Electric Picnic Line Up

[Superscally]

Righty. Line-up for EP looks awesome, but my big dilemma is to go to that or to Leeds. If Interpol are headlining a stage with no major clashes (especially Arcade Fire), I'm in. When do not necessarily stage times, but just stage allocations and order get decided as I can't find who's playing what day etc? Are there any clashfinders I'm being oblivious to?

Cheers in advance of any replies guys

Me.

[Uncle Liam]

Righty. Line-up for EP looks awesome, but my big dilemma is to go to that or to Leeds. If Interpol are headlining a stage with no major clashes (especially Arcade Fire), I'm in. When do not necessarily stage times, but just stage allocations and order get decided as I can't find who's playing what day etc? Are there any clashfinders I'm being oblivious to?

Cheers in advance of any replies guys

Me.

[Superscally]

Interpol are not clashing with Arcade Fire as they are playing on different days.

What I did was check on lastfm which bands are playing on which days. Doesnt work for timings though.

[Uncle Liam]

Nope, its just a list.

From memory, its Polly, interpol, White Lies, Blonde Redhead on the Friday.

Saturday is Arcade Fire, Chemical Brothers, The Rapture, OMD, Lykke Li, Jimmy Cliff, The Walkmen and Public Enemy.

Sunday has Pulp, Beirut and The Go! Team.

But then I only looked for bands I wanted to go and see.

[Superscally]

That's pretty decent!

Was wondering who'd be headling on the Friday out of Polly and Interpol - both have massive culty fan bases, but I'd go for Interpol as maybe just a bit bigger on the mainstream? What ya reckon?

[a_man_possessed]

I love Electric Picnic and have been the last 3 years but one thing that annoys me is they do not release the stage times until the week of the festival. I think they published them on the wednesday beforehand last year and the year before that was the thursday. It's probably so more people will fork out the ten euro for the programme. They do release what band is playing on what day about two weeks in advance but it is easy enough to find that out by checking the artists' websites. I would highly recommend you go to EP tho. It is brilliant and there is so much more to see and do besides the main stages. You could probably never leave the Body n Soul area the whole time you're there and still have the best weekend.

[gama]

Electric picnic, very good, continue to support

[Uncle Liam]

Day by day lineup released. No times or stages though.

[pothead pixie]

Had a brilliant weekend, mines started on Thursday as I was volunteering for the first time so there was a nice party at Trenchtown whipped up by Mr Whippy to get things started.

On Friday I caught a few acts before my shift at 8 pm, caught the starting of Jimmy Cliffs set where he donned what looked like a bright luminous yellow jumpsuit and he seemed to be in fine form for a man of his years. For nostalgic reasons watched a bit of Cry Before Dawns set, they werent so bad, quite a late 80s sound but a little samey after a while.

Also caught a few tracks from Twin Shadow who were ok. Whilst working my first shift from 8 pm to 4 am at the paintball exit leading into the arena between the Cosby stage and the Little Big tent I still managed to soak up some sounds from the tents.

I caught a bit of Santigold from the main stage during my break, a cool type of trip hop happy go lucky rock n roll sound I had to go back to work when she invited some of the audience onto the stage. Heard a bit of Gavin Fridays set from my pitch which really didnt do anything for me but when Boys Noize and sh*t Robot were doing their respective sets I wanted so much to be in the Little Big tent, still the sound coming from there was phenomenal and I could still appreciate the bit of visuals I could see from the aperture of the tent from where I stood, I was ensuring that production traffic flowed freely and was clearing the path of festival goers, pretty easy peasy work really.

Saturday My shift kicked off from about 2 pm to 10, so the first act of the day I got to see was during my break Donal Dineens Parish, a nice mellow sound to kick off the afternoon while eating my Thai red vegetable rice dinner from the great Wok n Roll. I met a festival buddy from the Life fests Salim Dastan who told me his sister Amina (another great festival buddy) was the backing vocalist in the Parish group, so that was a nice coincidence.

