Electric Picnic 2016 – The story so far…

Carl Kinsella

FRIDAY

What a way to kick off the weekend.

The sun was out in all its glory to welcome revellers to the first day of Electric Picnic, catching out all of those who had triple-layered it and decided to leave their suncream at home.

Ryan Sheridan opened up the main stage with a high-energy performance, performing to a pit of die-hard fans crowded the main stage while hundreds more reclined a few yards back, lazing in the sun.

Of the acts to grace the main stage on day one, Nas was the indisputable highlight. Fans were treated to classic tracks from his biggest albums Illmatic and Stillmatic, and the New York veteran clearly hasn’t lost so much as a yard of pace since his heyday.

He played up to the crowd incredibly well, replacing the ‘New York’ in NY State of Mind with ‘Ireland’ – and closing on an inch-perfect performance of One Mic.

YOU CAN HATE ME NOW pic.twitter.com/WHar4gOX8v

— Carl Kinsella (@TVsCarlKinsella) September 2, 2016

The RTÉ Concert Symphony Orchestra hosted by Jenny Green took place in the Rankin Woods tent, but drew a headliner crowd. The tent overflowed with bodies and the orchestra entirely justified their hype.

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The Chemical Brothers’ brought the opening day to a close with an extremely visual act, which had the crowd absolutely buzzing.

SATURDAY

With only a brief respite from the rain in the late afternoon – the weather on Saturday stayed at something between drizzling and bucketing down.

With all due respect to day one, however, day two kicked it up a notch in terms of quality.

From the Main Stage to Little Big Tent to Electric Arena, many of Saturday’s acts delivered unimpeachable performances.

The Main Stage kicked off with Trinity Orchestra’s flawless tribute to David Bowie, arranged by Seamus Ryan and Aran O’Grady, a performance that reached its peak when the orchestra was joined on stage by Hozier for a rendition of Heroes.

The sun briefly came out to greet Gavin James, who cursed himself for forgetting his Factor 50. The crowd sung every word along with Ireland’s fastest-rising star for every song except a new track which he debuted for his main stage audience.

The rain started back up again as the sun went down, but anybody who went to see The Avett Brothers and The Shins in the Electric Arena tent would have managed to avoid all of that unpleasantness – and would also have been treated to perhaps the two best performances of the weekend.

Both bands are unbelievably talented and lose no sound quality during their live performances.

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— Carl Kinsella (@TVsCarlKinsella) September 4, 2016

While fans of The Shins were kept safe beneath a canvas, Noel Gallagher’s faithful were out getting soaked as he performed with his High Flying Birds.

As good as their own tracks are, the highlight was (of course) their rendition of Oasis classic Champagne Supernova. Gallgher, in his own words, fucked it up after the first chorus – but he brought it back by saying “I’m in charge, I get to fuck it up,” which only made the moment more special for anyone in attendance.

The man himself, Noel Gallagher pic.twitter.com/Rei7tzLfF3

— Carl Kinsella (@TVsCarlKinsella) September 4, 2016

LCD Soundsystem ended day two with a glistening performance, watched by tens of thousands of adoring fans.

THE FOOD

What is it about being at a festival that makes food taste so much better?

While festivals obviously live and die by the acts on stage, there is still a solid case to be made for spending a serious portion of your time at Electric Picnic sampling the food stalls, dancing just long enough to replenish your appetite, then heading straight back towards the food stalls once more.

It hasn’t been an easy call to make, but we’re bestowing the title of Best Festival Burger unto Gourmet Burger for their Cashel Blue Burger (+ a Coke for nine euro). Unbeatable.