Electric Picnic Festival
Stradbally Estate, Co Laois, Ireland
4/09/2009-6/09/2009

It may have been another abysmal wet summer, but this year’s Electric Picnic gave it a defiant good riddance. The story begins on Friday morning when traffic is relocated to less water logged fields. At the main entrance the first twenty punters are rewarded with VIP tickets for helping to shovel wood chip into the mud.  Later, on the main stage MGMT are disappointing, but in the Little Big Tent we are bouncing to the squawking bowl busting rhythms of Buraka Som Sistema’s kuduro. Orbital are mesmerising albeit rather subdued, but ‘Belfast’ is as gorgeous as ever, and ‘The Box’ is menacing and dark.

On Saturday the socialist voice of Billy Bragg reaches out to a recession weary crowd with an ardent set in the Crawdaddy tent. Jape gets a fan to sing to ‘Streetwise’, and ‘Floating’ is still a hot favourite.  Brian Wilson and his band take us away from rainy Ireland, with a sunny side of hits including ‘Good Vibrations’. Explosions In The Sky are magnificent, while Madness send their fans pogo into the night with a head full of hits.

Woken by heavy rain on Sunday, Two Door Cinema Club do their bit to lift our spirits with sun drenched melodies and youthful aplomb. Hip Hop pioneers Sugar Hill Gang deliver the hits, but it’s not quite pumping. Fleet Foxes are enchanting, harmonies washing over us like a warm breeze.  And The Flaming Lips send us into the dying hours of the festival in spectacular style, with confetti, giant balloons, crowd surfing inside a giant bubble, and more, before ending with the glorious ‘Do You Realise’. The atmosphere is charged, and as Wayne Coyne suggests we have the coolest name in the world for a festival, we also think it might be the best.

Charlotte Dryden