Rocker to headline Electric Picnic after topping US charts
HOZIER, The Strokes, Florence And The Machine and The 1975 are the big name headliners for this year’s Electric Picnic.
Speaking yesterday at the line-up launch in Dublin, Festival Republic boss Melvin Benn was amazed there were no leaks ahead of the announcement.
He told Irish Daily Mirror: “To be honest it is extraordinary. I just checked with my social media guy before I came up there and he said, ‘There are no leaks Melvin’ it’s amazing.”
And praising Hozier, 28, for getting to No1 in the US Billboard album chart this week, Mr Benn said he was honoured the Bray musician agreed Hozier to perform at Stradbally this summer. He added: “It’s a dream to have Hozier playing on the main stage as a headliner.
“I don’t know if you remember but I think it was 2016 when he was on the main stage and it was like, ‘Oh my God, where did everyone come from?’ The place was full and the set was extraordinary and so to come back properly as a headline is really wonderful.
“And to announce this on the day he has gone in at No1 in the billboards charts is pretty special for us actually to be honest and we are really grateful he wanted to play.” This year’s event sold out before any acts had even been announced. But Mr Benn admitted this didn’t relieve any pressure to produce an exciting line-up.
He said: “Because people are buying into the faith of the team that are putting the picnic together, so you kind of want to repay that faith.”
The event in Co Laois will take place from August 30 to September 1. Other acts include James Blake and Jess Glynne.