Lana Del Rey, LCD Soundsystem, The Chemical Brothers and New Order are among the first acts announced for this year's Electric Picnic festival.
They join Haim, Super Furry Animals, Savages and Wild Beasts. Jack Garratt returns for the second year running, and Canadian outfit Broken Social Scene are also on the bill, along with Animal Collective, Gavin James and Wild Beasts.
"For Lana Del Ray to play festivals is not that frequent," said Melvin Benn, managing director of Festival Republic, the Electric Picnic's promoter. "She's only announced a handful of festivals around the world and Electric Picnic is one of them."
Growth
Mr Benn was in Dublin yesterday to launch the festival. It’s capacity will be increased to 55,000, up from 51,000 last year. “We had a fairly reasonable growth last year and I want to do a modest growth this year,” said Benn. “The growth was well contained – I don’t think anyone felt that the site wasn’t big enough.”
Mr Benn said that the festival’s main arena would be made bigger, as will the site’s family camping areas, but that he did not envisage many changes to the venue in Stradbally, Co Laois.
Other acts announced for the bill include Nathaniel Rateliff, Pantha Du Prince, Years & Years, Todd Terje, Wolf Alice, The Avett Brothers, Daniel Avery, Blossoms, Girls Names, Phosphorescent, Ezra Furman, Mount Kimbie DJ Set, Aurora, Nao and Meilyr Jones.
More acts will be added in the coming weeks, but Mr Benn said these would not be of the stature of those already announced, scotching rumours that the likes of Radiohead or Arcade Fire could still be in the mix.
“We’ve announced a relatively small amount but they are the key acts. We have all of the major acts that we wanted to sign for this year.”
Rising
Mr Benn said he hoped to add an element to the Electric Picnic that would mark the centenary of the Rising centenary.
“I certainly want to think about something to note 1916, 2016 and possibly 2116 and how will the next 100 years look like.
“I’m knocking around a couple of ideas of engagement of how Ireland and Europe looks at itself in 100 years. Obviously as a Brit I’ve got some things to think about from the last 100 years but plenty to think about for the future.”
The festival takes place in Stradbally from September 2nd to September 4th. Three-day tickets are on sale from Ticketmaster.com and are €240.60, including booking fees. Some ticket types have already sold out, including those for family weekend camping, Sunday only, and campervan/caravan tickets.
