To consummate the 1990s as this season’s arbitrarily “in” decade, some of its most aggressively unforgettable pop acts have been invited along to the Electric Picnic line up. The Vengaboys, 2Unlimited and Dublin’s own Mark McCabe are on the bill despite the overabundance of their records in charity shops everywhere.
The popularity of the Vengaboys has been gradually reestablished in Ireland after many years of hard slog by bus drivers on the Vengabus circuit. Hiring the Vengabus for your trip to the festival would make you the envy of all the other revellers.
2Unlimited play the Electric Ireland stage, after some hefty world touring to keep their 23-year-old image alive. This effort has afforded them a total of 718 twitter followers, but it’s likely that the group never departed from the use of dial-up internet. One half of the duo, Ray Slijngaard, has been more successful creating a twitter brand, now exclusively referring to himself in all contexts as #Ray.
Meanwhile, Mark McCabe, the musical wizard behind Maniac 2000, which turns 15 this year, has been bigging up that tune online ahead of his performance at this year’s festival: and who could blame him? It’s the fifth highest selling single in Irish history, but he’s the only artist of this top five to play the Picnic. This is partially because no one wants to hear Riverdance or Candle in the Wind at a 1990s power party and partially because Maniac is such a timelessly fat banger.
Audiences can continue to selectively remember a decade that many of this year’s revellers didn’t exist for much of, but they won’t enjoy it nearly as much as the acts themselves, who are just happy to be here.
