Severe Jam Damage

The Good
The food - Not just a bloke in a burger van. Gourmet burgers, homemade pies, burritos, chunky chips, crepes, roast pork buns, falafels, chicken teriyaki, yum!
Secret toilets - flushable loos! With HOT water and mirrors and soap and CLEAN! Down beside the comedy tent if you missed them. We only found them on Saturday night.
The music - too much choice!
Body and Soul - what a fantastic area
The Atmosphere - chilled and friendly and safe. Lots of people wandering by themselves to various gigs, but no-one was really alone if you know what I mean. People didn’t look askance at you if you started a conversation or butted in to theirs. Lots of chatting with random strangers.

The bad
Toilets - the porta-loos in the festival area were only pumped out ONCE a day. By 6pm they were mingin’. As for the ‘troughs’ in the campsites they were virtually unusable for the entire weekend. There isn’t a word to describe how disgusting they were. This REALLY needs to be sorted out for next year.
Parking lot - traffic control after the festival was awful. There were only two tractors available to pull people out of the mud and everyone was being directed to ONE exit. Resulted in people sitting in cars for 2 or 3 hours not moving an inch. We heard of another exit that was ‘quagmire’ but took the chance and made it out to the main road in 2 hours.
Stewards - Not sure what happened, but the stewards were only given maps of the layout the night before electric picnic. Half the time you asked them something they apologised and were unable to provide any info. Would appear that organization and planning fell down somewhere along the way.
Rain - although we got lucky and it only rained the once. But that was enough as it BELTED down. I’d imagine a lot of people who had camped in the lower areas of fields ended up in their cars that night as there were a few tents that appeared to be floating.

But I don’t want to leave it on a bad note. Electric Picnic is a great festival, the bad things are all down to planning (except the rain) and if they fix it for next year it’ll be even better. I had such a fantastic time. There is stuff there for everyone, lots of music, lots of shows. Lots of places to chill out, or dance your socks off, or drink cocktails, or smoke from a hookah, or knit, or get a massage, or play dress-up, or take a yoga class, or learn the charleston, or watch a burlesque show, or make a yurt, or, or, or…

So some of you are thinking ‘Jeez, she missed LOADS of bands that I would have gone to see.’ And yeah you’re right, not only did I miss(catch) a lot of music there was also LOTS of performance art and other things going on - again this list is in vaguely chronological order.

Strange Fruit - ‘Spheres’ @ The o2 Blueroom. THIS was amazing, balanced on 4 metre poles above huge paper spheres lit from underneath they swayed and bent and literally flew. Actually just go here and watch the promo video for an explanation.
Silent Disco - silent disco tent. Two DJ’s, a pair of headphones and two channels to flick between. The only sound from outside was the crowd singing along.
Disco Fiasco - The Village Green. Possibly the worst disco I have ever been at and its deliberately done like that. Loads of fun.
Lost Vagueness - The Asylum. Some familiar faces from the Tassel Club here (Sarah and Miss Epiphany) and some just weird acts. We watched a guy dance on broken glass. The Asylum itself is as the name says. Furnished with hospital beds, medical chairs and other pieces of ‘equipment’ - the ketamine simulator proved of especial interest to some of our party. At different times people in doctors and nurses outfits would abduct people from the dancefloor, tie them to a bed, stick a leather strop in their mouth and whip them. Normally you’d have to pay for treatment like that.
Lucent Dossier - Dolab stage in Body and Soul. Burlesque ballet set on a pirate ship by men and women dressed like (dead) extras from Pirates of the Carribean. Stage was set in about 5 inches of water, I assume it was warm as the nights were cold. We went to the 2.30am show. Utterly fabulous stuff.
Lovely Girls\Lads competition - The Village Hall. Just like Father Ted. Lovely girls, Lovely lads, Lovely Garda, Hunky Priest, Nosy Nun, etc. The villagers were great, they stayed in character for the entire weekend.
The Carnival - They had CHAIROPLANES! I hadn’t been on them since I was 12. Sooo much fun. Also an old style carousel where we met a couple of bananas.
Tower of Truth - this was supposed to be burnt at 12am. However the gards moved the barrier out for safety and it was delayed till 2am - the rain started at 1.50am.
The tower once it was eventually lit took about 45 minutes to burn and fall, we were soaked through by the end of it despite my poncho.

Once again I haven’t mentioned lots of stuff: the Chai bar where we were too late to get a hookah and smoke some shisha. Chilling on a bed in Bollywood. Knitting with some of the Gin Lady’s friends in the Zen Garden. Drinks in the SoCo bar and the wee Mardi Gras parade (I’ve got enough strings of golden beads to make a half decent Mr T costume.) Bacardi and cranberry in the sun at the Bacardi B Bar. Many, many, many pints of Heineken. Swinging in the hammocks in Body and Soul, watching the waterfall in the Dingly Dell, drinking Miz Rabbits champagne bought for 15 quid in Tarts&Tease, Y’s vodka with the weird twig\herb in it, swigging wine from a milk jug…

I’m going to have to do this in a few parts. I’ll start with the gigs anyway, links where I can find them. So chronologically beginning with Friday:

Christy Moore - Crawdaddy. Absolutely jammed. Couldn’t even get in to the tent, listened from outside. He should’ve been a main stage act, or at least Electric Arena.
The Presets - Cosby tent. EXCELLENT set. The tent was jammed and lots of energy. Myself and the barfly danced our socks off.
Goldfrapp - Main Stage. Good crowd, pretty good gig, Previous gig I’d been to (in TBMC) had been their first ever and she basically just sang ‘Velvet Mountain’ - nice to see her engage with the crowd this time round.
Digitalism - Electric arena. Loud and bangin’ German electronica.
Sigur ros - Main Stage. Have seen SR almost every time they’ve played Dublin, so nothing new here. Others rated it great, I thought it was ok.

