Electric Picnic: 10 more years, increased capacity, and tickets for 2020 on sale this week

Good news for Electric Picnic fans – they may be dining out on the Stradbally event for another ten years.

Festival director Melvin Benn confirmed today that he is in a partnership with the Cosby family, who own the sprawling estate for “ten more years.”

He told Independent.ie: “They seem to like us. They have literally the biggest acts in the world come and play in their front garden so they’re pretty happy.

“They have the best festival crowd in the world come and camp in their front garden so we’re in pretty good shape with them so essentially we have a rolling ten year contract with them.”

He also revealed that tickets for next year’s EP will be on sale next Saturday morning at 9 o’clock, subject to the usual planning regulations.

“What we are going to do, in the anticipation that the statutory meeting is going to happen, is that we’ve got a meeting with all the authorities on Tuesday. We’re announcing pre-registration starts from today until Wednesday. The Electric Picnic 2020 will go on sale Saturday morning at 9 o’clock. That’s the intended time,” he said.

Mr Benn indicated that he could also look at extending the capacity of the annual event, now in its 16th year, given that the new area of Freetown had space for additional revellers.

“I wouldn’t describe it as saying pushing the numbers but I’m certainly going to look to accommodate more people who are desperate to be at the Picnic,” he continued.

“You can see in Providencia, there’s part of the field that’s got growth in it and growth will come with Providencia, there’s no question about that. Terminus is already a fixture. That’s almost on par with the Electric Picnic folklore.”

• Read More: Overflowing toilets and celebrity spotting – the best and worst of Electric Picnic 2019
• Read More: ‘I love roaming the Picnic with some of my children’ – Miriam O’Callaghan on being a festival mum

As the popular event, attended this year by 60,000 music-mad fans, entered into its third day, there was no sign of festival fatigue among attendees.

Always the more family-focused events of the three-day extravaganza, today’s line-up includes Florence + The Machine, Kodaline, Jess Glynn and Richard Ashcroft.

Among many, the highlights of the event were Billie Eilish, Hozier, Jerry Cinammon, Christine and the Queens and the Strokes.

This year saw the addition of several new areas including Spike Island, Terminus and The Cabaret which seemed to meet with approval from attendees.

And as ever, it was a case of ‘anything goes’ among EP fans, with many sporting Indian head-dresses, glittery face paint and skimpy dresses as they made the most of the fine weather that came with the last weekend of summer.

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