Electric Picnic, Day 1 review: Niall Horan, Billie Eilish, and other ...
1. The weather is holding
The Stradbally micro-climate is definitely a thing. After the washout of last year, the venue has so far managed to avoid any dunkings, despite heavy downpours on Friday for those making their way to EP and reports of showers as close as Abbeyleix.
Headliner Billie Eilish referred to the moist slickness of the stage and it was a misty night, with more than a few sleeping bags having had dew on them this morning, but the forecast is positive for the rest of the weekend, meaning the wellies and rain jackets can hopefully stay in the tents.
Electric Picnic on Friday.It might also mean more tractors and trailers on the road as the push to save the harvest continues - something already aired as a potential issue if plans to bring the festival forward to mid-August come to fruition next year. For now, the weather gods are playing ball.
2. A fine mix on offer
The eclecticism of the roster is already impressive. Where else could you swing from a well-received set by London singer Bakar in the Rankins Wood tent, to the sight of a man wearing red track suit bottoms and a frankly terrifying ape mask on the main stage, thrilling and unnerving mid-evening revellers in equal measure?
It was the welcome return of King Kong Company, their diaphragm-shaking music accompanied by glorious visuals, including some people dressed as inflated space hoppers.
“You could dance if you want to!” we were told. “You can leave your friends behind!” True - but then who’d tell me where the tent is?
3. Local boy does well
“I’m from an hour up the road,” a thrilled and dazed Niall Horan told the huge crowd gathered in front of the main stage on Friday night. “Follow your dreams, I’m telling you.” It did seem a dream come true for the Mullingar man, who is one of a catalogue of Irish acts - old and new - playing this weekend. But while the idea of him playing here in the older, more boutique days, might have seemed unlikely, now his show fits like a glove. The young crowd have grown up with him.
When Horan bounds on, after a false start caused by a technical issue, to play his first Irish show in five years, he describes the sea of faces looking back at him as “insane”. In short, he seems genuinely touched. Dressed in an all-white ensemble that on someone else would promote thoughts of the bowling alley, he instead comes across like Mullingar in Malibu, a beardless Denis Wilson type but with hints of Joe Dolan.
Niall Horan performing at Electric Picnic. Picture: Kieran Ryan-BensonAnd do the crowd love it, Horan’s pristine vocals underemployed as the words are roared back at him. There is a brief segue into ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ by way of tribute to Sinead O’Connor, and his cover of Tears For Fears’ classic ‘Everybody Wants To Rule The World’ is on-point. But his own back catalogue raises the loudest cheers.
We have The Saw Doctors playing EP this year, Murder Capital, even the Wolfe Tones, Irish acts of every hue. Horan looks like he’d come back in a heartbeat. “From Patrick St in Mullingar to this,” he said at the end, wrapped in a tricolour.
4. Billie Eilish gets healed
Billie Eilish might have been feeling “sick as balls” with what she described as a fat fever, having earlier taken to Instagram to say she was “really, really suffering”, but she held the enormous crowd in the palm of her hand for her Friday night headline set.
Clad head to toe in Nike garb, she looked every bit the generational superstar. The early part of the show was heavy on sub atomic bass notes, particularly a bass drum that felt like being punched in the neck. It was all rapturously received, as was the expert gear change with ‘What Was I Made For’, a slowing of the tempo and songs that meant phones were flipped from record to light-up mode, sparkling under the clear moon.
A general view of Electric Picnic Festival in Stradbally, Co Laois, on Friday. Picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire“We love you Billie!” came the shouts from all around, the singer pushing through the nasal congestion to achieve a sort of communion with her fans. For them, every song was a classic. The pyros lit up, bang went the confetti ball at the end. She’ll be back, and hopefully next time she won’t need the Lemsip.
5. Environment matters
This is the year that Electric Picnic organisers have decreed single-use vaping devices will not be permitted. While such a move obviously helps in efforts to keep the site of the festival clean - and it was already spotless by Saturday morning - it also chimes with an environmental consciousness across a number of acts.
Some of the attendees arriving on Friday at Electric Picnic 2023. Picture: Alf Harvey.Billie Eilish’s set also stresses the site message of no music on a dead planet”. Amid the hedonism and ringing ear drums, it’s still the biggest headline of all.
