The initial batch of acts lined up for the 2011 Electric Picnic has been announced (officially, this time).
ARCADE FIRE; PULP; THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS; INTERPOL; PJ HARVEY; BEIRUT; DEATH IN VEGAS; MOGWAI; JIMMY CLIFF; DJ SHADOW; WHITE LIES; OMD; MIDLAKE; THE CHARLATANS; LYKKE LI; BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE; THE GO! TEAM; BOYS NOIZE; TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS; FLYING LOTUS; PAUL KALKBRENNER; TWIN SHADOW; WILLY MASON; SINEAD O’CONNOR; GAVIN FRIDAY; HEALTH;TRENTEMØLLER (LIVE); KILLING JOKE; MUNDY; SHARON SHANNON AND HER BIG BAND; ADEBISI SHANK; O EMPEROR; THE WALKMEN; ADAM BEYER; CAST OF CHEERS; MICAH P HINSON; IVAN ST JOHN; CODES DAVE CLARKE; BRITISH INDIA; CAITLIN ROSE; R.S.A.G.; THE DANGER IS; POTBELLEEZ
Tickets go on sale tomorrow, Friday 11th March. Weekend tickets are €240, as are Family Camping Tickets (per adult – each adult can bring two under 12’s free of charge). Day tickets are available for Sunday and are priced at €99.50, although note that no camping is available for holders of these tickets. If you’re lucky enough to have a campervan then tickets for access to Regular & Family Campervan Parks are €60. A €2.50 handling charge applies to all tickets sold, and bear in mind that you’ll have to add 12.5% service charge on top of the ticket price for phone & internet ticket bookings.
Full press release follows…
Do you remember the first time?
ARCADE FIRE’s first ever Irish performance at Electric Picnic in 2005 divided picnickers. On one side there were those who believe that they had witnessed one of the most memorable performances ever and then there are those that simply wished they had witnessed it. One thing is for certain it’s a show neither Arcade Fire nor picnickers have ever forgotten and one the band themselves have cited on numerous occasions. “The feeling of Electric Picnic and how excited we were and the people were, that’s undeniable. It was like: ‘Wow, something really special is happening here.'” Arcade Fire’s Jeremy Gara So six years on, 3 critically acclaimed albums, including their latest Grammy award winning The Suburbs Electric Picnic welcomes Arcade Fire back to Stradbally with open arms and we are beside ourselves with excitement to see what is certain to be live history in the making Part II.
Another very welcome addition to this year’s line-up is PULP who return this summer having last played together in December 2002. Jarvis Cocker previously played a solo show at the festival back in 2007. Quite simply one of the biggest bands of the 1990s, PULP defined the sound of a generation with a collection of much-loved singles taken from their classic albums including His ‘N’ Hers, This is Hardcore and Mercury Music Prize winner Different Class. The shows will involve all the original members of the band (Nick Banks, Jarvis Cocker, Candida Doyle, Steve Mackey, Russell Senior & Mark Webber) and they will be playing songs from all periods of their career.
And while you have those dancing wellies on one of the most important and influential dance acts of the last decade, Tom Rowlands and Ed Simonds aka THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS will be playing some Block Rockin’ Beats to keep them moving. Recollecting their sensational performance at the festival in 2007 still raises goosebumps.
Picnickers will also be lucky enough to be get the live taste of the massively successful self-titled fourth album from New York’s finest, INTERPOL. Ever since Interpol appeared on the scene back in 2002 with their debut Turn on the Bright Lights, they’ve been captivating audiences worldwide with their dark, haunting, seductive sound. Eight years on they have certainly become akin to musical royalty and this is one royal visit we are all more than happy to accommodate.
It is safe to say that you will not have heard anything quite like PJ HARVEY’S latest album – Let England Shake was released to widespread international acclaim earlier this year, with Mojo Magazine writing “more than ever…Polly Harvey was made for these times” and NME awarding it a rare 10/10 review, stating that “… it’s arguably her most brilliant album to date.”.
Mercury Prize Winner PJ Harvey was awarded the Teenage Cancer Trust Outstanding Contribution to Music at this year’s NME Awards, and has just completed a string of sold out European dates with live band Mick Harvey, Jean Marc Butty and John Parish which garnered rave reviews. Harvey last played Stradbally in 2006 and Electric Picnic is delighted to welcome the return of an artist the Daily Telegraph describes as “… a singer-songwriter at the height of her powers…”
Let us also extend a warm picnic welcome to the folk/alt stylings of BEIRUT; The creative genius Richard Fearless , DEATH IN VEGAS, returns to the fore with the first live show anywhere in the world in 7 years; MOGWAI will be presenting the complex sounds of their 7th studio album. Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will; The reggae legends that are the Honourable JIMMY CLIFF and TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS; the awe-inspiring hip hop experience of DJ SHADOW live show; Armed with her fresh off the presses 2nd album, Wounded Rhymes Swedish sensation LYKKE LI will be strutting her stuff at Stradbally once more; one of the most talked about acts of 2011 to date WHITE LIES; back with the original line-up, OMD will be playing their first album in 14 years as well as hits such as If You Leave and Electricity;; with the imminent release of deluxe edition of their 1999’s Us And Us Only, THE CHARLATANS will be showing us why they are one of the British musical institutions; SINEAD O’CONNOR showcasing brand new music from her forthcoming album which is widely tipped to be best work to date; having reformed their original line-up for the first time in 25 years, BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE will be bringing their rock-hiphop-reggae wonderment to EP; saluting the return of the anti hero GAVIN FRIDAY with his first studio album in 16 years catholic.
