Electric Picnic is uprooting its tent poles and seeking greener pastures next year, with the festival abandoning its traditional start of September weekend slot and moving to the middle of August.
In a surprise social media post by the festival last week, it was revealed that Electric Picnic will take place on August 16th-18th next year, two weeks earlier than the festival’s usual end of summer slot. While picnic organiser Festival Republic has said little about the reason behind the move, many have speculated that the change is to avoid a clash with Coldplay’s bumper four-night stint in Croke Park next year, on August 29th-September 1st.
Managing director of Festival Republic, Melvin Benn, has denied this is the case. However, with close to 330,000 tickets purchased for the sold-out Coldplay gigs in Dublin, and some fans forking out hundreds of euro to see Chris Martin & co in the flesh, the date clash must have crossed the minds of organisers aiming to sell out the 70,000 capacity Stradbally site next summer.