Electric Picnic to return after three years as line up for 2022 to be announced

The September 2020 festival was postponed in May 2020 after the Covid-19 pandemic took hold of Ireland.

Now, the Laois music extravaganza is set for it’s post-pandemic return later this year.

Taking to social media, promoters revealed that the line-up of musical acts will be announced on March 10th.

Tickets will go on sale the following morning on March 11th.

“After two very long years, we’re delighted to finally say that we’ll be announcing the Electric Picnic 2022 line up next Thursday 10th March, with tickets going on sale the following morning, 11th March at 11am,” the statement read.

Rage Against the Machine, Chemical Brothers and Snow Patrol were headliners for the 2020 festival, however it is not known if they are set to return for 2022.

Last year, the festival attempted to make a return but were refused licensing from Laois County Council.

The council said the decision was made following the “most up-to-date” health advice from the HSE.

Covid-19 rules at the time limited numbers at the majority of organised outdoor events to 500 at venues with capacity in excess of 5,000.

While a number of test events were staged last Summer, Ireland’s live music and entertainment sector was effectively closed down due to coronavirus regulations.

The organisers said the decision had been made despite their “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.”

“To see Scotland, a country with a similar population and virtually identical vaccine rollout and uptake as our own, only to 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,” they said in a statement.

“This is a huge blow and set back to our entire sector, which was mandated to close on the March 12, 2020 (over 500 days ago) and 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.”