And for those with a penchant for good old rock we welcome the original founding members that are the sonic iconoclasts KILLING JOKE performing from their seminal back-catalogue along with brand new tracks; esteemed rockers THE WALKMEN; Texan mavericks MIDLAKE; the astounding blues of MICAH P HINSON.
For a taste of cutting edge indie music we have for your listening pleasure THE GO! TEAM performing tracks from the newest instalment in their esteemed catalogue of adventure in audio, Rolling Blackouts; the bass driven metaphysics of for his first ever Irish show FLYING LOTUS; Aussie dance sensation POTBELLEEZ; the 80s inspired sound of hotly hyped TWIN SHADOW; Australian indie kids BRITISH INDIA; one of the most exciting and energetic live bands around HEALTH;; alternative electro quartet CODES; multi-instrumentalist; R.S.A.G.; Choice Music Prize nominees ADEBISI SHANK and O EMPEROR; Indie pop project THE DANGER IS; the post punk offerings of CAST OF CHEERS.
And if you’ve a soft spot for singer-songwriters, WILLY MASON will be airing some of his new material since his 2007 The Ocean Gets Rough;; playing tracks from his imminent new album MUNDY; Dublin pop-songster IVAN ST JOHN. Along with some of the finest songstresses around including Trad queen SHARON SHANNON AND HER BIG BAND; Nashville’s own and critic’s darling CAITLIN ROSE.
For those who like their techno/dance beats we have for you electronica marvel TRENTEMØLLER; Swedens’ top techno export ADAM BEYER; techno pioneer DAVE CLARKE; Two Berlin acts will also be joining us- electro hotshots BOYS NOIZE with tracks like Yeah and Transmission as well as a house-hold name in German electronic music PAUL KALKBRENNER.
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As well as fine music you also invited to immerse yourself in everything else that’s going on outside the reverberating music arenas. BODY & SOUL will be back with a new stage for 2011 inspired by the ‘Earth Ships’ of Arizona – made from recycled electrical waste, bottles, tyres and cob walls. You can expect a fantastic line-up of up and coming performers and artists on both the Body & Soul Stage and the Love Letter Stage, while our resident artists the DoLab will be returning alongside the flamboyant performers Lucent Dossier – in the quirky, colourful, magic little world of Body&Soul. Be mesmerised by L.A.’s finest artists SHRINE and his recycled art installations and GERARD MINAKAWA’s incredible bamboo sculptures, and the collaborative creations of the WOOD COLLECTIVE.
Memorably described as “the Sunday papers on stage”, the MINDFIELD spoken word area is back with a programme guaranteed to spark the imagination, provoke debate, enthrall, inspire and entertain. The flagship Leviathan political cabaret events hosted by David McWilliams with special guest, Jon Snow, form the centre of a festival-within-a-festival with interactive conversation, debate, poetry, literature, music, science, history, architecture and much more.
The GLOBAL GREEN returns as the place at the Electric Picnic to slow down and celebrate the potential for cultural transformation, bringing together a wide community of cultural creatives, artists and civil society organisations to blend the themes of hope and opportunity with community and collaboration. Spend some time discovering the soulful pleasures of making something to bring home at GREENCRAFTS, it’s one of the few places you’ll ever get a chance to wrought hot metal on an anvil, to smith your own silver ring, to carve a wooden bowl.
Late night favourites ARCADIA return with more scrap metal art and futuristic stage shows.
The COMEDY TENT once again will cater for all comic styles ranging from the musical stylings of ‘Dead Cat Bounce’, ‘The Rubberbandits’ and hip hop improv masters ‘Abandoman’, to the finest proponents of straight stand up. There will be a special emphasis on ‘breakthrough’ acts both from the national and international circuits, thus ensuring that this years Comedy Tent will be the freshest/funkiest/funkdoobiest one ever.
Discover the spirit of Jamaica tucked away in the deepest forest’s of Stradbally at TRENCHTOWN. Relive your childhood at FOSSETS CIRCUS. Let yourself be taken up by the pirate fuelled antics at SALTY DOG SALOON. Indulge in all the delicious food that BRIDGESTONE AWARD WINNERS and FARMERS’ MARKET offers your discerning palate. Have our mini picnickers prove once again that mini doesn’t make for any less festivity at SOUL KIDS in the beautiful walled gardens with festival fun including yoga, enchanted fairy workshops, and arts & crafts. Parents as always can enjoy the calm and safe surroundings of the increasingly popular FAMILY CAMPING AREA. Chill out in some of the most luxurious alternatives to camping a field has to offer at the BOUTIQUE CAMPSITE or bring your campervan to our extended CAMPERVAN site.
Electric Picnic has won several awards since last September, including a Best Mid-Sized European Festival, Best Irish Festival, Greenest Festival & an IMRO Best Festival Award and. This year we shall be striving to live up to each accolade that you have so kindly bestowed upon us.
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