Electric Picnic boss Melvin Benn has confirmed the festival will return again next year - but he won’t be increasing its capacity.
The Festival Republic chief said the festival was a success despite the wind and rain over the weekend which failed to dampen the 70,000 music revellers spirits.
And as Arctic Monkeys closed the curtain down on an epic weekend, Benn confirmed it will return again next year.
Read More: RTE's Miriam O'Callaghan poses with rarely seen twin daughters as trio stun at Electric Picnic
He said: “Lots of highs. I think the low is that it is going to finish… Monday we’ll have to pack it all up and we’ll have to wait for another year. I think I’m pretty certain about is that - and I am saying this and putting this on record - that I’m certain Covid is not going to come back and disrupt us again, we’ll be back next year.”
When asked if he would consider increasing capacity for next year’s festival, he said: “No not in 2023.
”This year's festival went from 55,000 to 70,000.
“Actually, that is one of the things that the amount of people in Stradbally chatting to locally, they’re just like it is so important to be back here. So important to be Laois.
“It’s so important in the entire country, really. It’s been fantastic.”
And he’s already in talks with next year's headliners as tickets will go on sale on Saturday.
He said the festival next year will go “fully digital” next year for the first time ever.
“For the first time ever, there won’t be the ability to queue at a Ticketmaster outlet to buy a ticket so that’s always been the case in the past. Ticketmaster has closed all their retail outlets so for the first time ever we’re fully digital. "I think Wednesday and Thursday we’ve got pop up opportunities with Ticketmaster setting up that those who traditionally bought with cash can go and register getting a code so the loyalty programme will continue.”
But he said there isn’t much he wants to change to the festival next year, but is hoping to go even more greener by looking to power the main stage off the festival’s own electricity.
“I think we’re already pretty green. All our cups and everything, you know all the plastic bottles that we sell are recycled plastics. All the cups can be collected and reused and recycled. That is a fairly major piece.
“One of the things I’m really keen to do is bring mains electricity to the site. What that will allow me to do is effectively power the main stage from off the grid, but I can power it from off the grid from electricity from renewable sources.
But he said that it was “maybe a two-year project…”
This year, Electric Picnic saw a major all-Irish line-up after three years on hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
But when asked if it was important for Irish acts to headline Electric Picnic, he said: “I’m an internationalist,” adding: “It’s important for me to have great headliners and from what country they are from, for me it doesn’t matter that much”.
“If they are from Ireland and they make it more through the ranks, it makes it more special,” before adding he wasn’t “fixated” on having an all-Irish line-up.
Melvin said there hasn’t been lows at all as he summed up his Electric Picnic experience this year as being “glorious, absolutely glorious”.
“There haven’t been any lows at all. You might say the rain is a bit of a low but it’s not at all really. Everybody has just sort of gone through it without any pressure.
“Mindfield I think it really works in the new location. I’d say Mind & Body is coming of age and it will grow even more.
“Freetown I think is extraordinary and I’m certainly looking to make that bigger and better. A little bit bigger, hard to make it any better. FishTown that move has been fantastic. The new location for Jerry just really, really works.
“I think the bigger arena for the main stage, I think everybody has enjoyed that and got a phenomenal view of all the acts that played really. So overall, it is hard to believe that it was three years ago that we sat here but it was three years ago. “
He said it was the last show that people had been hanging onto tickets for three years and waited patiently for the Picnic.
He said he thinks the Government will “do more to keep society working” in the future if we are faced with another pandemic.
“They couldn’t do anything in what they did, and you learn from it and I hope we’re never in a position like that again,” he added.
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