ELECTRIC PICNIC - 3RD AND 4TH SEPTEMBER 2005 - STRADBALLY HALL ESTATE, CO. LAOIS, IRELAND

Had a great time at the Electric Picnic on Saturday (overall), averaging the good and the bad. Pretty much the first thing that happened to me was that someone asked me if I knew where he could get some drugs, just a small amount. So maybe I have that look about me… I also met case_sensitive from boards.ie - he spotted me wearing my yellow boards.co.nz t-shirt.

Bad
• The toilets: I went into one of these two hours after the event began, and it was absolutely disgusting. I can only imagine what it must have been like after two days.
• The pushing: In the tents, if you were up the front, the amount of pushing going on by drunk and/or ignorant people wanting to get a ‘better view’ was really annoying. I had many such battles, trying to keep my spot beside friend Conrad. One girl was waving a cigarette around; I asked her to stop it as I knew I was going to get burned; sure enough, I felt my arm being burned, so I took the cigarette and threw it on the ground, but she was so drunk I’m not sure she even understood… Also got a kick in the neck from a crowd surfer; got some perverse pleasure from seeing being him dumped on the ground afterwards.
• Fatboy Slim: Didn’t think too much of Norman Cook’s music. The stage display was good though.

Good
• Kraftwerk: Excellent! Loved the music, the performance, the robots’ encore, the Tron-like suits.
• Roeyksopp: Really, really good performers, both in terms of spectacle and sounds. Dressed up in Kraftwerk-type outfits for the occasion!
• Goldfrapp: Have to admit that my Goldfrapp knowledge was limited to music videos and radio plays. But they were very good.