Saturday
Liam O’Miaonlai - Main stage. We were too knackered and hungover to venture any further, so sat down for a bit when Liam came onstage. He was lost here by himself, lot of world music type stuff - only really came alive when he was joined on the last song by the Discovery Gospel choir and Ronan O’Snodaigh to sing ‘Bright sunshiny day’. Should’ve been swapped with Christy Moore.
Midnight Juggernauts - Electric Arena. AWESOME. These guys look like rockers, play electro-synth and sing like angels. The drummer is a total madman, the two lads in front switched from guitar to synth to guitar to ‘nother guitar sometimes all in the same song.
The Kills - Crawdaddy. Angry chick on stage with shoegazy type bloke on guitar. She reminded me a bit of Juliet and the Licks mixed with Chrissie Hynde. Only stayed for a few songs.
Duffy - Main stage. Not really my cuppa. Was walking past so stopped for a listen. I only really know her big single, the crowd seemed to be enjoying it though.
Elbow - Electric Arena. THIS WAS EXCELLENT. A lot of people around me hadn’t heard them before and thought it a bit mellow, but its what he does. LOVED it, they finished with ‘One Day Like Today’ (what else COULD they finish with eh? Just have a listen to it and tell me it doesn’t put a smile on your face.) Bumped into my workmate at this one - his comment ‘Didn’t know if it was you, but saw hands clapping in front of me and recognised your rings.’
cut copy - Cosby. Oh dear, I can’t even remember this gig. Their album is good though and I know I was looking forward to seeing them.
Milosh - Body and Soul arena. Very laid back tunes, sweet voice, nice to chill out to.
Donal Dineen \ David Kitt - Body and Soul arena. WHEN did David Kitt decide he was the new Orbital. ‘This ones got a groove’ he says. Seemed to be trying to ‘rock out’ a few times, which was a bit cringey as well. Brought his baby bro up on stage to sing - apparently they are in a new band together.
Pete Bennet and The Love Dogs - The Asylum. Yes that’s right - the bloke from Big Brother with tourettes. He came onstage in a wheelchair tied in a straightjacket and wearing a tutu. Not bad tunes, had a decent crowd and got them going. The Asylum was great, I’ll talk about it more in next post.
unknown band - The Time Machine. No idea who these guys were but they were great. Lead singer was dressed like a dead undertaker, and sang like Tom Waits. Lots of girls in the crowd dressed in a similar fashion with pale faces. They did an amazing version of Tom Waits ‘Way Down in the Hole’. (Also the theme to The Wire) Edit - thanks to the guys for commenting the band was ‘Johnny Cage and the Voodoo Groove‘.
Helios Jive - Dolab stage in Body and Soul. Don’t remember much except dancing to keep warm.

Sunday
Sinead O’Connor - Electric Arena. Very mellow with signature wailing. Didn’t stay too long - the high notes irritated my hangover.
Michael Franti - Main Stage. Absolutely AMAZING. The Roots showed up on stage at one point to sing along. I completely buggered my knee at this one with all the ‘I wanna see everyone jumping’. The barfly complained as he played all his new stuff, I thought it was great. Miz Rabbit (who I met later) went to see him play the body and soul stage later in the evening as well and said she thought his main stage appearance was better. Joined on the last track ‘Say Hey’ by the Lucent Dossier dancers. Magic.
The Roots - Main Stage. Good stuff.
Grinderman - Electric Arena. Nick Cave (and some of the Seeds) new project. Everyone raved about it, but didn’t rate this myself, could just be the mood I was in by then (knee was aching.) Love Nick and the boys but wasn’t taken by this at all.
My Bloody Valentine - Electric Arena. O Mi GAWD! 16 years I’ve waited to see them play. Someone told me the gig was louder than a jet taking off. I was right at the front. 18 minutes of pure noise on the last song (I timed it.) Came out completely deaf, and with knees completely gone (after jumping at Michael Franti the shoegazing just finished me) but THRILLED. Met blather with his camera (some of his photos here.) Too noisy to even speak to each other.
Sex Pistols - Main Stage. Unfortunate enough to be eating on the hill above the main stage so heard the vitriol and spew from wanker onstage. Thankfully still partially deaf so didn’t have to hear too much. Odd choice for headlining gig at a festival like EP where everyone is chilled and friendly.

So that was the gigs - at least those I remember. There was lots of other stuff I stood outside the tent for a song or two on my way to another gig that aren’t included here: Cathy Davey, Gemma Hayes, Get Cape Wear Cape, Dan Deacon, Turin Brakes, Wilco, Jape, Grace Jones, etc. And FAR too much that I missed.