Laois Electric Picnic in 'enchanting' Stradbally is "world's third most anticipated festival"

Stradbally's Electric Picnic is one of the world's most anticipated festivals according to research carried out for a leading hotel chain.

Premier Hotels says seeing your favourite artists live is a dream come true for many, so they decided to find out which festivals - and their respective line-ups - are receiving the most hype this year.

To do this, they analysed the top five headline acts for popular upcoming world festivals and their respective Spotify listeners and combined these with the average Google search data over the past 12 months. They then compared this data with the festival’s disclosed capacity to achieve a final index score that reveals the most anticipated festivals around the world. 

"Electric Picnic secures the third position on our list, with its enchanting location in Stradbally. The Irish festival has gained immense popularity over the years, demonstrated by its top-three ranking. Beyond an eclectic musical offering, the festival features various art installations, theatre performances, and culinary delights, creating a vibrant and immersive experience that appeals to the whole family," said the survey.

Poland’s Open'er Festival tops the list of the most anticipated music festivals in the world. Taking the second spot is the Roskilde Festival Denmark.

All three were also the top three ranking European festivals.

The Killers, Billy Eilish and Lewis Capaldi are among the headline acts confirmed for the Laois festival. Also on the bill are Tom ODell, Jamie XX, Niall Horan, Steve Lacey, Idles, Amyl & the Sniffers and Fred Again.

Electric Picnic 2023 will take place between September 1-3, returning to its home in the Cosby family's estate in Stradbally, Laois. Upwards of 75,000 are due to attend the sold-out festival