Excitement is at a fever-pitch as revellers will begin arriving in Stradbally for the 2023 Electric Picnic, which kicks off in just ten days.
Back by popular demand is Freetown – the latest thriving new addition enhancing the music and arts festival’s glowing reputation.
Freetown is described as a “vibrant district perched on the northern fringes of the sprawling Picnic metropolis… located beyond Salty Dog and Trenchtown”
It is a city of sorts, distinct from other landmarks dotted across Stradbally Hall.
Freetown offers the chance to explore the hidden gems the Electric Picnic has to offer, with 14 venues, all flanking the Electric Picnic’s dance cathedral, Terminus.
For those curious to see what happens when the sun goes down, Freetown is open from 6pm to 4am, feauturing seven distinct vibes:
Providencia
An abandoned town taken over by artists who’s infamous night parties are a bizarre, energetic celebration of weirdness, absurdity and esoterica.
There are four main areas including:
NACKTLICKER – a cabaret venue housing absurdist filth and punk theatre not for the faint of heart.
LIMBO – a new kind of spiritual encounter, with a soundtrack of exuberant dance music.
ELECTORADO – a chop shop of where a team of electrical engineers make wild head-torches and illuminated head-dresses.
CASA DI VALENTINA – the coolest arts shop in the whole festival features the likes of star Portuguese artist, Valentina Alvarez, superstar visual creationists Venga Venga, Brazilian sound cocoon artist Cigarra and more.
Lineup includes:
- EMA
- Toya Delazy
- Kila
- Gróa
- Cousn
- Code Of Behaviour Brass
- Sky Atlas
- Grooveline
- YVR
- Of Ghosts & Other Forms
- Benjamin Yellowitz
- PJ Peek
- Siânageddon
- Tara Boom
Our Lady of the Consumption
A 50s parish hall turned céilí house will host a giant seisún stretching long into the night, while the porter flows freely.
Irish dancing is expected.
Lineup includes:
- Liam Ó Maonlaí
- Louise And Michelle Mulcahy
- Maitiu O Casaide
- Roisin Chambers
- Peter O’toole
- Darach Mac An Iomaire
- Katerina Garcia
- Amaia Elizaran
Six Bars
A labyrinthine alleyway system navigating all visitors to a hidden clearing in which six bars cluster around a ramshackle pagoda.
Here Donal Dineen’s Backstory unfolds: music like nowhere else – ten curated vinyl DJs from every continent in the world, deep diving into their collections – a fitting soundtrack to the bars of Mexico City, New York, Berlin, Bangkok, Paris and Cahersiveen. The newly hewn stage is a big rusty, angular, made-of-bits-and-tarps pagoda nestled into the dilapidated alleyways and dirty crannies of Six Bars – a warren of small snugs holding six drinkers apiece.
Lineup includes:
- Donal Dineen’s Backstory – Featuring Dj Azeez
- Hewan Mulugeta
- Twoc
- Queen Beatz Vs Dj Puffinho
- Dejuan
- Baby Cheeks
- Ben Bix
Cerebral Fortress
On the outskirts of the village, Cerebral Fortress indoctrinates over-prescribed patients, mismanaged by nefarious staff loosely connected to a new shopping mall, selling cigarette butts, unhappy ending massages, and an apocalyptic beauty parlour, with Drum’n’Bass shaking the walls down.
Labyrinthe de la Fou
A large-scale high-hedged maze, with a small cast of mischief-makers needling those who think they never get lost.
Brutopolis
An iron curtain-inspired regime springing leaks behind every façade – with liberal thinking, obscenity, culture and all other forms of disreputable rebellion exploding out of a gurgling underground scene.
There is an uprising from within, with immersive theatre, loud music and nudity.
Lineup includes:
- Sleaze
- Dirty Faces
- Everything Shook
- Ed Cox
- Monsieur Pompier’s Travelling Freakshow
- Charles And Andrew Hendy”S Country Music Set
Spike Island
A floating swamp-hut full of folk music, trad, cajun, seisiúns of slip-jigs, creole field-hollers, Delta blues chants, beardy men playing paradiddle on a piccolo snare.
Those fond of a jig may jig; those who just want to lean in closer to the smell of the mandolin-man can do so too.
Lineup includes:
- The Robin James Hurt Band
- Peer Pleasure
- Sabbages
- Bone Machine
- Backyard Smokers Club
- The Moon Rockets
- Deadlians
- Of Mice And Men
- The Outcast Crew
- Pearse Mcgloughlin & Nocturnes
- Old Bohemia
- Racoon Jane
SEE ALSO – Electric Picnic launches new ‘Lounge’ as ‘an exclusive festival sanctuary – metres from Main Stage’
