This year’s Electric Picnic saw 40,000 people land at the Co Laois venue on night one, eclipsing last year’s 20,000 on the same night.
By 8.45pm on Thursday evening, popular campsites Jimi Hendrix, Ginsburg, Andy Warhol, Janis Joplin and Samuel Beckett had all reached capacity, according to the Electric Picnic app.
Speciality campsites An Ghaeltacht, Eco, Poets and Glitterball – the gender-inclusive site – were opened up as overflow.
Organisers said further registrations to these camps “were made available because of space not being used”.
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Gaeilgeoirs Róise Éilis Nic Eochaigh, from Wexford, and Liadhán Nic Cormaic, from Galway, are both frustrated by the organisers’ decision.
“We saw two girls come in last night and ask if there was any space – as Gaeilge - and obviously because it was ticketed they weren’t accepted, but then it was kind of a free-for-all today,” says Nic Eochaidh, from Wexford.
“There’s a lot of people let in this morning who aren’t interested in trying [to speak Irish] at all.”
The pair have camped every year for the last four years at the Gaeltacht site, says Nic Cormaic.
“It’s usually a really nice community. We can rely on it being very safe, very calm.”
She agrees that it is disheartening that people are being allowed in who do not speak Irish.
“I think it’s not good enough. I heard someone this morning giving out, saying, ‘Oh, you need to speak Irish to get in there,’ and they weren’t happy. They said it was ridiculous. I think there are about seven or eight other campsites so they can camp there if they don’t want to speak Irish.
“It’s disappointing to hear English around the campsite anyway. Every year there are always one or two but now it will be the majority.”
Conor French, who also arrived on Thursday evening, described traffic as a “nightmare”.
Sitting in the Jimi Hendrix site in a circle of camp chairs around a pile of cans, French is joined by a big gang from Carlow.
He said “way more people came in on the Thursday this year than last year”.
“We left Carlow at two o’clock and we didn’t get here till about five, half five. I was stuck outside Stradbally for about an hour.”
Rachel Hockney and Lauren Hayes travelled to the site on Friday morning, which turned out to be a time-saving measure.
“We left the house at 12 o’clock and arrived at about half 12,” says Hockney.
“There was absolutely no traffic.”
In terms of how to prepare for the bad weather forecast for the weekend, Hayes says it will be “tracksuits all day”.
One festivalgoer who is sufficiently prepared for wet conditions is Orla Murray, who has brought her dry robe.
“The secret to staying warm is plenty of clothes and plenty of gin and tonics,” she says.
Also travelling with Murray, from Galway, is Fiona Monaghan, who said that “traffic was moving very well”.
In her fourth year in a row attending, she says: “It’s great to see the buzz and the energy from teenagers right up to folk like ourselves who have been around a little longer.”
