A great picnic weekend
Electric Picnic is known for it’s great line ups, but also for it’s fringe acts. There were so many highlights over the weekend.
Marcella Connolly, 07 Sep 2010
Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip, played a blinder in The Little Big Tent on Saturday. The English duo had no difficulty in filling the tent as their hip hop beats belted out to an overflowing audience, who would have liked them to continue for a further couple of hours. Scroobius Pip aka David Peter Meads rallied the audience, as he declared “ I’m gonna run for president”. It was a great show.
The Japanese Popstars shortly followed at 8:30, and really lived up to their name as best live act award winners at the Irish Dance Music Awards in 2010. The lads from Derry always provide a good show, and it was no different at the picnic.
The bluesy rock strains of The Riptide Movement set Sunday off to a great start. Crowds flocked to the Cosby tent to hear Malachy Tuohy’s vocals put the energy back into the campground. Land lovers took to the stage just after, although the crowd dwindled a little bit. They’re interesting mix of mellow, slow rock, with more upbeat numbers inserted in between. It was diverse, but this could alienate some audience members. Friday’s blue skies had paled to grey over the weekend, but the rain held off throughout, and the sun reappeared on Sunday afternoon. The shades went on and the legs came out.
Over at the Body and Soul arena, the RTÉ Concert Orchestra played with vigour to an audience that ranged from 5 – 50 year olds. The orchestra’s conductor David Brophy led the musicians through a variety of numbers from Starsky and Hutch to Beethoven’s 1st Movement of the 5th Symphony, also well known for it’s appearance in A Clockwork Orange. The suits and welly-boots also looked great onstage.
Moving around the grounds, we came across the Oxjam sessions at the Oxfam tent. This was an open mic event, and we were lucky to catch Shane Farrell from Caruso join an audience member for an acoustic version of The Smith’s ‘Panic’. This was a small tent with a big draw.
Comedy at the Picnic was second to none as Karl Spain, Joe Rooney, Phill Jupitus and many others, bought their best game. Gerry McBride gave us a hilarious yet insightful look into how he goes about making love in his car. He had the audience in stitches. It was well worth a visit, although finding a seat in the packed tent was difficult. Dead Cat Bounce proved a big hit when they sang a rendition of ‘Good Touch – Bad Touch’. They even pulled one unsuspecting audience member onstage. Later, they joined us for an interview at the Hot Press tent.
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