday when the concert is on due to anti social behaviour etc.
@Craig Daly: I wonder will they look for a new venue next year
@Craig Daly: What baffles you? A revised schedule of lifting restrictions was published yesterday, which does not provide for the scale of an EP event. With case numbers projected to rise to between 3 and 5,000 per day once again, chiefly among the age cohort that would attend EP, how could the health authorities and Laois CoCo do anything other than refuse it?
@Eoin Roche: “projected” The word you are actually looking for here is “predicted” Eoin. But what is predicted, and what actually comes to pass are two different things altogether.
@Eoin Roche: Are you saying vaccines don’t work?
@Craig Daly: You’re baffled by a decision to prioritize public health over money ? And exactly how much is this “awful lot of money” Laois Co Council stand to lose ?
@Da Dell: No, I absolutely believe they do. I also believe trying to route through tens of thousands of vaccine certs to separate the real from the fake and a gathering of drunk and high kids on site and in Stradbally village, not even counting gatecrashers, absolutely will not work. When that very question about managing a huge unsegregated event was put to Caroline Desmond of MCD last week, she said “we would do our best” to manage it. That simply would never fly.
@Eoin Roche: Oh right now ya on about the Logistics, the have to check tickets and their is the searching too, so while a chore not much extra for them really , sure maybe there is even an app for it by now. But yeah maybe they might have been better off having it an outdoor event for vaccinated. Personally I knew it would never happen, was hard enough to open pubs.
@Madra: or they move out of their homes and rent them out for a small fortune
Ah hopefully it will be back next year it would be starting to get too chilly for camping at the end of September anyway. Unless they are giving out hot water bottles. Roll on 2022.
@Twitruser2021: Anywhere bar Laois
In fairness the organizers went above and beyond to give it every chance. The charade of Laois County Council following ineffective government policy for their own lazy gain has dashed the hopes of many. Even the CMO (Mr Buzzkill himself) gave the go ahead! Continue to go abroad for your live music festivals while the belated reopening of the Arts sector commences. A very sad state of affairs.
@Toon Army: Agree with all your sentiments here apart from the one on the CMO.
‘We would not have been able to do the festival justice this close to show day’ I think that has applied for a while now but Melvin Benn wanted the public on his side.
Roll on EP 2022, with a bit of luck, done properly, and not at the end of September! Already baltic at night sometimes at the start of the month
@Megan Finnegan-Ward: But EP is always on in September. Grow a tougher skin if you can’t cope with the temperatures.
@Paul Cunningham: Normally on at the start of the month, the exact words I used in my comment.
I’d probably still go if things were different and it had been put on the end of the month, but sure why don’t we have it in December while we’re at it? We can all wrap up and man up. Or is there a reason festivals tend to be in the summer?
@Megan Finnegan-Ward: December is cold and wet and that the reason. Irish Summers tend to be warm and wet which is preferable for concerts.
Yay profit before safety loses
@John Treacy: you really have missed the point here ..
@Patricia O’Reilly: i haven’t missed any point. Electric picnic organizers want to make money naturally and Laois council fear a massive controversy if 1000s of people get ill. Simples. But don’t worry the GAA will survive regardless.
Getting forced to take the jab to get your rightfully attained rights back really paid off. Disgusting behaviour.
@Liv Andrews:
Ah heeooor! Leaveirout…..
@Liv Andrews: I know, when they held me down and shoved it in my arm they told me that EP would be on the next day and I’d be able to go to a concert in the 3Arena that weekend. Devastated. Can’t believe everything hasn’t instantly gone back to normal. Writing to the UN about my right to go get mouldy in Stradbally.
@Megan Finnegan-Ward: ya should contact your doctor, as you seem to have had some adverse effects from the vaccine.
@Liv Andrews: cry harder. Nobody forced you.
@Da Dell: Bit under the weather the morning after, inability to resist being a smartarse when people are talking pony increased, all outlined in the leaflet my friend
What’s an electric picnic?
@Hugo Bugo: think it’s like a tracker mortgage…
It is the end of Irish civilization as we know it. The most momentous event in Irish music since the death of the last of the Gaelic bards, Turlough O’Carolan, in Keadue in 1738.
If Laois don’t want the money generated by visitors to Stradbally and the surrounding area, after a miserable time for the country, then EP should take their business elsewhere.
Plenty of other fields in other counties that would love to benefit from a festival such as EP.
@Darren Anthony Corr:
Its a legal instrument takes 13 weeks. You can’t magic it away. Various departments make submissions. They needed the advise yesterday to happen in August,
@Darren Anthony Corr: Completely agree.
Would have needed Electric blankets if it was to go ahead in late September or early October
Should be moved to Cork
Organisers should just move it out of Laois next year. They’ve been messing them around all summer.
Good news for the day.
Disappointing as this is ultimately this is the right decision right now. Laois has one of the lowest infection rates in the country and it needs to stay that way especially when I can recall the fact that the government put travel restrictions on the county last summer due to high infection rates. EP at such short notice wouldn’t have landed the headliners that it deserves, so roll on 2022 I’m sure it will be a cracker.
Did Leo not saw it would go ahead or was he spoofing again
@pat seery: Leo didn’t make the decision to cancel.
70000 vaccinated at electric picnic or 45000 UNvaccinated GAA fan in croke Park. We know who holds the power in government now
Party Down at Palmers Town is going ahead https://www.facebook.com/136672745239608/posts/158464636393752/
Talking to a few that had tickets. They partly ok , they Getting peeved with the revenue push in concert. The tickets are not cheap and once like in Glastonbury you could have limitless beer but now the concert is different. Your beer is only allowed in camper areas. One that is heading for garbage as a festival. .
have your say