Electric Picnic promotor Melvin Benn has said that he is confident that the festival will return next year after this year's event was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This weekend, up to 70,000 festival-goers were due to descend on Stradbally, Co. Laois for what would have been the 17th and biggest edition of the music event, which was due to be headlined by Rage Against The Machine and Lewis Capaldi.
Speaking on the Dave Fanning Show on RTÉ 2fm, Mr Benn, head of Festival Republic, which also runs Reading and Leeds festivals among others, said he had a whole new line-up planned for 2021 and would not be attempting to reproduce this year’s event.
Mr Benn said they have "started again".
"We genuinely cancelled all of the artists and started afresh for 2021," he said. "And that's where we are now. We're beginning that planning for 2021 now and talking to different acts about their availability and touring plans".
He added, "We start it again. It’s the same for all my festivals. We didn’t try to reproduce in 2021 what was 2020. There’s bound to be some crossover, but we genuinely cancelled all the artists and started afresh for 2021 and that’s where we are now. It’s a clean sheet of paper."
He also said that there were no plans to bring two main stages at next year’s EP as has been confirmed for Reading and Leeds. "The main stage at Stradbally is the main stage," he said. "We had lots of plans to expand other stages and new areas were being brought in this year but definitely not two main stages."
Mr Benn said he was particularly disappointed that this year’s cancellation means that Rage Against The Machine won’t take to the stage at EP and singled them out as one of the best festival shows he’s ever seen.
"Against The Machine in 1996 at Reading Festival was about as good you could see a live show, but it was in the context of Reading. What a band, what a performance. They would have been spectacular at Electric Picnic, but coronavirus knocked that on the head."
Last weekend, Mr Benn spoke to the NME about hosting festivals in the UK with or without a Covid-19 vaccine.
Benn was speaking as part of RTÉ 2fm's Electric Picnic takeover this weekend of live music from their EP archive, which includes sets from Picture This, Gavin James, Sam Smyth, Orbital, Disclosure, LCD Soundsystem and Arctic Monkeys. Plus a chance to win four VIP passes to EP for the next five years.
2FM Head of Music Adam Fogarty said: "2FM is delighted to bring this incredible Electric Picnic special to life this weekend as we mark the biggest music festival in Ireland, and the end of our run of epic music weekends across the summer.
"Electric Picnic holds a special place in the hearts and minds of so many people across the country. We're excited to be able to re-live some of those amazing memories with a selection of incredible live music recordings from Electric Picnic over the years."
