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27th August 2018
11:57am BST
It's another bumper year in terms of headliners as Electric Picnic brings to you a plethora of superstars for your aural pleasure. Kendrick Lamar, The Prodigy, Massive Attack, The Kooks, St. Vincent, George Ezra, Walking On Cars and The Coronas are just some of the names that will feature over the weekend.
The Prodigy are one of the best live acts on the planet and they will literally have 'Everybody in the Place' bouncing around the Stradbally field as banger after banger is unleashed.
Kendrick Lamar is indisputably one of the biggest stars in the world right now. Another from the prolific Compton production line, he has earned his reputation as one of the leading lights in hip-hop around the world. 12 Grammys is no mean feat and the Stradbally massive will be keen to see what all the fuss is about.
Bristol legends Massive Attack, meanwhile, will make their first return to the Picnic since 2010. Hugely popular here in Ireland, their army of fans will be itching to see them live on the main stage if even to see if they ever get to finish that symphony.
The comedy tent continues to be a hugely popular part of Electric Picnic and yet again, the lineup is really strong, consisting of some of the best Irish and international comedians.
Hosted over Saturday and Sunday by Karl Spain, the lineup features some of the biggest names in the business such as Russell Howard, Jason Byrne, David O'Doherty, Eleanor Tiernan, Milton Jones, David McSavage, Alison Spittle, Joanne McNally and loads more.
Comedy Tent stage times:
Saturday
In every festival, there is usually an obscure area or an absurd performance that reduces the most terse-lipped visitor to a hearty chuckle. At Electric Picnic 2018, Trailer Park is a whole hamlet devoted to just that.
There are several dozen creations stuffed into caravans, horseboxes, mobile homes, shipping containers, and repurposed vehicles. With a love of the ridiculous and fantastic, it is also a creative greenhouse for artists to present large-scale installations.
Full line-up details for this weird and wonderful area are available on the Electric Picnic website.
Body & Soul returns to its roots to celebrate the landmark 15th year as the creative centre of Electric Picnic 2018. It's one of the most popular areas at the Picnic, so much so it has been given its own spin-off festival in June each year.
Gracing the Body & Soul Stage - famed as a platform for the brightest rising stars - will be electro-pop multi-instrumentalist Youngr, British-folk subverter Hak Baker, the bold and eccentric Ruby Empress, five-piece Indie-Disco band The Modern Strangers and many more.
Electric Picnic 2018 has a totally unique spoken word arena, which this year sees a couple of big changes, with the addition of a new podcast stage called Ah, Hear! and a new writing and ideas stage called Manifesto.
There will be a talk on foreign affairs and Brexit, hosted by the Rubberbandits' Blindboy Boatclub, who will also present live editions of his massively popular podcast, now listened to by a worldwide audience of 200,000 every week.
Ah, Hear! also features Soundings, hosted by Lisa Hannigan and Dylan Haskins, with special guests Marian Keyes and Ships; a host of podcasts curated by the Headstuff Podcast Network collective and a special An Irishman Abroad podcast with Jarlath Regan which will feature Russell Howard amongst others.
Also, for the GAA fans, the All-Ireland Football Final between Dublin and Tyrone will be shown live from the An Puball Gaeilge tent.
Other Voices will return to the heart of Electric Picnic’s woodland area for three days of music. The Other Voices stage will be presented by Huw Stephens (BBC 1) and MayKay of Fight Like Apes and Le Galaxie fame.
Already confirmed this year are brilliant acts such as David Kitt, Colombia Mills, SOAK (pic above), David Keenan and Gwenno. This will be very special, so do your best to get along to some of the performances, which are always of the spellbinding, hairs-on-the-back-of-your-neck standard.
Now in its third year, The Hazel Wood has firmly established itself as the festival’s go-to spot for an eclectic mix of performance arts including theatre, dance, storytelling, spoken word and music.
Set in a secluded woodland haven amongst a circle of traditional horse-drawn caravans, you can witness performances from the likes of The Corps Ensemble, The Ramparts, renowned storyteller Eddie Lenihan with Glimpses of the Otherworld and many more.
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