Mixed weather hasn't deterred Electric Picnic fans in Stradbally

Mixed weather forecasts have not deterred the thousands of festival fans who are continuing to descend on Stradbally for Electric Picnic this weekend. 

The event, which this year will host a record breaking 80,000 daily guests at the Cosby Estate site in Stradbally, began accepting the first camper van guests on Wednesday afternoon. 

The 2025 Electric Picnic has seen unprecedented demand for tickets and a lineup to suit all tastes. Two of the world’s leading music stars are headlining tonight with Chappell Roan of Pink Pony Club fame taking to the Main Stage at 8pm followed by Hozier on the same stage at 10.30pm. 

READ ALSO: Electric Picnic acts, lineups, stages and essential information

On Saturday, Irish rap act Kneecap are sure to be one of the largest attractions of the three day festival. They will take to the Main Stage between 3.30pm and 4.30pm in the afternoon.   Headliners Sam Fender will play the Main Stage on Saturday night at 9.30pm followed by the inimitable Fatboy Slim at 11.30pm.  

On Sunday, Becky Hill headlines the Main Stage at 8.45pm followed by the final headline act, the Kings of Leon at 10.30pm. 

These acts are just some of the hundreds of performances taking place at the weekend. Stradbally native, singer songwriter Just Alice will perform on the Croi stage at 3pm today. 

Comedians like Jarlath Regan and Dara O’Briain and Foil Arms and Hog and artists such as David Gray, Inhaler and The Saw Doctors will also perform among a myriad of acts and entertainers who are both local and international. 

Two Laois choirs are set to perform at this year’s event with the Stradbally Choir taking to the Hazelwood stage on Sunday at 4.30pm and the Timahoe Male Choir performing on the Main Stage at 1.30pm on Sunday. 

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Despite early traffic issues which gardai said were due to Sat Nav users who were not following the traffic plan, traffic now seems to be moving in Stradbally. 

Large numbers of people began arriving to the festival on Thursday and some experienced traffic jams for up to two hours accessing the site. A number of the more popular campsites also filled up on Thursday night as a result of the volume of attendees who had arrived. 

Festival organisers announced that following the large crowd that availed of early access, Jimi Hendrix, Andy Warhol, Samuel Beckett, Ginsburg and Janis Joplin campsites were all full on Thursday night.

The announcement was released as a notification on the Electric Picnic official app, and posted on their social media pages. It today notified festivalgoers of availability in the Poets, Glitterball, Eco and An Ghaeltacht campsites. 

The weather has been a key area of concern for some festival attendees. Met Eireann is promising a mixed weekend of weather and the Electric Picnic organisers posted online urging people to “pack for all weather” due to the expected conditions. However, for veteran Picnic attendees the weather is unlikely to be much of a deterrent. 

Met Eireann is predicting largely dry weather today with a few isolated showers and lowest temperatures tonight between 9 and 13 degrees.  Conditions look set to worsen on Saturday morning with rain becoming widespread and thundery at times with possible localised flooding before clearing with sunny spells and blustery showers and highest temperatures between 16 and 21 degrees.  Sunday looks to be a breezy day with a mix of cloud and sunny spells and temperatures of between 14 and 19 degrees.