With little rain forecast, fans, musicians – and even charity cyclists – can expect a bumper weekend in Laois, writes RONAN McGREEVY
THE ELECTRIC Picnic gets under way today with the best weather prospects that any Irish music festival has had in years.
The forecast is for the fine late summer weather to continue today, with the Stradbally, Co Laois, venue missing most of the showers that are expected to bring an end to the fine conditions in parts of the west and south.
The weather will be near perfect for the 1,000 cyclists taking part in the Tour de Picnic this morning, cycling from Tallaght Stadium to Stradbally for the Temple Street Children’s Hospital.
Met Éireann forecaster Eoin Sherlock said the 32,500 fans can expect just a “dusting of showers” on Saturday and less than 1mm of rain, which might fall in a light shower on Sunday.
Temperatures are likely to be an unseasonably warm 20C to 21C, though it might be cold at night.
Festival organiser John Reynolds said he hoped the fine weather would help persuade those who were waiting for the forecast before committing to attend.
Traffic is expected to be lighter than in other years, with the opening last April of the new stretch of the M8 between Portlaoise and Culahill.
Bus Éireann will be operating services to Stradbally from Dublin, Cork, and Galway. Tickets can be booked on buseireann.ie. CoachestoConcerts.co.uk will operate a service from Belfast to the festival.
There will be a shuttle bus between Portlaoise train station and the venue for those travelling by rail.
The campsites at the venue were opened last night for the first time on a Thursday, but solely for camper vans. It is hoped the measure will relieve congestion on the roads around Stradbally this afternoon.
There was still no word last night on whether former British prime minister Tony Blair would be making a visit to the festival tomorrow afternoon.
Naoise Nunn, the organiser of the Mindfield spoken word section, said he remained hopeful that Mr Blair would make an appearance.
Mr Nunn also said that the situation involving more than a dozen theatre companies who were told at short notice that they would not be performing at the festival had been resolved.
He had secured day tickets for all the companies involved to perform at the festival.
Many were told only earlier this week that they would not be able to take part in the theatre stage because there was no room in the artists’ campsite for them as a result of overcrowding and overbooking.
One group likely to miss the congestion today are the cyclists who have raised funds for the Temple Street Children’s Hospital neurosurgery appeal.
Brian McDermott, from the company 2Wheels which is co-ordinating the event, said it was on course to have the target of 1,000 cyclists lead the way from Tallaght at 10am this morning. It is hoped the event which will raise €350,000 for the appeal.
The route will take in Blessington, Ballymore Eustace and Athy. Motorists are urged to be aware of delays in the area.
Mr McDermott said the response had been “phenomenal”, but he urged those taking part to turn up early and to ensure their bicycles were in working order. Any bicycles that were not roadworthy would not be allowed to take part.
Stage times have been announced, with Roxy Music taking to the main stage tonight at 10.30pm, giving rise to a potentially troublesome clash with Public Image Limited and Eels.
Stage times can be accessed at electricpicnic.ie.