The Electric Picnic

Electric Picnic
Body & Soul arena at Electric Picnic 2010
Genre	Indie, alternative, dance
Dates	Late August/early September
Location(s)	Stradbally Hall, Stradbally, County Laois, Ireland
Years active	2004 – present
Founded by	Robert Laffan

Electric Picnic
Electric Picnic Basement Jaxx 2006
Genre	Rock
Dates	1–3 September 2006
Location(s)	Stradbally, County Laois, Ireland

Electric Picnic
Map of 2007 Electric Picnic
Genre	Rock
Dates	31 August – 2 September 2007
Location(s)	Stradbally, County Laois, Ireland

Electric Picnic is an annual arts-and-music festival which has been staged since 2004 at Stradbally Hall in Stradbally, County Laois, Ireland. It is organised by Pod Concerts and Festival Republic, who purchased the majority shareholding in 2009. It was voted Best Medium-Sized European Festival at the 2010 European Festival Awards, and has been voted Best Big Festival at each of the last four Irish Festival Awards since they began in 2007.

The Picnic has been described as "Ireland's version of Glastonbury" and "a great inspiration to Latitude" by one of its business partners. US magazine Billboard calling it as "a magnificent rock n roll circus, a textbook example of everything a festival should be" and Rolling Stone describing it as "one of the best festivals we've ever been to". The 2008 event was described by The Irish Times as "the best Electric Picnic yet".

Electric Picnic differs from other festivals in Ireland in that the music choice is more electric than the other mainstream events (its history includes international acts such as Kraftwerk, Röyksopp, Nick Cave, Sonic Youth, New Order, Björk, Arcade Fire, Beastie Boys, The Stooges, The Chemical Brothers, Gary Numan, The Flaming Lips, Sigur Rós and Sex Pistols), and there is more emphasis on quality festival services (such as food and sleeping arrangements) and a generally more positive and relaxed atmosphere. There is also an emphasis on eco-friendly initiatives.