ELECTRIC PICNIC ORGANISERS knew about “potentially significant overcrowding” hours before a performance by Duke Dumont at the festival this year, records show.

Emails seen by The Journal show that Festival Republic kept the English DJ on the 16,720-capacity Electric Arena stage despite getting permission to move him to the larger, outdoor Main Stage because the company expected huge crowds at his gig.

Organisers were later forced to issue multiple notifications asking festival-goers not to approach the tent where Duke Dumont played as it reached capacity on Saturday night.

Correspondence released under the Freedom of Information Act shows that Festival Republic twice contacted Laois County Council earlier on the Saturday afternoon asking whether they could move Duke Dumont to the Main Stage. 

In an email sent to council senior planner David O’Hara at 5.02pm on Saturday, Festival Republic’s senior licensing operations and compliance coordinator Pascale Miller referred to a telephone conversation that afternoon.

“To reiterate the information shared on the call, we are potentially facing significant overcrowding in the Electric Arena with Duke Dumont’s performance this evening,” Miller wrote.

“The app figures are indicating that Duke Dumont will be more popular than the Main Stage performances across the weekend.”

Miller said organisers were examining how to mitigate the risk.

“The best solution would be to move the performance to the Main Stage. This would involve finishing at 02.30am, subject to the technical requirements of the artist being met,” she wrote.

“Please can you confirm we are able to proceed on this basis.”

The council agreed to allow the Main Stage to operate until approximately 2.30am to facilitate the move, stating that its decision was based on crowd safety.

In a response at 6pm, O’Hara said the planning authority was agreeable to a stage time overrun “to facilitate the anticipated audience at the main stage rather than electric arena”.

“The decision is based on crowd safety,” he wrote.

“The conclusion of the main stage at 2.30 approx is therefore acceptable and considered in compliance with the terms and conditions of the licence.”

However, Duke Dumont performed in the Electric Arena that night, playing at the same time as Saturday’s headliner Gorillaz.

The correspondence does not establish why the proposed move did not proceed or whether the artist’s technical requirements prevented it.

The events followed the cancellation of Armand van Helden’s performance at the Smirnoff Stage on Friday night after a crowd collapse.

Attendees at the cancelled performance described people falling on top of one another as others continued to enter the area.

During Duke Dumont’s performance, the festival sent alerts through its app directing attendees away from the Electric Arena.

The festival sent mobile phone updates to punters asking them not to go to the Electric Arena at one point on Saturday night

The Journal reported at the time that crowds outside the tent were several rows deep by about halfway through the set.

A planning application for this year’s festival put the capacity of the Electric Arena at 16,720 people, though it’s not known how many people were inside and outside the tent at the time of Duke Dumont’s performance.

Speaking to reporters on the Sunday, Festival Republic managing director Melvin Benn defended the festival’s crowd management at Duke Doment, describing it as “a perfect operation, quite honestly”.

“I don’t think it could have gone better,” he said.

Benn said there had been “no real drama” during Duke Dumont’s performance and described suggestions from reporters that improvements may have been needed as “bonkers”.

Regarding the crowd collapse on the Friday, he said organisers stopped the performance as soon as they became aware of it and that security staff and medics were present.

Benn also downplayed suggestions that the Electric Picnic needed bigger venues for house music and bigger DJs.

“The festival’s in a really good place in terms of its location, and it’s in a really good place in terms of how we handle crowds,” he said.

The Journal asked Festival Republic this week why Duke Dumont’s proposed Main Stage move did not proceed, whether technical requirements prevented it and what safety measures were adopted instead.

It was also asked when organisers first identified the risk, whether the council was informed that the move would not happen, and whether a relocation had been considered or permission sought for Armand van Helden’s performance the previous evening.

Festival Republic did not address those questions individually in its response.

It said the correspondence reflected “responsible, proactive and standard event-management practice for a live event of this scale”.

The company said Electric Picnic operated in accordance with its approved Event Management Plan, “with public safety paramount at all times”.

“Crowd movements and audience demand are continuously monitored, and appropriate operational measures are implemented in consultation with the relevant authorities and event safety teams where required,” it said.

Laois County Council has also been asked when it learned that the proposed move would not proceed, what alternative safety arrangements were presented to it and when it became aware of crowd concerns at the Friday performance.

A response was awaited at the time of writing.