Cate McCurry and Dominic McGrath, PA
The organisers of Electric Picnic have called on the Government to issue new re-opening guidelines, after it was refused a licence to hold this year’s festival.
The Electric Picnic music festival had been due to take place from September 24th-26th at Stradbally Hall Estate.
However, Laois County Council refused to issue a licence for the event, saying the decision was made following the “most up-to-date” health advice from the HSE.
An update from The Electric Picnic team: https://t.co/axzYM4FJOv pic.twitter.com/RDG16wqUsB
— Electric Picnic (@EPfestival) August 5, 2021
Covid-19 rules currently limit numbers at the majority of organised outdoor events to 500 at venues with capacity in excess of 5,000.
In a statement published on Thursday morning, the organisers of the festival they were “extremely disappointed” at the decision.
“This is despite our proposal that everyone attending the event, including ticket holders, staff and artists, would have to be fully vaccinated and registered in advance for Department of Health contact tracing,” it said.
“To see Scotland, a country with a similar population and virtually identical vaccine rollout and uptake as our own, only announce on Tuesday that they were easing restrictions and allowing events such as TRNSMT Festival in Glasgow go ahead in September makes this decision even more difficult to accept.
“This is a huge blow and set back to our entire sector, which was mandated to close on March 12th, 2020 – over 500 days ago.
“Such a decision now means the further loss of employment for over 3,000 people, who had clung to the hope that Electric Picnic would bring an end to their period of hardship.
“We now call upon all members of Government to interrupt their summer recess and immediately issue reopening guidelines we have being calling for, with a reopening date for the sector of August 16th on a phased basis, building to the implementation of no restrictions from September 1st, 2021 onwards.
“We wish to thank all the fans for their patience and the community of Stradbally and the people of Laois for their huge ongoing support during this difficult time.
“We will now review our options and be in contact directly with all ticket holders over the next week.”
Gutted to hear electric picnic has been cancelled was looking forward to seeing my Irish ☘️ brothers n sisters and my cousin Guinness
— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) August 5, 2021
A number of test events have been staged in recent months, however the live music and entertainment sector remains effectively closed down due to coronavirus regulations.
The organisers of Electric Picnic had hoped the festival could go ahead at the end of September with 70,000 attendees, with entry conditions including proof of vaccination or of having already recovered from the virus.
Last year’s festival was cancelled due to the pandemic. Tickets bought back then remain valid for the rescheduled event and 90 per cent have already been sold.
Oasis star Liam Gallagher tweeted: “Gutted to hear Electric Picnic has been cancelled. Was looking forward to seeing my Irish brothers n sisters and my cousin Guinness.”
