According to BBC News, “The Irish government has signed a contract for the use of the site at Stradbally. The site will house 750 people for the duration of the six-week contract, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) has said.” 

The department expects that the site will operate at full capacity just 2 days after welcoming refugees.

The Electric Picnic Festival site will provide hot meals and water, as well as hot shower facilities, toilets and an on-site paramedic.

Electric Picnic is an arts and music festival occurring annually since 2004. Every year, (excluding 2020 and 2021 due to the Coronavirus pandemic) Electric Picnic offers a vast selection of music, art, theatre and comedy acts, as well as food and holistic health merchandise. With an average of 70,000 attendees each year, Electric Picnic is Ireland’s biggest music festival, making it the perfect place to host a large number of refugees and those in need. The 2023 lineup included acts such as Billie Eilish, The Killers and Irish-born Niall Horan.

Well, that’s a wrap everyone!

Thank you all for an incredible weekend. See you again next year! #EP23 #EP24 #ElectricPicnic pic.twitter.com/lr94WpvTEU

— Electric Picnic (@EPfestival) September 4, 2023

The Irish government has provided housing to over 92,400 refugees since February 2021. 69,518 of these being people seeking refuge after fleeing the war in Ukraine.

A department spokesperson told BBC News “The summer months have seen an increase in the number of arrivals from Ukraine, with more than 10,000 people fleeing here since 1 May, an average of around 650 people per week”.

The Irish government has also gathered additional accommodation from local student housing and the tourism sector, however, these housing options are already at capacity. It is due to this, that tented accommodation is now going to be the first option for new arrivals from Ukraine and anyone seeking asylum in Ireland.

“A small number of new arrivals have already been placed in tents, and this will increase as new locations for tented facilities come on stream. Vulnerable arrivals will be prioritised for any non-tented accommodation available.” – BBC News

In addition to the Electric Picnic festival site, Croke Park, the Aviva Stadium, Dublin Airport and various ex-military camps are also being used to accommodate refugees that have arrived in Ireland over the past year.

Tickets for Electric Picnic 2024 will be available for purchase on September 8th at 9am on their official website.

Joining New Order, Lana Del Ray, and The Chemical Brothers to headline the Main Stage, LCD Soundsystem return to Europe after recently reuniting.

Featured on Consequenceofsound, frontman James Murphy said:

“Early in 2015, I realized i had more [songs] than I’d ever had in my life.”

Murphy continued:

“this isn’t a victory lap or anything, which wouldn’t be of much interest to us.” [ . . . ] This is just the bus full of substitute teachers back from their coffee break with new music and the same weird gear—or as much of it as we still have (it’s very interesting to re-buy the same gear, and in some cases buy gear back from people you sold it to), and rambling around trying to be louder than everyone else.”

Read more at: http://consequenceofsound.net/2016/01/james-murphy-says-lcd-soundsystem-will-release-new-album-in-2016/

James Murphy makes things clear on the LCD Soundsystem website under the title: Let’s Just Start This Thing With Some Clarity.

“i write songs all the time. sometimes they’re just weird songs i sing while changing a baby, or songs about annoying things that i sing to myself, or to friends while sitting at a bar, or about christmas, or new york. sometimes these songs live in my head for years and have verses upon verses added to them, almost infinitely. sometimes they’re just ghosts of ideas, and sometimes they’re fully-formed things which float in front of me, seeming like they’d be easy to make flesh, only to fight furiously as soon as i try to pin them down in any way. some of them I make with friends in a room with instrument things.”

See: http://lcdsoundsystem.com/main/ for Murphy’s full fan letter.

Before Ireland, UK fans have chance to catch up with LCD Soundsystem at T in the Park – Strathallan – Scotland – 7 – 10/7 and Lovebox – Victoria Park – London 15 -16/7.

LCD Soundsystem are joined by Hot Chip guitarist, Al Doyle fresh from his world tour with the electro group promoting their new album Why Make Sense?.

See http://www.electricpicnic.ie/ for the full Electric Picnic line up.

This will be The Maccabees’ first festival headline. Last year their fourth album Marks to Prove It reached number one. The London indie group are to headline Friday night 15/7 in between performances at Benicassim 2016 – Spain 14 -17/7. They are also playing Ahmad Tea Fest – Moscow – Russia – 16/6.

New Order are keeping themselves very busy by further announcing their headline in September’s Electric Picnic in Ireland alongside LCD Soundsystem, Lana Del Ray and The Chemical Brothers. See their Twitter page for their busy schedule: https://twitter.com/neworder?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

American rockers The National announced their Latitude headline via Facebook:

We will be headlining the Latitude Festival in Suffolk’s Henham Park on the 16th of July! ‪#‎Latitude16 ticket info can be found at http://bit.ly/1SkzSw2

Last year’s Latitude Festival was a summer success and are keen to promote family involvement:

Thank you for joining us for an incredible 2015 edition of Latitude. Want to re-live the memories, or interested in what makes Latitude such a great festival for families? Check out our family area pages!

Below is Saturday’s line up at the main stage Obelisk Arena. For full festival details and the full, extensive line up for every stage, visit: http://www.latitudefestival.com/