Some of the acts I heard during my work were the Undertones from the Crawdaddy stage, they done all the classic hits, Jimmy Jimmy, Youve Got My Number and Teenage Kicks among others. Their new singer could almost be Fergal Sharkey, you wouldnt be able to tell the difference if your listening from a distance away and outside the tent.

Because I was on the back shift, volunteers for some reason got two breaks on this so I caught some of Lykke Lis set, having not heard her before I was suitably impressed. When the shift ended at 10 went back to the tent for a feed of spliffs and beers so I could catch up on the fun. Arcade Fires set was pretty good with a really neat visual projection backdrop, was watching from the Electric Dreams entrance (the Sun image from the 2007 Picnic) as I was supposed to be meeting someone there. Unfortunately I had to do an extraordinary dump which meant having to go back to the tent for loo roll seeing that there was none in any of the arena toilets. What was the score here with available toilets in the Hendrix campsite all I could see was the long drops which involved some seat wiping before I sat down, where were the plastic portaloos from last year.

Caught the Chemical Brothers set about 20 minutes in, so I missed the epic Horse Power but a visual splendour of a set and some great selections, was really impressed with Dont Stop. The way they use the lazers during that track is amazing, pointed inwards onto the screen it created what looked like fire flies or light refracted through water, a lovely trippy effect. The rest of the night was spent wandering about Body & Soul looking at stuff, missed Paddy Keenan but did look at the bongo nutters in a tent which looked fun. Final port of call was Trenchtown where Mr Whippy was giving it stick. It was about 4.30 when I got back to my tent where it dawned on me I was doing the day shift at 8 in the morning eeeeek!

Sunday After waking up Kevin who I travelled down with from Galway at 7.15 am I had a good puke then brushed my teeth to get rid of the alcoholic odour before we made our way to the volunteers office to sign in. I wasnt the only one in a daze most of the volunteers were in some state.

Lazer Tom and the Blast Crew was the first sounds I recall liking the sound of, a kind of funk, wah wah guitar, dancey sound with amazing horns, this was just on the strength of hearing them outside the tent while working. When I finally got my break I ran into the tent only to find that they finished up 20 seconds later, damn. When I finished my last shift at 4 I originally intended to get some shut eye back at the tent, but when I met Kevin we ended smoking the herb and cracking open some tins.

I didnt venture into the arena again till about 8, still reeling from the pill the night before Kev found another one so we split it, seeing that we were suitably charged up for some dancing we made for the Little Big to see Andy Weatherall, this being my second time seeing him after Sea Sessions last year. The marquee was absolutely wedged and Weatherall played some wicked filthy techno, a great start for me for the oncoming party that lay ahead. Underworld were amazing, even better than the 2008 set and they were the only group to take advantage of the Electric Picnic stage by creating screens on the canvas, this made it easier to see some of the action. Why doesnt EP do this more they dont actually need plasma screens to the sides, they just need to use what Underworld was using.

Pulp who I was never really a fan of blew me away, I really enjoyed their set and realised that I knew more of their stuff than I thought I did. Spent the next few hours exploring the Body & Soul, missed Austra but caught some of Brandt Brauer Fricks set pumping out techno. Went to the Earth Ship stage next which was blasting out filthy electro, excellent stuff I think Jon Averill was the closing set. Then onto the Peace Pagoda for a sneaky wee spliff, a nice trippy ambient place but it was bloody cold by this time with a chill wind blowing over the place. Onto Trenchtown for a while with the closing band dont know the name of the group but they were playing ska kinda reggae stuff, the drummer was pretty amazing and intricate. Back to the tent fr some more doobies and finally some shut eye. Roll on EP 2011.

Edited September 6, 2011 by pothead pixie

[pothead pixie]

Heres the proper review from my blog Sunday details still to be added.

http://niallmcquaid.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/working-for-your-festival-ticket/