Electric Picnic should be postponed and not go ahead as planned this September, a local councillor has said.
Every year, almost 100,000 people descend on Stradbally for the three-day festival - which has seen Kendrick Lamar, Dua Lipa, The Prodigy and Dermot Kennedy headline in recent years.
But with Covid-19 still at large, particular with the rise in cases of the Delta variant both here and abroad, many are questioning whether the event should take place in 2021.
Last month, the trade exhibition for the National Ploughing Championships - which takes place less than two weeks after the festival in nearby Ratheniska - was postponed.
“Given the sheer scale of the Ploughing with 297,000 attendees in 2019 and the lack of clarity about what Covid-19 restrictions and regulations will look like in September for outdoor events, it was felt that cancelling the 1700 trade exhibitor event was the only option,” a statement said at the time.
And now, a local councillor for Stradbally has urged organisers to put Electric Picnic back another year.
Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast, Paschal McEvoy said that locals feel the festival is a step too far this year.
“Public health is paramount and that comes first and foremost with us here in Stradbally,” he said.
“The Electric Picnic brings a massive financial contribution to the locality and to Laois in general and probably further afield but we feel here in Stradbally … my feedback from the locals is that it is too soon to have 70,000 people converge on a small town like Stradbally.
“We are hoping that Festival Republic takes the decision to postpone it again.”
