Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
A number of new areas have been added to the festival this year. The Journal/Rolling News
knock your socks off
What's new at Electric Picnic: A two-storey pub and a... 'barefoot garden'?
The Journal got a first look around Stradbally today as the finishing touches were being put on the festival site.
THE GRASS IS still relatively green, the bars are empty and there isn’t a discarded tent or welly in sight at Stradbally Hall in Co Laois.
That will all change in a matter of days.
Preparations are entering their final stages at the site ahead of the return of Electric Picnic this weekend, when 80,000 festival-goers will descend on the estate.
The Journal got a look behind the scenes today as stages were being built, bars stocked and some of the festival’s newest areas prepared for their first crowds.
This year’s line-up is headed by Lewis Capaldi, Gorillaz and Fontaines D.C., with Zara Larsson, CMAT, Sombr, Amble and dozens more due to perform across the weekend.
There was, inevitably, still plenty of work to be done around Stradbally today.
At the Main Stage, preparations were continuing for the weekend’s biggest performances, while elsewhere around the estate temporary structures, bars and stages were steadily being turned into the places tens of thousands of people will occupy from Friday.
Away from the main stages, organisers are also putting the finishing touches to a number of new additions for 2026. Among them is somewhere festival-goers are actively being encouraged to take their shoes off.
Shoes off at Croí
Tucked into Croí, the festival’s wellness-focused area, is the new barefoot garden, titled ‘Listen to the Land’.
The concept is fairly straightforward: take your shoes and socks off and spend some time with your feet on the ground.
It’s being pitched as a chance for festival-goers to slow down amid a weekend which generally involves doing precisely the opposite.
If you’re heading to Electric Picnic this weekend and wondering where to chill out, the Listen to the Land area (its name is a nod to the late Manchán Magan) is offering festivalgoers a space to find some balance. pic.twitter.com/34KhvK0N2t
— TheJournal.ie (@thejournal_ie) August 25, 2026
The garden sits within Croí’s Serenity Garden, an area designed as a quieter counterpoint to the crowds, stages and late-night parties elsewhere around Stradbally.
Croí itself combines music with yoga, meditation, movement and other wellness activities during the day before becoming considerably livelier as evening arrives.
With 80,000 people expected in Stradbally, organiser Daithí Neavyn said the idea behind the barefoot garden was to provide a little respite from the “chaos and stimulation” elsewhere.
“We wanted to create a place that’s a very simple offering, which is to take off your shoes and socks, stay as long as you want, and just ground barefoot in the earth,” he told The Journal.
“Children still do it. Grown-ups kind of put off things like this.”
He said festival director Melvin Benn had remarked when the idea was first discussed that even if only 50 people discovered the garden over the weekend and found they needed it at that moment, it would have served its purpose.
“That’s the kind of beauty of festivals,” Neavyn said. “It’s about finding a space you didn’t know you were looking for.”
“You’ve got to have the fun and the activity and the movement, and you have to balance it out with some rest.
“You need that moment to pause, to exhale, before you come into the next thing.”
Your local, only bigger
Elsewhere, festival-goers looking for a different sort of respite can now go to the pub.
For the first time, Guinness has built a two-storey venue at Electric Picnic, dubbed ‘The Lovely Local’.
Gustavo Levi, Guinness senior brand manager, described it as the brand’s “tribute to the Irish pub”.
“We had Irish hospitality in mind and the role that pubs play at the festival this weekend,” he told The Journal.
The idea, he said, was to create a warm and familiar space which still had enough unusual touches to remind visitors that they were in the middle of Electric Picnic.
“When you step in, it feels that you are familiar with it. But at the same time, when you look around, there are a few details that were very carefully created to surprise people.”
Levi said the hope is that the pub becomes a destination in itself over the weekend, rather than simply somewhere to grab a pint.
“We truly believe that this is going to be a space where people will come out of their tents at midday, they’re going to come over, they’re going to plan their day,” Levi said.
“They’re going to be around for the DJ sets, just preparing for that headline moment on the festival field.
“And hopefully, at the end of the night, we’re going to see friends coming together, telling all the great stories of a holiday day.”
The Lovely Local will host intimate gigs and DJ sets throughout the weekend, with Irish pop artist Morgana among those due to perform.
A city in the woods
Another newcomer is considerably harder to describe as a pub.
GlowDepot began life as an upcycled shopping trolley fitted with a flashing LED umbrella which travelled around Electric Picnic after dark.
Fifteen years later, it has been given its own permanent festival home.
Organisers describe the new area as a “city in the woods”, centred around a stage modelled on a retro petrol station canopy and constructed using upcycled plastics collected at Irish music festivals.
The area will focus on neo-soul, underground music and Irish hip-hop during the day before switching towards club music after dark.
It also contains Courtside, a basketball-themed second stage hosted by Super Average DJs, alongside pop-up performances and roaming entertainers.
Elsewhere in the woods, familiar late-night haunts including Anachronica and the Survivors area return.
The woodland rave will once again continue after the main arena closes, with Irish and UK techno and underground acts playing into the early hours.
Mother After Dark will also return for three nights of DJs, drag and queer performers on the forest floor.
Comedy is getting an extra night this year too. The comedy tent will open from 6pm on Friday for the first time, effectively adding another full evening to its programme.
Festival-goers looking for something slightly more substantial than chips on the walk back to their tent will meanwhile have some new options.
Nomad will contain two restaurants which can actually be booked through the Electric Picnic app: Ibile, serving West African food, and Biang Biang, offering Chinese food.
Both will offer sittings between 12.30pm and 4pm before becoming more conventional walk-up festival restaurants later in the day.
And for those bringing children, Little Picnic returns in Stradbally’s walled garden with workshops, storytelling, science experiments, circus activities, crafts and music, as well as sensory-friendly activities.
Electric Picnic takes place at Stradbally Hall from 28 to 30 August.
have your say