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Music & Culture Festivals in Stradbally
Electric Picnic
A small heritage town in County Laois in the Irish midlands, set around a wide main street and the demesne of Stradbally Hall, a privately owned Georgian estate. For one weekend each summer the estate parkland becomes the site of Electric Picnic, Ireland's largest music and arts festival.
Run by Festival Republic, with published dates and a real program.
Dates & details verified against: Official event site ↗
Why here
Electric Picnic is Ireland's biggest festival, and it takes over the parkland of a private Georgian estate for one weekend at the end of every summer. First held at Stradbally Hall in 2004 as a boutique event, it grew into a three-day gathering of around eighty thousand people a day, spread across dozens of stages that run well beyond the headline music into comedy, theatre, cabaret, spoken word, food and late-night electronic arenas. It has become the social event of the Irish summer, the festival everyone talks about, with a lineup that mixes global headliners with the depth of the Irish music scene. The setting matters: mature woodland, walled gardens and the hall's demesne give it a character closer to a temporary town than a field. For anyone who wants to understand contemporary Irish culture in one place, a weekend at Stradbally is the shortcut.
Best months
Held over one weekend at the end of August, Friday to Sunday, with Thursday early entry for campers. It is a large camping festival, so expect a full weekend on site, Irish late-summer weather from warm sun to rain and mud, and to bring or rent camping gear. Tickets routinely sell out well in advance, often before the lineup is announced.
Getting there & around
Stradbally is in County Laois, about an hour and a quarter by road from Dublin, with festival shuttle buses from Dublin and other cities. The event is at Stradbally Hall on the edge of the town, with on-site camping the standard way to stay; there is little local accommodation for the numbers. Buy tickets early as they sell out, and plan travel and camping gear ahead.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (1)
Festival Republic
OrganizerFestival Republic, with Pod Concerts, promotes Electric Picnic, the music and arts festival first held at Stradbally Hall in 2004 and now the largest in Ireland. Staged over a weekend each August in the Stradbally Hall demesne in County Laois, it draws around eighty thousand people a day across stages of bands, DJs, comedy, theatre and cabaret. It grew from a boutique one-day event into a three-day festival, and Festival Republic took a majority shareholding in 2009.