Stradbally's dedicated Electric Picnic Lost and Found team are hard at work

A team of volunteers was busily sorting through piles of mobile phones, wallets, clothing and bags at the Stradbally Steam Museum earlier today. 

The team had spent the weekend operating the Lost and Found office at the Electric Picnic in Stradbally and they were now in the process of trying to reunite owners with their possessions. 

Enquiries were coming in from the four corners of Ireland as the volunteers charged multiple phones and prepared letters to send to addresses identified from documentation discovered with lost property. 

“Quite a lot got their stuff back at the festival,” volunteer Alice Bryan said. She has been with the team for a number of years and knows their system for cataloguing and contacting owners. 

Co-ordinator Carmel Farrell, who heads up the team, has been trying to get through a virtual tsunami of messages. She holds up the dedicated Lost and Found phone to display 387 unread Whatsapps, 127 messages and 50 missed calls from people hoping to find items at the event.

Pictured above: The Lost and Found phone for Electric Picnic

Carmel, who has just spent €320 of her own money purchasing stamps to send letters to address identified from wallets and cards, continues to take calls and messages and calls as she talks. 

Carmel said phones were an item that was commonly lost at the festival and they had managed to reunite some owners at the festival.  “They were going out as quick as they were coming in,”  she said. 

As she is speaking a local man comes in hoping to find his missing phone.  Sean Conlan, a member of Stradbally’s Community Choir, was checking to see if his Samsung Galaxy A34 was with the other phones. His mother Margaret explained that the phone had all his personal contacts and messaging groups on it and he really needs it back. 

Picture above: Sean Conlan at the Lost and Found in Stradbally

Sean, who works in Powerpoint in Portlaosie said the phone was still ringing but unfortunately it wasn’t with the devices in the Lost and Found. The keen footballer, who revealed he had won a player of the year of the most attendance, had to leave Lost and Found disappointed but hoped someone reading this might have found his phone. 

Meanwhile, Carmel said she begins preparing for the Electric Picnic in February every year when she organises volunteers for the Lost and Found and the AIR(Assist Inform and Respond) Hubs around the festival. 

“I wouldn’t manage without the women. You couldn’t do it without the volunteers and good volunteers we have,” she said.    

Those volunteers expect to continue the work with Lost and Found until late September of earlier October. 

All items handed in to the Lost and Found team during the show have been brought to Stradbally Steam Museum, The Green, Stradbally, Co Laois, R32 YT65.

The opening hours for collection will be updated weekly. From Tuesday, September 2 to Saturday, September 6, the hours are 2pm to 8pm. The museum is not open for collections on Sunday.

The team can be contacted  via WhatsApp on  +353 85 217 5352. Please note that this number is for messages only – calls will not be answered.