Fight on to save this year's Electric Picnic

Concert promoter Denis Desmond, the managing director of MCD has called for a “more detailed explanation” as to why Laois County Council did not grant a licence for this year's Electric Picnic.

Speaking on Newstalk on Monday morning, Mr Desmond said he was seeking an explanation as to why the festival should not go ahead.

“The recommendation we gave to Laois County Council was that Electric Picnic would only be open to those who were double-vaccinated 14 days prior to the event, which is a system that is an operation in the US with indoor shows since June 26,” said Mr Desmond.

“So our recommendation to Laois County Council was that Electric Picnic should go ahead to those who were fully vaccinated 14 days prior. As Paul Reid said last Friday, we expect to be fully vaccinated by the end of August. Electric is 23-25 September, that's plenty of headroom.

“We obviously need time to build the site, it's a huge event. The infrastructure takes us six weeks to build, hence the urgency for a decision. We're hoping, yes, we're hoping that the government and Laois County Council would at the very least engage with us this week and give us an explanation as to why they feel it should not go ahead.”

Meanwhile, Professor Luke O'Neill has also argued that the Picnic should so ahead saying that it was time to trust that vaccinations are working by letting large events take place.