AS the annual festival of music and culture began to celebrate its tenth birthday by handing out Electric Picnic cupcakes to everyone, the ink was drying on a deal with the venue owners in Stradbally to run Electric Picnic on the site for another ten years. The festival was in some danger earlier in the year of not running at all but it was a complete sell-out weeks in advance for the first time in some years, proving that the fans, the music and arts community still want this end of Summer blowout.
On Friday there was some disappointment when Georgio Moroder’s DJ set was cancelled due to illness. With the Electric Arena closed, it was Fatboy Slim and his Main Stage headlining clubby DJ set that got the party started and became the festival’s first highlight.
Saturday belonged to 65-year-old rocker Robert Plant and The Sensational Space Shifters who played an electric set with space rock re-interpretations of Led Zeppelin classics ‘Black Dog’, ‘Whole Lotta Love’ and with a sublime encore of ‘Rock and Roll’. Bjork played an uncompromising set that split opinions though the staging and her 18 piece backing choir were first class.
Sunday September 1 saw local heroes Hermitage Green play to a full house at the Electric Arena (7,000 capacity) and made themselves lots of new fans.
Later in the same arena David Byrne & St. Vincent played a co-headlining set that enthralled and entranced. The duo collaborated on the album ‘Love This Giant’ in 2012. Accompanied onstage by an eight piece brass band, the show was thrillingly choreographed with all musicians marching and dancing to tracks from the album. Byrne and Annie Clarke aka St. Vincent took their turns to lead and as the noise and appreciation in the arena lifts their funky art party into a joyful celebration. A brace of classic tracks from Byrne’s back catalogue ‘Strange Overtones’, ‘Wild Wild Life’ and ‘Burning Down The House’ left the artists on stage taken aback by the crowd response in the Electric Arena. ‘70s legends Chic pulled off a similar feat with their now legendary Picnic set in 2009 under the same canvas. The audience demand an encore and David Byrne and St. Vincent take us on a jazzy jaunt with ‘Road To Nowhere’. Gig of the Picnic 2013.
