'Bonkers' Electric Picnic director defends crowd controls

Electric Picnic festival director Melvin Benn says any suggestion of a need for more crowd control is “bonkers”.

The Leinster Express / Laois Live asked Mr Benn if there are any improvements needed in crowd control, given the surge of audiences for two different acts; Armand van Helden on Friday and also Duke Dumont on Saturday night when multiple alerts went out on the app to ask people not to enter the tent.

He descibed Dumont’s gig as “a perfect operation”.

“Quite frankly I don’t think it could have gone better. Duke Dumont was really popular and the tent was full around and around the external was pretty full. Still we were holding people back and in the main people were being respectful of that, so there was space to come in.

“Actually I thought it was a perfect operation. There was no real drama at all. The thought that you might be suggesting it needs to be improved quite frankly is bonkers,” Mr Benn said.

On the cancellation of Armand van Helden’s gig, he said it was “clearly on a stage that he was too big for”.

“That stage has a very small capacity, and I’m not willing to put people’s lives, or people’s injuries, in danger. It was just the safest thing to do.”

“There was no crowd collapse at any other stage at any time. I don’t know why the crowd collapsed, but the moment it did, we stopped it. We had medics there, we had security. We stopped Armand van Helden going on stage, he hadn’t even got on stage.

“The festival is in a really good place in terms of location, and in terms of how we handle crowds.”

Mr Benn spoke to the press on Sunday afternoon, August 30, just before The Saw Doctors and the Mayo team took to the Main Stage in a euphoric performance.

He said his highlight of the weekend so far had been seeing a group of “marvellous” teenage Mayo harpists perform in the Serenity Garden in Croí, part of the Music Generation gigs where Laois and Louth harpists also performed.

“Every single one had a Mayo shirt on, and it just captured the pride that every county has, obviously Mayo can be slightly prouder this year,” he said.

The good news for Stradbally is that Melvin Benn confirms that his offer is still on the table to match fund local savings to build a community centre for the town.

The community has for some years been saving their ticket donations towards the cost. However they remain in search for a site.

“I’ll match fund for the facility. So far that hasn’t materialised. But I’m not here just to be a donation pot,” Mr Benn said.

Electric Picnic 2027 is already in progress, with a presale on Tuesday and general sale on Friday, most likely to sell out within hours.

“There’s no increase in capacity for next year. The gods are making me feel happy at the moment so there’s no increase in the ticket price either.

“I can’t wait to get the tickets out there,” Mr Benn said.