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Electric Picnic promoter Melvin Benn has said he is confident the festival will return next year after this year’s event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This weekend, up to 70,000 festival goers were due to descend on Stradbally, Co. Laois for what would have been the 17th and largest edition of the music event, which was to be headlined by Rage Against The Machine and Lewis Capaldi.
Speaking in the Dave Fanning Show On RTÉ 2fm, Benn, director of Festival Republic, which also organizes the Reading and Leeds festivals, among others, said that he had a completely new lineup planned for 2021 and that he would not attempt to replicate this year’s event.
Benn said they have “started again.”
“We really canceled all the artists and started over for 2021,” he said. “And that’s where we are now. We’re starting that 2021 planning now and talking to different acts about their availability and tour plans.”
He added: “We started it over. It’s the same for all my festivals. We don’t try to reproduce in 2021 what 2020 was. Surely there will be some crossover, but we really cancel all the artists and start over for 2021 and that’s where we are now. It is a blank sheet of paper. “
He also said that there were no plans to bring two main stages on next year’s EP as confirmed for Reading and Leeds. “The main stage at Stradbally is the main stage,” he said. “We had a lot of plans to expand other stages and new areas were being added this year, but definitely not two main stages.”
Benn said he was particularly disappointed that this year’s cancellation means Rage Against The Machine won’t take the stage on EPs and singled them out as one of the best festival shows he’s ever seen.
“Against The Machine in 1996 at the Reading Festival was about as good as a live show could get, but it was in the context of Reading. What a band, what a performance. They would have been spectacular at Electric Picnic, but the coronavirus hit that. head.”
Last weekend, Mr. Benn spoke with the NME on organizing festivals in the UK with or without the Covid-19 vaccine.
Benn was speaking as part of Electric Picnic’s acquisition of RTÉ 2fm this weekend of live music from their EP archive, which includes sets from Picture This, Gavin James, Sam Smyth, Orbital, Disclosure, LCD Soundsystem and Arctic Monkeys. Plus the chance to win four VIP EP passes over the next five years.
2FM Music Director Adam Fogarty said: “2FM is delighted to bring this incredible special electric picnic to life this weekend as we mark Ireland’s largest music festival and the finale of our weekend series. epic music week during the summer.
“Electric Picnic holds a special place in the hearts and minds of so many people across the country. We are excited to be able to relive some of those incredible memories with a selection of incredible recordings of Electric Picnic live music throughout the years. . “
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