THE ELECTRIC Picnic’s 10th anniversary festival for 2013 was already in the planning stages as the sun set on a glowing site last night.
With the last of the tents still to come down, a site to be trawled for rubbish and lost property, and stages to be dismantled for another year, gardaí told the festival organisers: “We are very satisfied with the smooth running of the festival; there have been no major incidents to report. The crowd has been excellent, friendly and warm.” There were four arrests for “minor incidents”.
Late last night it was confirmed that a young became ill at the festival and gardaí confirmed his condition had deteriorated. Yesterday morning he presented himself to medics after feeling unwell at the Jimmy Hendrix campsite. The 19-year-old was transferred to Midlands Regional Hospital, Portlaoise. Gardaí were looking into the incident last night.
Security was in line with last year’s operation, although there did seem to be more vigilant wristband checks as the weekend progressed.
Yesterday day-trippers reported being sent through three successive bag checks on entering the festival site.
Security at concerts has been as much under the spotlight as the very bands playing since the arrests and violence at the Swedish House Mafia-headlined show in Phoenix Park in Dublin earlier this summer.
Garda Insp Martin Harrington said force was satisfied with the traffic plan, as the dry weather ensured there was no repeat of previous years when fleets of cars got stuck in mud.
However, traffic was fairly clogged along the main festival route into Stradbally early yesterday afternoon.
