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19 Dec 2025

Gardaí arrest poeple for driving under the influence at Electric Picnic

Gardaí warned of dangerous drugs as potent pills tested at Laois Festival

'Two hour' traffic jam from Portlaoise to Electric Picnic site in Laois

Garda on duty at Electric Picnic 2025 in Stradbally. Picture: Alf Harvey

Gardaí arrested a number of motorists for driving under the influence in and around the Electric Picnic festival yesterday. 

In total, four drivers were arrested after failing roadside tests on Friday and gardaí are again warning people not to drive under the influence of drink or drugs. 

They are advising people that they will be conducting checkpoints throughout the festival targeting drug and drink driving. 

Meanwhile, Gardaí say traffic is flowing freely to and from the site today. They said the traffic plan is working well and there are no issues with car parks. 

READ ALSO: All eyes on Kneecap 

Separately, Gardaí are urging festivalgoers to be careful after dangerous drugs were detected by the HSE’s testers onsite. 

The HSE has issued an alert on Friday night due to extremely potent MDMA tablets circulating at the Electric Picnic. 

They say the “high strength MDMA pills” at Electric Picnic pose “extreme risk” and contain up to 300mg - or three times the adult dose.

“It’s safer not to use drugs at all. You can never be sure of the contents or purity,” the HSE warned.

The tablets circulating at the Electric Picnic were found to be more potent than any pills detected at the event in the past three years. 

Under the tagline, ‘start slow, go slow,’ the HSE warned festivalgoers that it was safer not to use drugs at all but said if people were using they should be careful.

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