Eighty thousand people landed in Stradbally this weekend for three days of music, culture and craic on the Co Laois estate, meaning that Ireland’s biggest arts and culture festival got even larger. Here’s our pick of some pluses and minuses of Electric Picnic 2025.
HIGHS
Chappell Roan
She came, she played, she conquered. On Friday night the pop star was thinking big, delivering true spectacle and showing the value of live instrumentation. Backed by her all-woman band, Roan performed her 80-minute typhoon of a set in part from a Disney villain’s Gothic castle complete with blood-red sunsets and flying dragons. Playing in front of a huge crowd on the final date of her European tour, the singer made her fantasy world real.
[ Chappell Roan review: good luck to the rest of the Electric Picnic line-up following this performanceOpens in new window ]
Kneecap
Chappell Roan was going to be a hard act to follow – but Kneecap rose to the challenge by giving an equally electric performance on Saturday afternoon, when they played the festival’s main stage for the first time. If you were right up at the front, the mosh pit was a thrill, the set exhilarating, Mo Chara’s words riveting. An absolute Electric Picnic highlight.
[ Kneecap review: Rap trio give a performance for the ages at Electric PicnicOpens in new window ]
The weather
Forecasts for the biggest weekend in Irish music were predictably grim, billed as three days of wet and breezy weather. Festivalgoers were pleasantly surprised by the sun that shone for much of Friday. Saturday and Sunday were patchy but still better than the predicted washout. While it wasn’t good, it wasn’t dreadful. In Ireland anyway, that’s something.
Chatty celebrities
It was surreal to talk to the American comedian Rosie O’Donnell, one of Ireland’s newest residents, while she was chilling out by the main stage, happily chatting to everyone she encountered. A very EP experience. We also spotted Lewis Capaldi, the US TikToker Brittany Broski and even, floating around after his Saturday-night set, Fatboy Slim.
Trenchtown
Trenchtown Dub Club spins reggae vinyl from 4.20pm to 4am every day of the festival. The songs play from beginning to end, the selection is great and the sound system is booming. A muddy, joyful atmosphere.
Joost Klein
The Netherlands’ exiled Eurovision act from 2024 played the 3 Music Stage on Saturday to a packed tent, with many groups gabber-dancing in sync. Klein finished his set, which was full of fun, chaos and energy, with an ode to Riverdance.
Glitterball campsite
Despite being used as a bit of an overflow (see Lows, below), the new Glitterball campsite was an absolute win. Enough room for everyone, enough showers so you weren’t queuing for ages and a respectful clientele. Being able to book which festival site you want to pitch your tent in, as the festival offered this year, may be the forward.
Good vibes and good manners
The atmosphere around the site was warm and friendly – not a given at every festival.
Croí
Electric Picnic’s “harmonious hub of music, movement and meditative activities” is a lovely, human antidote to some of the Scooter-style DJ thumpy-thumpy going on around it. The craic there was mighty.
LOWS
Strong headliners, weaker satellite stages
In 2024 the main headliners, announced at the last minute, felt lacklustre. This year’s top billing of Chappell Roan, Hozier, Fatboy Slim, Sam Fender, Kings of Leon and Becky Hill provided something for everyone. In contrast, the smaller stages had less interesting line-ups, with fewer up-and-comers and hidden gems.
[ Hozier doesn’t go full Bono but there’s plenty of politics in epic Electric Picnic performanceOpens in new window ]
Food and drink prices
From €10 for a curry cheese chips to €18 for a halloumi pitta and €20 for a burger and chips, some of the prices were eye-watering. They almost made the drinks, at €7-€9 for a pint or about €12 for a rum and Coke, look like good value.
Signage
Mindfield was probably amazing. But we’ll never know because we couldn’t find it.
Tent speakers
Way too many people seemed to have brought Bluetooth speakers so they could share their music with the campsite at all hours. Death Grips are great, but 6am isn’t the right time. When those people finally went to sleep, the MK fans took over.
Campsite overflow
This year’s crowd was 5,000 up on the 75,000 music fans who attended in 2024 – and you could feel the difference. Plenty of festivalgoers who had reserved pitches in one of the specialist areas, such as the Gaeltacht, Eco or gender-inclusive Glitterball campsites, were annoyed when Electric Picnic opened them up as overflow sites.