This year's Electric Picnic festival is set to go ahead “unless the Government tells us otherwise."
During a recent interview with the Irish Times, Brian McDermott, one of the organisers of the music festival, has said that he's optimistic that music fans will be allowed to return to Laois in September.
Like so many events, last year's festival was cancelled due to the pandemic but this years recent does have planning permission and 95% of the revellers who bought tickets for last year’s cancelled event have retained their tickets for this year.
Mr McDermott said that that there are “strong reasons for optimism” but cited Ireland's vaccine program as a key factor in this year's Electric Picnic event getting the go ahead.
“Given the conditions we are looking at in terms of vaccines, you would not be fully insane to say that it should go ahead. The only thing that will stop it going ahead as far as I can is what could be perceived as an overtly cautious approach by the Government.”
The UK's Glastonbury Festival has been cancelled – but Ireland's leading live musicians could still be hitting stages across the country this summer.
Promotions company MCD has insisted it's remaining positive about the return of events in Ireland this summer, arguing that "there is good reason to be optimistic".
A spokesman for the company previously told the Irish Mirror: "MCD will continue to listen to and follow the advice from the Government and remain positive about events in the summer."
Last year, Electric Picnic boss Melvin Benn vowed that festivals like the annual Laois pilgrimage will return in 2021, with or without a vaccine.
“We don’t need a vaccination because we can work through the problem with a really good testing regime,” he told NME.
At present, the Irish government has given now indication that large scale events - such as Electric Picnic - will be allowed to reopen as they've consistently stressed the need for a cautious and careful reopening of the country.
The current Level 5 lockdown restrictions will be in place until April 5 and all indications suggest that they'll be extended beyond into May.
